Head of Partner Growth, Embedded Payroll
Denver, CO
Updated: April 21
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Head of Partner Growth, Embedded Payroll
Denver, CO;San Francisco, CA;New York, NY;Las Vegas, NV;Atlanta, GA;Chicago, IL;Phoenix, AZ
About Gusto
At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 400,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve.
All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.
AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.
The Opportunity
Gusto Embedded Payroll (GEP) is one of Gusto's highest-growth bets — a platform business that enables software companies to offer Gusto-powered payroll directly within their own products. We're looking for a Head of Partner Growth to lead the team responsible for making our embedded partners successful: driving go-to-market execution, growing partner revenue, and building the operational and strategic frameworks that will scale this business toward $100M .
This is a player-coach leadership role. You'll manage a cross-functional team spanning Partner Success Management (PSM) and Partner enablement— while also staying deeply hands-on with our most strategic partner relationships. You'll own the partner growth playbook end-to-end: from GTM planning and launch sequencing through ongoing optimization, escalation management, and executive relationship development.
Gusto's partnerships organization focuses on evaluating and executing strategic partnerships in new categories. Gusto Embedded Payroll allows us to bring our people platform to thousands more businesses than those we serve directly and will play a key role in Gusto's growth.
What It's Like to Work in This Role
Lead & Develop
- Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of Partner Success Managers and Partner Enablement
- Set the operational rhythm for the partner growth function — including planning cadences, escalation workflows, and performance management
- Coach team members on partner strategy, executive communication, and cross-functional navigation
- Drive Enablement with the ideation, creation, and execution of enablement frameworks and materials.
- Drive AI fluency across the team — embedding AI tools and workflows into day-to-day partner operations, GTM planning, and internal knowledge management to accelerate output and decision quality
Strategize & Plan
- Own the partner growth strategy across the GEP portfolio, including partner segmentation, prioritization, and resource allocation
- Develop and maintain per-partner operating plans with clear success metrics, in collaboration with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales Enablement
- Build repeatable GTM playbooks — covering co-marketing motions, sales enablement, content roadmaps, and launch sequencing — tailored to each partner's distribution model and ICP
- Translate portfolio-level data (revenue, attach rates, funnel performance) into strategic narratives for leadership
Operate & Execute
- Drive success for our partners and their end customers through adoption, activation, and retention of Gusto-powered embedded products
- Own the full marketing funnel and sales motion with partners — from top-of-funnel demand generation through conversion, onboarding, and expansion
- Manage complex, high-stakes partner relationships directly — including contract negotiations, executive escalations, and cross-functional alignment on roadmap priorities
- Lead partner incident response and escalation management with structured, cross-functional workflows
Build for Scale
- Create and expand the feedback loop between partners, their end users, and Gusto's internal product, marketing, engineering, and operations teams
- Design frameworks, templates, and processes that enable the team to manage a growing partner portfolio without linear headcount growth
- Identify and implement AI-powered workflows and tools that improve team efficiency, partner reporting, and knowledge management
What We're Looking For
- 12-15 years of experience, with 8 years in a people management role and 7 years in partner-facing or channel-facing roles
- Partner-side perspective: Has operated on the partner or channel side of the table — understands how partners evaluate, prioritize, and activate embedded or referral relationships
- Farmer mentality: Wired to grow and deepen existing partner relationships through trust-building, strategic account planning, and proactive expansion — not just hunting new deals
- Methodical operator: Builds repeatable playbooks, escalation frameworks, and operational rhythms rather than relying on one-off heroics. Strong systems thinker
- GTM playbook experience: Hands-on experience building go-to-market plans from scratch — including co-marketing, keyword strategies, content roadmaps, and launch sequencing
- Full-funnel fluency: Understands the complete marketing and sales journey from demand gen through conversion, activation, and retention. Can diagnose where a partner motion is leaking value and prescribe the right intervention
- AI fluency: Actively uses AI tools (e.g., LLMs, automation platforms) to accelerate workflows, improve decision quality, and build team capability. Comfortable leading an AI adoption agenda within a team
- Executive communicator: Strong ghostwriter and strategic communicator who can represent the partnership function credibly with C-suite stakeholders — both internally and at partner organizations
- Strong sense of ownership and resilience: Thrives in ambiguity, takes initiative, and drives outcomes without waiting for permission
- Exceptional written and verbal communication: Can shift register fluently between partner-facing emails, internal Slack, leadership documents, and board-level narratives
Strong Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with embedded or platform business models (APIs, developer tools, B2B2B)
- Knowledge of payroll, HR tech, or fintech software ecosystems
- Experience managing partner P&Ls, cost-to-manage models, or portfolio-level financial analysis
- "Gets" the building-mode opportunity — has scaled a partner function from early stage, not just inherited a mature program
Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at:
$230,215 - $270,500 in San Francisco, CA; New York, NY
$195,745 - $230,000 in Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Las Vegas, NV
If you are outside of the geographic areas above, your application will not be considered at this time.
Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.
Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto's subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale.
Note: The San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.
When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required. This includes non-office days for hybrid employees.
Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.
Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Gusto considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Gusto is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.
Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.
Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.
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Embedded Job Openings: Earn $15-$45/Hr. Immediate Hire
Denver
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