---
title: 'Growth Data Science Leader at Gusto, Inc.'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/growth-data-science-leader-gusto-inc-denver-ypasg119fddg'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Growth Data Science Leader at Gusto, Inc.

- **Company:** Gusto, Inc.
- **Location:** Denver, CO / New York New York, United States / San Francisco, CA
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-04-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/gusto/jobs/7357545

## Job description

## 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 500,000 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](https://gusto.com/about/careers/total-rewards).

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.

About the Role:

Gusto is looking for an experienced, hands-on people manager to lead a data science and analytics team supporting Growth product initiatives. This role sits at the heart of how we use data — and increasingly AI — to understand, shape, and scale Gusto's products. You’ll both manage a team of data scientists and analysts as well as personally get in-the-weeds to work closely with Product, Engineering, Design, Marketing, Sales, and Finance to deliver insights and frameworks that inform strategy, optimize user experiences, and accelerate business growth.

We're looking for a leader who can balance strategic influence with hands-on craft — someone who can guide senior Gusto leaders through data and AI strategy, coach data scientists on impactful problem solving, and dive in to drive forward statistically rigorous analyses when needed.

This role is the equivalent to a Senior Manager/Director-level role.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

- Lead and develop a team of data scientists – hire, empower, and coach team members; set a high bar for analytical quality and career growth.
- Shape product and business strategy through data – partner with Product and cross-functional leaders to identify opportunities, prioritize investments, and influence long-term product roadmaps.
- Develop and scale measurement frameworks – define key metrics, design monitoring systems, and ensure product initiatives — including AI-powered features — are rigorously tracked and evaluated.
- Support experimentation and decision-making – support inferential analyses and experimentation (e.g., A/B tests, segmentation, funnel analysis), including designing evaluations for AI and ML-driven systems, ensuring findings are actionable and aligned to strategic goals.
- Partner on AI-powered product development – collaborate with ML Engineering and Product to bring intelligent features to life (personalization, predictions, intelligent automation), ensuring they're grounded in customer insight and measured for real-world impact.
- Balance strategic and hands-on impact – dive deep into data, review and refine analyses, and ensure insights are both technically sound and business-relevant.
- Influence senior leadership – communicate insights and recommendations clearly, framing trade-offs and shaping executive decision-making.

Here’s what we're looking for:

- 10+ years of experience in data science or related fields, with at least 4 years managing and scaling high-performing data science teams.
- Deep expertise in product analytics – experience with user acquisition, activation, retention, engagement, or expansion in SaaS or product-led environments.
- Technical fluency – advanced coding skills, strong statistical reasoning, and familiarity with experimentation frameworks; ability to mentor data scientists on best practices.
- AI product intuition – experience working at the intersection of data science and AI product development; comfort reasoning about model behavior, evaluation design, and the tradeoffs of deploying AI in customer-facing contexts.
- Strategic and business acumen – demonstrated ability to connect insights to product and business goals, and to influence roadmaps through data.
- Executive communication skills – proven experience presenting insights to senior stakeholders, turning complex data into clear and actionable recommendations.
- Cross-functional collaboration – history of working closely with Product, Engineering, and go-to-market teams to drive decisions and deliver impact.
- Hands-on experience with ML applications in product contexts (e.g., personalization, churn prediction, customer segmentation, or LLM-powered features) is strongly preferred.
- Familiarity with multi-product SaaS ecosystems and customer lifecycle analytics is desirable.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at and $185,000 - $217,000 in Denver, and $218,000 - $255,000 in San Francisco and New York. 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](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEfl7Bp-Twz7LLlhGlha46CrxZ9Kacgakmarf3K2TbnaEgKQ/viewform) 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](https://gusto.com/about/careers/fraudulent-activity-disclaimer).

Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to [Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice](https://gusto.com/about/careers/applicant-privacy-notice).

## About Gusto, Inc.

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Gusto provides an all-in-one payroll, benefits, and HR platform that automates and simplifies the people side of running a small business.
- **Entity Type**: Private (bootstrapped to significant scale; no recent funding rounds disclosed)
- **Headquarters**: Denver, Colorado, USA (with offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Scottsdale, Arizona)
- **Founded**: 2012 (originally launched as ZenPayroll)
- **Founders**: Not publicly available in provided sources

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Human Resources / Payroll / Benefits technology
- **Target customers**: Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across the U.S. (and Canada via EOR)
- **Mission or purpose**: “We’re making work meaningful for everyone, everywhere.” – Focused on helping small businesses take care of their teams.

## Products & Services
- **Payroll Processing (Core)**: Full-service payroll that automatically calculates, files, and pays taxes. Supports both W-2 employees and international contractors.
- **Benefits Administration**: Health insurance, 401(k) plans, commuter benefits, and other voluntary benefits integrated into the platform.
- **HR & Compliance Tools**: Hiring, onboarding, time tracking, PTO management, and compliance support (e.g., labor law posters, ACA reporting).
- **Employer-of-Record (EOR) for Canada**: Powered by Remote, allows U.S. businesses to hire full-time employees in Canada without a local entity.

All offerings are SaaS-based, delivered through a single integrated platform.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Serves **more than 500,000 businesses** nationwide; processes tens of billions of dollars in payroll annually.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not disclosed in provided sources
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount: ~4,400 total employees, with ~1,200 in product & tech roles
  - Expanding into Canada via EOR partnership with Remote
  - Strong emphasis on AI integration to “absorb complexity” and improve customer experience

## Competitive Advantages
- **All-in-one platform**: Combines payroll, benefits, HR, and compliance in a single system, reducing the need for multiple vendors.
- **Automated tax filing and compliance**: Removes a major pain point for small business owners.
- **Customer obsession**: 9 out of 10 customer satisfaction rating; focus on serving an underserved market.
- **AI-first approach**: Uses AI to catch errors, answer questions, and streamline workflows, giving customers leverage without replacing human judgment.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI as a force multiplier**: Continued investment in AI to automate edge cases, improve speed, and enable higher-impact work for both customers and employees.
- **Expanding the platform**: Adding capabilities like EOR for Canada and deeper benefits integrations.
- **Scaling the small business economy**: Prioritizing features that help businesses grow and take care of their teams, with a long-term view of market leadership.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture values**: “Act with Bold Conviction,” “Raise the Bar, Learn Fast, Repeat,” “Customer Obsessed,” “Dream Big, then Make it Real.” Emphasis on directness, healthy debate, and ownership.
- **Work model**: Hybrid – most roles tied to hub locations (Denver, San Francisco, New York City, Scottsdale) with in-person collaboration **two days a week** (Tues/Wed for most; Wed/Thu in Scottsdale). Trusts employees to work remotely the rest of the time.
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision; family planning and fertility support; gender-affirming care; mental health support; paid vacation, sick leave, holidays, parental leave, and sabbaticals.
- **Community**: Employee-led affinity groups open to all; inclusive culture that values diversity.
- **Engineering culture**: Builders who enjoy untangling hard problems; high ownership; AI tools give engineers leverage to focus on judgment and creativity.

## Sources
1. [gusto.com/about](https://gusto.com/about) – Company overview, values, mission, headcount (500k+ businesses)
2. [gusto.com/about/careers](https://gusto.com/about/careers) – Culture, work model, benefits, AI philosophy
3. [gusto.com](https://gusto.com/) – Product details, pricing, features, customer stats
4. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/gusto](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/gusto) – Current job openings (78 listed), departments
5. [builtin.com/company/gusto](https://builtin.com/company/gusto) – Employee count (4,405 total, 1,200 product+tech), office locations, hybrid policy

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