Principal Product Manager, Communications Platform

About Gusto

Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.

Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy. 

By the Numbers:

• Named #1 best software for small business of 2024 by G2
• 2,700+ employees in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Turkiye and growing 
• Over $500M in annual revenue 
• The SMB market is large (and growing!) with huge opportunities for Gusto to make an incredible impact for SMBs 
• There are 6.2M employers in the US, 98% have fewer than 100 employees (1) 
• 550,000 new businesses are created each year in the US (1) 

What Product Management is like at Gusto:

• We’re looking for high-autonomy, entrepreneurial Product Managers to come build high-impact solutions for small businesses and their employees. We believe in high-ownership Product Managers who operate like business owners - owning an entire roadmap end to end and shipping product all the way from strategy through to the nitty gritty details (some describe this kind of role as a “GM” type role).
• Our Product team is lean, which means you’ll have a high degree of impact and ownership. 
• We’re here to serve small and medium businesses. Gusto has a strong mission-driven culture, and we care deeply about lifting up these business owners. 

About the Team: 

Gusto has a unique opportunity for an accomplished communications platform Product leader to re-think customer communications within the entire Gusto portfolio. This exciting opportunity represents the inflection point that the Gusto Communications Platform currently faces – it serves its current jobs to be done well with a complex todos and communications system, but what will it take to help bring Gusto into the next 3-5 years? This will be your question to answer, and an opportunity to go from strategy to roadmap to execution while leading the existing, high-performing, team that has gotten us this far. This is a key role in driving customer awareness and actions to successfully run their business on Gusto.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Ownership: You will create the multi-year vision, strategy, and roadmap for the Communications Platform to meet key organizational OKRs. This includes ensuring that the platform’s infrastructure meets expectations and supports primary jobs to be done
• North Star: Your goal is to elevate the Communications Platform, expanding its functionality to better serve customers, enhance product offerings, and meet compliance requirements, all while measuring performance against key indicators to inform future improvements
• Collaborate: You’ll work closely with Design, Engineering, peer Product teams, Compliance, and Legal to develop, launch, and manage/rearchitect the Communication Platform infrastructure
• Communicate: You will effectively communicate your work across technical and non-technical decision-makers
• Coordinate: You will manage dependencies across other product development teams to ensure seamless execution
• Research: You will conduct market research to inform strategy and improve platform performance over time

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 8+ years of product management experience driving platforms and systems including experience leading communication platforms or products that involve messaging, notifications, or real-time communications
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical specifications and work closely with the engineering team to deliver remarkable solutions
• Proven track record of successfully leading complex projects from concept to launch
• Expertise in identifying and understanding patterns across interconnected systems
• Strong data literacy, and the ability to derive data-driven insights that guide strategic decision-making
• Strength in finding clarity in ambiguous situations to make informed and well-reasoned decisions
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability