Product Designer, Contractors

This staff product designer role sits within Gusto's Contractors team, which builds tools helping small and medium business owners hire, manage, and pay domestic and international contractors. The designer will serve as the IC design leader for the contractor product area, driving foundational improvements to platform experiences and customer-facing workflows that are both established and business-critical.

The role spans the entire product development process, from long-term vision setting and strategic planning through to feature launches and iterative refinement. Strong AI fluency is expected, with designers actively using AI to prototype rapidly, shorten feedback loops, and improve the quality of contractor experiences. Compensation ranges from $177,000 to $222,000 per year in San Francisco and New York.

• Drive end-to-end design strategy and execution across the contractors experience, from discovery and visioning through iterative delivery and refinement.
• Partner with product, engineering, research, data, legal, compliance, and operations teams to define problem spaces and deliver solutions that meet customer and business needs.
• Translate research and data insights into intuitive, scalable experiences supporting a variety of customer workflows.
• Champion inclusive design practices by participating in design reviews, sharing feedback, and contributing to design standards and platform quality.
• Apply AI fluency to prototype quickly, shorten feedback loops, and improve contractor-facing experiences.
• Mentor fellow designers through thoughtful critique, knowledge sharing, and contributing to design community initiatives across Gusto.

• 8+ years of product design experience with demonstrated impact in complex product domains.
• Proven ability to lead design direction at the product level and influence cross-functional partners including product, engineering, research, and data.
• Portfolio demonstrating high-quality interaction and visual design, with clear attention to accessibility and end-to-end user experiences.
• Ability to translate ambiguity into clear design decisions and communicate those decisions to align teams around shared goals.
• Demonstrated AI fluency in daily design practice, using AI to move faster and prototype more effectively.

Gusto is a people platform supporting more than 500,000 small businesses across the United States. The company handles payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR, with teams based in Denver, San Francisco, and New York. Gusto's mission is to grow the small business economy by removing administrative complexity for business owners.