Staff Product Designer, Contractors

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 . 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 Design at Gusto Design at Gusto is made up of over 80 creative, collaborative people who care deeply about our mission to empower small businesses and their employees. We're a cross-functional group that is always looking for opportunities to build understanding and empathy for the people who use Gusto. We don't care much about swim lanes and though we care deeply about quality and craft, we are never precious about it. We work closely with cross-functional partners in Product, Engineering, Data, and Marketing to design, build, and ship experiences that make a real difference. We believe great design can make hard things possible, even delightful. We are building an AI-native design organization — and we mean that seriously. We're looking for designers who are already working this way: using AI to prototype ideas quickly, shorten customer feedback loops, and ship quality UX directly to customers. This isn't a future aspiration — it's how we work now, and it's changing what the design role looks like at Gusto and across the industry. About the team Contractors play a huge role in our economy, and are becoming more prevalent every year. Contract work offers flexibility and independence for workers, and hiring contractors helps small business owners scale quickly and access specialized skills. Our Contractors team helps small and medium business owners (SMBs) hire, manage, and pay domestic and international contractors. We also help contractors manage their client engagements and build their own thriving businesses. About the role As a staff product designer, you’ll help bring our contractor products to maturity. You’ll be the IC design leader across this area, driving foundational shifts to our platform and customer experiences. This is a unique opportunity to make major experience changes to established, business critical workflows. As part of the cross-functional leadership team, you’ll drive the entire product development process from setting the long-term vision to strategic planning; all the way to launching new features and iterating on existing ones. Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day 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, operations, and support to define problem spaces, align on priorities, and deliver solutions that meet both customer and business needs.  Translate insights from research and data into intuitive, scalable experiences that support a variety of customer workflows.  Champion thoughtful, inclusive design by participating in design reviews, sharing feedback, and contributing to design standards and platform quality.  Bring genuine AI fluency to your design practice, using it to prototype quickly, shorten feedback loops, and improve contractor experiences. Mentor and support fellow designers by offering thoughtful critique, sharing knowledge, and contributing to design community initiatives across Gusto.  Here’s what we