Compensation Partner

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 the Role: The Compensation Partner is a core member of Gusto's People team, supporting compensation programs that help us attract, retain, and reward top talent. This role is the operational engine of the compensation function: the person who makes sure our programs run accurately, on time, and consistently for every Gustie. Operating with a systems-first, AI-native mindset, the Compensation Partner uses automation and well-designed workflows to handle recurring analysis, audits, and reporting with speed and precision. This role partners closely with HR Business Partners, Finance, Legal, and business leaders to ensure our compensation programs are grounded in market reality and aligned to our values. Success in this role is measured by the accuracy and timeliness of compensation data and deliverables, the reliability of the programs you support, and your growing ability to answer questions independently rather than escalating them. Gusto's compensation function, built on first-principles thinking, is at an inflection point — scaling from early foundations to a mature, high-trust operation. You'll have real ownership to shape how we design and deliver compensation as the company grows. Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day: Support the execution of Gusto's compensation programs and cycles, including merit, promotion, and equity refresh, handling data preparation, validation, tracking, and follow-through. Serve as a first point of contact for compensation questions from HRBPs, recruiters, and managers, resolving requests and escalating the ones that need extra attention. Manage annual compensation cycles (merit, equity refresh, benchmarking) from data collection through communication. Conduct job matching and market benchmarking using survey data (Radford/Aon, Mercer, Pave) and prepare recommendations on pay ranges and offer positioning for review. Model and prepare new hire, promotion, and internal transfer recommendations against approved bands and internal equity comparisons. Maintain compensation data integrity across Workday, Pave, and our compensation bands, running recurring audits and reconciling discrepancies before they reach downstream processes. Prepare recurring reports and dashboards on pay positioning, band utilization, and cycle progress, and produce ad hoc analysis for partners across People and Finance. Use AI tools and automation to take manual work out of recurring analysis, audits, and reporting, with sound judgment about when output needs to be validated. Support compliance with federal, state, and local pay regulations, including pay transparency postings, FLSA classification reviews, and annual survey submissions. Document and improve compensation processes so that the work is repeatable, auditable, and not dependent on any one person's memory. Here’s what we're looking for: 3+ years of experience in Compensation, Total Rewards, People Operations, or a related analytical function - ideally in a high-growth technology environment. AI fluency: hand