Employee Relations Manager

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.

We're looking for an experienced Employee Relations Manager to lead Gusto's Employee Relations team — a specialized center of excellence that helps steward and protect company culture by ensuring policy and practice alignment across the organization. This role reports into People Team leadership and partners closely with People Partners/HRBPs, Legal, and business leaders on our highest-risk employee matters.

You will lead and coach a team of Employee Relations Partners handling complex performance and investigations casework, using case data to identify patterns and recommend changes to increase Gustie experience and decrease risk. You're comfortable translating policy into consistent day-to-day practice across a fast-scaling technology company, and you know how to coach organizational leaders through difficult conversations, performance improvement plans, and structural team changes without eroding trust.

The ideal candidate has deep fluency with employment policy, sound judgment under ambiguity, and the people-leadership experience to build a team others trust with their hardest moments.

• Manage, mentor, and coach a team of Employee Relations Partners — setting quality standards for documentation and process flow, overseeing caseload distribution, and continuous process improvement within the team.
• Lead or oversee complex, high-risk workplace investigations with airtight documentation in our case management system, partnering with Legal to reduce organizational and legal risk.
• Own performance-management casework end-to-end, coaching managers through documented coaching plans, PIPs, disciplinary actions, and exits, while balancing employee experience, fairness, and business risk.
• Translate Gusto's codes of conduct and other policies into consistent, fair practice across departments — especially through periods of rapid scaling and structural change.
• Enable managers on performance management processes, difficult conversations, and structural team changes.

Our cash compensation range for this role is between $150,640–$185,789/year in Denver and Phoenix and between $177,020–$218,325/year for New York/San Francisco. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, 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 and a member of our team will get in touch with you.

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