Head of Channel Partnerships

About Gusto

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy .

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced and strategic leader to serve as Head of Channel Partnerships at Gusto. This senior role reports to the Head of Indirect GTM and is responsible for building and scaling our channel partner organization. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of managing both individual contributors and managers, setting long-term strategic direction, and driving operational excellence. Success in this role requires balancing big-picture planning (3+ years out) with hands-on execution to deliver measurable growth and impact.

The team sits within the revenue organization, and is responsible for sourcing net-new revenue, and through-partner recruitment

About the Team

At Gusto, partnerships are core to our growth strategy. The Channel Partnerships team focuses on:

• Developing partner-to-partner strategies with accounting firms.

• Driving new revenue opportunities in collaboration with product partnership teams.

Your remit will span partners across banking/lending, vertical markets (e.g., franchise and medical practices), and time-tracking solutions —shaping how Gusto shows up across the partner ecosystem.

What You’ll Do

Strategic Leadership (25%)

• Define the long-term vision for the Channel Partnerships organization, including key growth drivers and investible partner criteria.

• Conduct portfolio assessments (new categories, scaling existing, sunsetting where needed).

• Build and manage the economic model for investments (partner acquisition and activation costs)

Team Leadership (25%)

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of ICs and managers.

• Design compensation structures, define roles, and drive performance management.

• Build a culture of excellence in partnership management.

Go-to-Market Execution (25%)

• Develop and refine playbooks for partner recruitment, activation, and growth.

• Mobilize partners through marketing/partner development programs, co-marketing strategies, and partner-to-partner initiatives.

• Oversee business planning, contracting, and legal negotiations.

• Build a motion for both 1:1 strategic management (deep engagement with high-value partners through joint business planning, dedicated support, and exec-to-exec alignment) and 1:many programmatic management (scaled enablement, digital onboarding, programmatic incentives, and performance dashboards).

• Establish a tiering framework, shared GTM playbook, and feedback loops that connect both models.

• Defined approach to-through-with marketing, and implement strategy in collaboration with the partner-marketing team

Operational Excellence (25%)

• Build and manage resourcing, investment plans, and scalable systems/tools.

• Define rules of engagement across internal and external stakeholders.

• Ensure rigor in contracts, negotiations, and value exchange modeling.

• Continuously measure and optimize partner performance and economics.

What We’re Looking For

• 15+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, or GTM strategy, with 8+ years in leadership roles.

• Demonstrated success managing both ICs and managers.

• Strong balance of strategic vision and hands-on execution.

• Deep understanding of partnership economics, GTM motions, and scaling playbooks.

• Experience working with accounting firms, fintech, SaaS, or B2B partner ecosystems strongly required

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and cross-functional leadership skills.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is $177,200 to $221,500 in Denver & most major metro locations, and $208,000 to $260,000 for San Francisco & New York. 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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