Head of Sales Compensation at Gusto

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.

Head of Sales Compensation - GTM

Location: San Francisco, Denver, New York City, Atlanta, Phoenix, or Las Vegas.

Candidates located in San Francisco, Denver, or NYC are expected to be in office two days a week.

About the Role:

As the Head of Sales Compensation at Gusto, you will be a key leader and strategic advisor to our Sales leadership teams, reporting into the Head of Revenue Operations. You will own the end-to-end strategy, design, and operationalization of all incentive compensation plans across our Sales organizations.

This is a dynamic role where you'll apply your experience, analytical skills, and passion for sales to ensure our compensation programs are competitive, fair, and aligned with our ambitious growth objectives. You'll partner closely with leadership across Sales, RevOps, Finance, and People to successfully attract, motivate, and retain top talent. You will also directly lead a team of Sales Compensation Analysts.

What You'll Do:

Strategic Leadership & Execution: Act as a strategic thought partner to GTM/Sales and Finance leaders on incentive strategy and plan design. You'll not only develop a clear compensation vision but also possess the operational chops to execute on it. This includes rolling up your sleeves to troubleshoot issues, building robust operational mechanisms, and partnering with Sales Ops and other systems teams to solve problems as they arise.

Program Ownership: Lead the full lifecycle of sales compensation, from annual and semi-annual planning and plan design (curves, components, weightings) to implementation (using platforms like Xactly and SFDC), training, and daily administration.

Team Leadership: Empower a team of Sales Compensation Analysts, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment.

Operational Excellence: Drive efficiency and accuracy by documenting, optimizing, and automating processes for quotas, crediting, attainment reporting, and resolving disputes. Establish clear cadences for planning and reviews.

Compliance & Governance: Design, implement, and monitor compensation process controls to ensure internal compliance and educate cross-functional partners on the rationale behind key business decisions.

Performance & Analytics: Track and report on the effectiveness of compensation programs, monitoring key metrics such as budget adherence, error rates, and program ROI to ensure we're achieving desired outcomes.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with GTM/Sales, Sales Ops, Finance, and People teams to enhance sales engagement and productivity through effective compensation, helping to recruit and retain the best talent.

What We’re Looking For:

Experience: 10+ years of experience in sales compensation design and operationalization, with at least 3+ years in a leadership role within a SaaS environment.

Analytical Skills: A dynamic leader with exceptional analytical abilities. You are just as comfortable leading the strategic design of a program as you are with the hands-on implementation and administration of daily processes.

Technical Expertise: Proven experience in analyzing and optimizing compensation plans and processes. Proficiency with Salesforce (SFDC) and a compensation management tool like Xactly is required.

Communication & Influence: A persuasive communicator who uses data to tell a story and back up recommendations. You can influence leadership, inspire team members to think big, and flex naturally between high-level strategy and rolling up your sleeves to get things done.

Problem-Solving Mindset: You are passionate about sales and creatively find ways to make teams more productive. You thrive in high-growth, fast-paced environments where things move quickly and processes are constantly evolving.

Adaptable & Detail-Oriented: You are hyper-organized with strong attention to detail. Effective stakeholder and project management are part of your core skill set.

Our annual base salary compensation range for this role is $238,00 - 297,500 in San Francisco & New York, and $202,000 - $252,500 in Denver and most other remote locations. This role is also eligible for an annual variable cash bonus (up to 20%). Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate 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.

Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.

Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.

Head of Sales Compensation

Job Description