R&D Insights and Operations - Growth

Gusto•San Francisco, CA

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

Gusto is seeking a builder to help construct a world-class Growth organization. This role is for an opinionated leader motivated by creating big-picture vision, identifying high-impact opportunities, and building the systems and rigor for cohesive Growth and GTM operations. As a member of Gusto's Insights & Operations (I&O) team, you will be embedded within the Growth organization, partnering closely with the Head of Growth and CRO-side GTM leadership. This is an Individual Contributor (IC)-first role, starting with deep dives into high-leverage Growth problems, developing data-driven insights, and driving them to outcomes. As trust and scope grow, this role is expected to expand, potentially owning the operating bridge between Growth and the broader go-to-market organization, and possibly building and leading a small team.

Requirements

15+ years in operations, business operations, or strategy & ops at a high-growth technology company.
Experience building a growth function from an earlier, less mature stage.
Direct experience with the discipline behind growth decision-making: attribution and LTV modeling, testing and experimentation, and translating marketing/growth spend into demonstrable business impact.
Track record of working at the intersection of growth and go-to-market (or product and sales) — connecting teams with different incentives around a shared goal.
A strong point of view on how operations should scale: knowing when a problem needs a dedicated system vs. when it needs reprioritization, and resisting the urge to grow headcount by default.
Comfort starting as an individual contributor — going deep on one problem set before taking on broader scope — balanced with a demonstrated ability to build and lead teams when the moment calls for it.
Exceptional organizational skills, able to manage multiple senior stakeholders and competing priorities in a fast-moving environment.
Excellent written and verbal communication — able to tailor for executive audiences and drive alignment on hard, ambiguous trade-offs.
Financial acumen: comfortable managing financial tracking and reporting across a complex org.
Low ego and a bias toward collaboration: someone who works well across teams that all want the same outcome but don't yet have the bridges to get there together.
Deep empathy and enthusiasm for small business customers, and excitement about joining a company still very much in its building phase.
Drawn to ambiguity, not intimidated by it — prefers to build the map rather than wait for one.
Has a point of view and shares it — willing to say the harder, more useful thing rather than stay neutral.
Energized by change and by building something new, even when it means occasionally undoing one's own work to get it right.
Defaults to using AI to move faster and think bigger, saving personal time and judgment for calls only a person can make.

Nice To Haves

AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.

Responsibilities

Identify and size the highest-leverage opportunities for Growth, moving from a fuzzy problem to a clear-eyed analysis, recommendation, and execution plan.
Anchor on problems rather than headcount, defining how to build a best-in-class Growth engine, sizing opportunities, and prioritizing what's worth solving before determining resource needs.
Build the operating rhythm for Growth, driving execution through planning cycles, prioritization, and a shared roadmap that makes trade-offs and dependencies visible across Growth R&D, Product R&D, and GTM.
Apply analytical rigor to Growth investments, including attribution, LTV, and testing/experimentation, ensuring resource deployment is tied to business impact.
Close the gap between Growth R&D and go-to-market teams by building mechanisms like shared roadmaps, dependency tracking, and decision forums for unified operation.
Design an operating system for the Growth org that prioritizes technology and automation over manual processes, handing off ownership once systems are running.
Act as a trusted advisor to Growth leadership, pressure-testing strategy, surfacing risks and blind spots, and providing an opinionated point of view.
Utilize AI as a default tool for planning, synthesis, and reporting to create reusable workflows and minimize manual coordination.
Identify when teams are optimizing for the wrong things and push for fundamentally different paths rather than marginal improvements.
Raise the bar for I&O operations by sharing best practices, questioning inefficiencies, and helping the broader I&O team build a stronger craft.
Partner closely with our Head of Growth and our CRO-side GTM leadership.