About this role
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 Gusto is looking for a seasoned Paid Acquisition Manager to own execution across paid social and emerging acquisition channels — testing new platforms, formats, and tactics to find what works before scaling. This is a high-visibility role at the intersection of performance marketing, channel experimentation, and AI-powered workflow design. You will own execution and day-to-day strategy for paid social and new channel tests, working within Gusto's demand generation framework, with clear accountability to pipeline and revenue targets. About the Team As a member of Gusto’s Demand Generation team, you will be embedded specifically within Paid Acquisition, a focused group responsible for driving awareness and pipeline through paid media. This team operates with high autonomy, a bias for experimentation, and a culture of cross-functional partnership. We hold ourselves to a high standard, move fast, and genuinely believe that being AI-native is part of what it means to do this job well today. Here's what you'll do day-to-day: • Own paid social strategy and execution across Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, and TikTok, driving full-funnel campaigns from brand awareness through retargeting and conversion, with accountability to pipeline and revenue targets. • Manage significant, multi-million dollar budgets with rigor, including campaign pacing, forecasting, budget-vs-actuals analysis, and making the case for paid social investment in imperfect attribution environments. • Apply and help refine Gusto's paid acquisition measurement framework, including attribution philosophy and budget allocation principles, in partnership with the broader marketing team. • Lead creative strategy and testing at scale: briefing creative studios and agencies, structuring meaningful experiments, interpreting complex data sets to drive actionable insights, and building a clear learning roadmap. • Serve as the team's go-to expert on paid social and AI-powered marketing workflows, documenting playbooks and best practices for the paid acquisition team. • Use AI tools as a consistent, habitual part of your workflow: generating campaign briefs, developing copy variants, accelerating audience research, and building reusable systems that raise the bar for the whole team. • Identify, test, and validate new digital media channels and formats beyond core paid social — such as Google Demand Generation campaigns and ChatGPT ads — running structured pilots, defining success criteria upfront, and making the call on scale vs. kill within existing budget guardrails. • Partner with Web Marketing to align on landing page strategy, message match, and post-click conversion, because paid social performance doesn't end at the click. • Align with the Brand and Influencer team to run the organic-to-paid feedback loop — turning proven organic and influencer content into paid scale, and feeding results back to sharpen what earns that investment next. • Collaborate with Engineering to launch new pixels and tracking, troubleshoot platform-side issues, and QA implementations — keeping measurement reliable as tracking needs evolve. • Partner cross-functionally with Integrated Marketing, Product Marketing, Sales, Communications, and Web to align paid social with integrated campaigns and earned media moments, and bring performance data back upstream to influence creative production and asset strategy. Here's what we're looking for: • 7+ years of performance marketing experience at a B2B SaaS, performance marketing agency, or high-growth consumer organization, with deep expertise in paid social and a track record of testing and scaling new channels. • Full-funnel ownership across two or more major paid social platforms (Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, TikTok), including deep, hands-on, in-platform execution (campaign builds, audience/targeting strategy, creative testing, bid/budget management), with significant budget responsibility and a track record of driving measurable pipeline impact. • Strong creative strategy and testing instincts: you know how to structure a test, distinguish a learning from a result, and translate performance data into creative direction. • AI-fluent in practice, not just in theory; you use AI tools consistently in your day-to-day workflow to accelerate briefs, copy, and analysis, and have a track record of implementing AI-driven efficiencies for your team. • Excellent cross-functional collaborator who can translate integrated briefs into paid social strategy, advocate for what the channel needs, and work effectively alongside brand, web, and comms partners. • You are analytical and data-driven, with a clear point of view on attribution in imperfect measurement environments and comfort communicating paid social's contribution to business outcomes. Compensation Our cash compensation amount for this role is $108,570/yr to $133,000/yr in Denver and Scottsdale and $131,430/yr to $161,000/yr 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. At Gusto, we don't use titles the traditional way, as a signal of rank or hierarchy. Instead, our titles describe two things at once — your craft (what you do, e.g. Engineering, Design) and your scope of ownership (what you're accountable for) — which is why you'll see something like "Head of X" instead of a rank word like "Director" that tells you neither. Because of this, the title on this posting may look different from what you'd expect based on the scope and seniority of the role, and from how similar roles are typically titled elsewhere. If you have questions about how this role compares to your current title or level, your recruiter can help translate. 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. Reliable, consistent presence: We expect regular and predictable attendance, whether you're working in-office, hybrid, or fully remote, so that you stay closely connected to your team, customers, and stakeholders in real time and ensure colleagues and customers receive the timely support and responsiveness they deserve. 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.