Employee Relations Manager

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: 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. Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day: • 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. • Track ER metrics and case trends to surface areas of opportunity. Recommend action for managers and People Partners / HRBPs to maximize engagement and minimize risk. • Serve as a strategic advisor to senior business leaders on complex personnel decisions, acting as ER's specialized center of excellence alongside People Partners/HRBPs and Legal. • Operate with urgency and a bias toward resolution — prioritizing the issues that matter most, moving straightforward matters quickly, and applying deeper rigor where the risk or complexity warrants it. • Demonstrate an AI-native mindset: Actively use AI to work more effectively — synthesizing case trends, drafting documentation, spotting patterns in ER data — while knowing when information needs to stay protected and when a human needs to stay firmly in the loop. Here’s what we're looking for: • Bachelor's degree in human resources, business administration, or a related field; an advanced degree or JD is a plus. • 7–10+ years of progressive HR or Employee Relations experience, including direct ownership of ER casework, plus demonstrated experience leading or supervising a team. • Deep knowledge of employment law (EEOC, ADA, FMLA, FLSA) and experience conducting employee investigations — interviewing, assessing facts, documenting findings, and partnering with Legal when appropriate. • Strong coaching and mentoring skills, with the ability to influence, inspire, and guide both within and outside of hierarchical lines. . • Excellent judgment navigating ambiguity — balancing employee experience, fairness and consistency, business needs, and organizational risk when making recommendations. • Strong data literacy — comfortable using case trends and ER metrics to make proactive, defensible recommendations. • Experience operating in a fast-scaling technology company — comfortable with frequent organizational changes and distributed/hybrid team dynamics. 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. 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.