{"id":249215,"url":"https://alion.io/job/gusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits","title":"AI Operations Program Manager, Benefits","company":{"id":783,"name":"Gusto","domain":"gusto.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/gusto","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":19,"ghost_share":0.053,"stale_share":0.632,"repost_share":0.053,"time_to_fill_p50_days":48,"computed_at":"2026-11-05T05:54:30Z"}},"role":"Management","role_family":"Management","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Denver, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":114285,"max":140000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":140000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-05-21T16:37:07Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-11-05T10:39:25Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":167,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":2,"flags":["stale","repost"],"days_open":167},"description":"About Gusto\nAt 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.\nAll 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 ourTotal Rewards philosophy.\nAI 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.\nAbout the Role:\nWe’re hiring an Operations Lead, internally named Labs Lead, to build and run Benefits Labs, the system that governs how Gusto’s Benefits organization tests, validates, and scales operational change.\nYou will own the full Labs lifecycle, including intake, pilot design, execution governance, measurement, and recommendations to leadership. This is not a traditional program or operations role. Your responsibility is to build and operate the system that runs Labs.\nThis role is AI-native. You will design and run the agents, automations, and workflows that power how work is triaged, how pilots are executed, and how evidence is generated and synthesized. The goal is to create a system that can run many pilots in parallel with high quality and minimal manual intervention.\nYour impact is measured by leverage: how much work the system can handle without you, how quickly the organization can test and scale changes, and how clearly leadership can make decisions based on evidence.\nBenefits Labs sits within Benefits Business Operations today. You will be the founding operator, reporting to the Head of Benefits Business Operations, and will directly shape how this function evolves, including its future scope, structure, and investment.\nAbout the Team:\nBenefits Business Operations is responsible for how Gusto’s Benefits business improves and scales. The team operates across three domains: Automation, Carrier, and Quality, each focused on improving different parts of the operational system.\nLabs sits across these domains as the governance layer for operational change. It ensures ideas are tested rigorously, measured consistently, and scaled intentionally. Labs partners closely with org leadership, product, engineering, and transformation teams to turn strategy into execution and build systems that improve how the business operates.\nHere’s what you’ll do day-to-day:\nYou will operate and continuously improve the system that governs operational change across Benefits.\nOwn intake and triage: Run the AI-powered intake system that classifies, routes, and prepares incoming work. Determine the right path for each request and improve the system over time.\nRun pilot governance: Ensure every pilot follows a clear structure with defined success metrics, checkpoints, and outputs. Use AI-driven workflows to manage execution and produce recommendations to scale, iterate, or stop.\nRaise design quality: Pressure-test hypotheses, refine success criteria, and hold Pilot Leads accountable to standards. Improve the quality of work across the system without taking ownership away from teams.\nBuild and improve the system: Extend the existing agent and automation architecture across the Labs lifecycle, including intake routing, workflow execution, evidence synthesis, and readout generation. Increase speed, scope, and reliability over time.\nSolve systemic problems: Identify inefficiencies in how operational change moves through the organization and convert repeatable problems into scalable, AI-powered workflows.\nDrive decision-making: Develop analytical approaches and produce clear, evidence-based narratives that align stakeholders across product and CX and influence leadership decisions.\nLead cross-functional work: Own coordination across product, engineering, operations, enablement, and business partners. Manage complexity, align stakeholders, and deliver measurable outcomes.\nCreate clarity in ambiguity: Lead discussions on complex operational and product topics, helping teams converge on decisions and next steps.\nProduce leadership-ready outputs: Deliver structured readouts, post-mortems, and recommendations using AI to generate and validate evidence efficiently.\nShape the future of Labs: Use what you build and learn to inform the long-term operating model, team structure, and investment strategy for Benefits Labs.\nRaise the bar for others: Coach Pilot Leads and BizOps partners on AI-powered ways of working and hold a high standard for execution quality.\nHere’s what we're looking for:\nProven ownership: You’ve owned outcomes across complex, cross-functional work and consistently delivered results end-to-end.\n AI-native builder (core requirement): You don’t just use AI tools. You build with them. You’ve designed and deployed AI agents, automations, or workflows that execute multi-step work, and you’ve measured the leverage created. This is required for success in this role.\nSystems thinker: You identify root causes at the process level and build solutions that scale. You improve how teams operate, not just your own output.\nStrong data fluency: You can structure problems, define success metrics, and turn data into clear, decision-driving narratives.\nOperator + coach: You raise the quality of work around you through direct feedback, clear standards, and accountability.\nCross-functional leader: You’ve led initiatives across product, engineering, and operations and can drive alignment without direct authority.\nComfort with ambiguity: You create structure where none exists and move work forward without perfect information.\nMinimum experience:\n 4+ years in operations, program management, or business operations in a SaaS, technology, or operationally complex environment.\nBonus: \n Experience in benefits, insurance, or brokerage operations. Experience working with operational metrics (e.g., cycle time, quality, throughput). Direct experience building or managing AI agents in a production or operational context.\nOur cash compensation amount for this role is $98,725/year to $116,000/year in Denver & most major metro locations, and $114,285/year to $140,000/year 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.\nAt 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.\nGusto 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.\nNote: The San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas. \nWhen 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.\nReliable, 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.\nOur 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. \nGusto 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.\nGusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.\nPersonal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.","description_format":"text","description_chars":9893,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Health insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Payroll Services","HR & Payroll Software"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-05T10:56:35Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-21T16:45:45Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-23T17:44:15Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-10-03T01:16:17Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-10-20T21:21:15Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 56 · green card filings: 7","filings_12m":56,"filings_prev_12m":53,"green_card_filings_12m":7,"median_offered_wage_usd":203532,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":5,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.183,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":167,"expected_fill_days":48,"reasons":["conf:0","repost:2","stale_co","velocity","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-05T05:54:30Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":140000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/gusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/gusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-05T12:36:02Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":16326,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-06T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":783},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=783"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fgusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fgusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fgusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/gusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fgusto-ai-operations-program-manager-benefits"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":249215}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"gusto.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":249215},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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