Financial Services Compliance Lead

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 an experienced financial services compliance professional to lead product compliance support across our consumer financial products, commercial financial services, payments, and embedded finance offerings. In this high-impact, cross-functional role, you'll serve as a strategic partner and trusted advisor to Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, Marketing, Operations, and business leaders, helping design, operationalize, and scale practical compliance solutions that support responsible innovation and enable durable business growth.

This role reports to the Head of Financial Services Compliance. At Gusto, Legal & Compliance operates as an AI native team, and you'll help shape how AI enabled compliance workflows support smarter monitoring, stronger controls, faster regulatory change management, and more proactive risk identification, always with appropriate human in the loop controls for accuracy and accountability.

About the Team:

Gusto’s Legal & Compliance team partners closely with product and engineering teams to enable innovation, facilitate responsible company growth, accelerate Gusto’s roadmap, and deliver compliant products to our customers.

We are passionate about applying AI-native ways of working, thoughtful compliance risk management, and a daily service mindset to improve the experience of small business owners and their employees. Each team member is an owner, a trusted advisor, and a meaningful contributor to Gusto’s mission.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Serve as a strategic compliance partner to Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders on financial services regulations across lending, embedded finance, deposit products, payments, and money movement, covering launches, partnerships, product changes, and marketing collateral.
• Mature and expand Gusto's Compliance Management Program to cover emerging financial services and payments offerings, using AI enabled tools to help the program scale as new products launch.
• Own regulatory change management in partnership with Government & Regulatory Affairs, leveraging AI to track and assess new requirements faster and surface emerging risk earlier.
• Translate complex regulations into clear, actionable guidance, controls, procedures, training, and documentation for cross-functional partners.
• Oversee product compliance controls and run monitoring, control testing, risk assessments, and issue management across deposit, lending, payments, marketing, and consumer protection requirements (TILA, TISA, ECOA, FCRA, FDCPA, TCPA, CAN-SPAM, UDAAP, Reg E, NACHA rules, and related federal/state requirements).
• Support vendor onboarding, third-party risk assessments, due diligence, and ongoing oversight for financial services and payments partners.
• Serve as key liaison with banking and strategic partners, supporting audits, compliance reporting, examinations, regulatory inquiries, and remediation activities.
• Partner across Product, Engineering, Legal, and Operations to design and apply AI enabled workflows for compliance monitoring, control testing, documentation, and issue management, balancing automation with appropriate human oversight.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 10+ years of relevant compliance experience in an in-house legal, compliance, risk, or regulatory function at a regulated financial institution, fintech, payments company, or financial services business.
• Deep expertise in financial services and payments compliance, including consumer protection requirements such as TILA, TISA, ECOA, FCRA, FDCPA, Reg E, UDAAP, NACHA rules, TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and related state laws.
• Demonstrated experience with embedded finance, banking-as-a-service, sponsor bank partnerships, payments, ACH, card programs, lending, or deposit account products.
• A track record of building, scaling, or enhancing compliance programs (policies, controls, monitoring, training, issue management, regulatory change management), including using AI to make those programs more scalable and proactive.
• Experience advising Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, and Operations teams on product launches, strategic partnerships, and customer-facing or marketing materials, with strong cross-functional influence skills.
• Experience working directly with banking partners, payment processors, auditors, or regulators, including supporting internal/external audits, exams, partner bank reviews, and remediation.
• Strong judgment and issue-spotting skills, with the ability to distill complex regulations into clear guidance and make practical, risk-based calls in ambiguous or fast-moving situations.
• Demonstrated experience using AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Glean, Notion AI, or similar) to build scalable compliance workflows, paired with the curiosity and discipline to design appropriate human review, testing, and quality controls.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is $148,085/yr to $182,638/yr in Denver & most major metro locations, and $174,470/yr to $215,180/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.

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.

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