Principal Data Scientist, Payments Denver, CO;San Francisco, CA;New York, NY

Locations Denver, CO; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY About Gusto At Gusto, we’re on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Role Overview As a Principal Data Scientist on the Payments team, you’ll sit at the intersection of financial infrastructure and data science—translating the complexity of a high‑scale payments ecosystem into the insights and models that shape how we build, operate, and improve our payments products. You’ll work closely with Product, Engineering, Design, Finance, and other Data teams to become an expert in the domain, define and track metrics, and dive deep into payments data to deliver insights and answer questions. You’ll also integrate AI‑assisted practices to accelerate analysis, enhance rigor, and expand the reach of insights across Gusto. Day‑to‑Day Responsibilities Own payments intelligence end-to-end: Design and maintain measurement frameworks for payment success rates, failure root causes, retry strategies, and settlement timing—becoming the authoritative source of truth for payments health across the org. Partner with payments engineering: Embed with backend engineering teams to understand infrastructure constraints and data availability, translate that knowledge into well‑scoped experiments, and influence roadmap prioritization with data‑backed recommendations. Drive experimentation at scale: Design and analyze A/B tests and quasi‑experiments across payment flows—ensuring statistical rigor even in low‑conversion, high‑variance payment environments. Build predictive models: Develop and deploy models for payment failure prediction, risk scoring, and anomaly detection that operate at Gusto’s transaction volume, partnering with Machine Learning Engineers and Product Engineers on productionization and monitoring. Build AI-native data products: Build data products and automated workflows with AI as a core component, establishing guardrails and responsible scaling in a regulated financial context. Own the business narrative: Present findings and methodology to engineering, product, finance, and executive leadership, translating complex statistical results into clear, actionable narratives. Qualifications 10+ years of experience in Data Science or a closely related quantitative role at a product‑focused software company, with meaningful exposure to payments, fintech, or financial infrastructure. Deep payments domain knowledge: Hands‑on experience with ACH, card networks, bank integrations, settlement flows, or equivalent. Strong SQL and Python skills , with experience querying large‑scale transactional datasets and building reproducible analytical pipelines. Proven experimentation and causal inference expertise , capable of designing rigorous experiments in challenging payment contexts. AI-native mindset , having built data products and analytical workflows with AI as a core component. Cross‑functional influence , proven track record of collaborating with and influencing backend engineers and technical stakeholders. Compensation Targeted cash compensation is $184,000/yr – $210,000/yr in Denver, and $217,000/yr – $250,000/yr in San Francisco and New York. Final offers vary based on experience and expertise. Workplace & Locations Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees based in those locations are expected to work from the office 2‑3 days per week (or more depending on role). Hybrid expectations apply similarly across all locations. Equal Opportunity Employer Gusto is a proud 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 any other protected characteristic. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law, and are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. #J-18808-Ljbffr Gusto