Payment Operations Analyst

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: Payments at Gusto aren't just infrastructure — they're the reason people get paid on time, every time. Payment Operations sits within Gusto's Money team, a cross-functional group spanning Engineering, Product, and Operations that powers money movement across Gusto's growing product surface: core payroll, contractor payments, international money movement, and new business offerings like PEO. As a Payment Operations Analyst, you'll own specific end-to-end payment workflows, resolve exceptions that require real judgment, and help make our systems more reliable and efficient over time. Gusto's payment surface area is expanding — and this team is at the center of that growth. This is a role for someone who can shift from investigating a single misfired transaction to coordinating a response on a payment outage affecting thousands — and bring the same rigor to both. You think in systems. You hold partners accountable. You lead with curiosity and embrace AI as a core part of how you work. You'll collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, Accounting, Risk, and CX — and you'll develop strong day-to-day relationships with Gusto's bank and payment partners. When something breaks or slows down, you're the one who drives it to resolution. Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day: Support the payment lifecycle end-to-end • Own the operational layer of specific payment workflows — ACH processing, exception handling, refunds, collection re-debits, reconciliation. When something is off, you investigate, escalate where needed, and see it through to resolution. And when you see a pattern, you push to fix the root cause. Build alongside Product and Engineering • Payment Operations doesn't just react — we shape how the systems work. You'll contribute to product specs, surface operational pain points, help define requirements, and participate in launches. You're a partner in building, not just a consumer of what gets shipped. Close the loop on customer pain • Customer and CX feedback is signal. You actively mine it to identify friction in payment flows, prioritize what matters, and bring those insights into the operational and product conversations where decisions get made. Think in systems • Connect the dots across rails, partners, reconciliation, compliance, and customer experience. When an issue surfaces, you understand how it ripples — and you bring that perspective to cross-functional conversations. Hold partners to a high standard • Work directly with Gusto's bank and payment partners — domestic and international — to triage issues, resolve escalations, and maintain strong working relationships. You know how to be firm and collaborative at the same time, and you don't let things sit. Lead with AI You use AI as a genuine work partner — to move faster on analysis, draft communications, synthesize data, and automate the repetitive. You're always looking for the smarter way to get to the answer. Here’s what we're looking for: • 3+ years of experience in payment operations, banking operations, treasury operations, or a related role at a fintech or financial institution • Working knowledge of domestic payment rails (ACH/Nacha, wires, RTP) and/or international money movement (cross-border transfers, FX, global disbursement networks); experience across both is a strong plus • Strong analytical instincts — you look for the pattern behind the problem and can query or structure data to find it (SQL a plus but not required) • Experience working with bank portals, payment processors, or reconciliation tools • Ability to communicate clearly with both operational and technical counterparts; you can write a crisp Slack to an engineer and a professional escalation to a bank partner • Comfortable working in ambiguity and taking ownership without waiting for perfect information • Eager to build AI into how you work — whether you're already using it daily or just getting started, you see it as a genuine productivity lever and are committed to developing that fluency • Knowledge of relevant compliance frameworks (Nacha operating rules, unclaimed property, money transmission) is a strong plus Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $78,000-$97,000 /yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $97,000-$121,000 /yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate 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