Payment Operations Manager

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 the Payment Operations Manager, you'll lead a team of Payment Operations Analysts and own the health of Gusto's payment operations end to end: the ACH, wire, RTP, and international contractor payment rails, the day-to-day operations behind our bank and payment partner relationships, and the operational side of the compliance programs that keep all of it running within regulatory bounds. You'll work closely with Engineering, Product, Accounting, Risk, Legal, and CX to get there.

This is a role for someone who can zoom in and personally work a ticket or partner escalation, and zoom out to manage the team and keep a compliance program on track, in the same afternoon. You build strong people, hold partners accountable, and bring rigor to how the team operates.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

Lead and grow the team

• Manage a team of Payment Operations Analysts. Hire, coach, and develop them, set clear expectations, and give direct feedback. Own team-level SLAs, on-call rotation and escalation paths, and reporting, and use data to spot where the team's processes are breaking down and fix the root cause, not just the symptom. You're accountable for the team's output and for the growth of the people on it.

Manage day-to-day bank and payment partner operations

• Own the operational relationship with our banking and payment partners, including issue triage, escalations, and operational reviews, and personally work individual tickets yourself when the queue backs up or SLAs are at risk. Partner closely with the team that owns the strategic partnership on renewals and due diligence.

Operate the compliance programs that keep payments running

• Execute the day-to-day work behind Gusto's Nacha, unclaimed property, and bank compliance programs, and Payment Ops' portion of SOC 1 audits. Financial Services Compliance and Payroll Compliance own these programs; you're the operational partner who keeps documentation, controls, and evidence current and coordinates with them and GRC when new requirements land.

Drive incident response for payment operations

• When something breaks at scale, whether it's a failed batch, a reconciliation break, or a payment partner outage, you're in the investigation yourself, not just directing it. You keep stakeholders informed and drive the retro that prevents it from happening again.

Partner with Product and Engineering

• Bring the team's operational insight into product and engineering conversations. Flag risk early, weigh in on payment-related specs, and make sure operational needs are represented, without owning the product roadmap yourself.

Lead with AI

• Model and encourage the use of AI across the team, whether that's faster investigation, cleaner documentation, or automating repetitive work.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 7+ years of hands-on experience in payment operations, banking operations, or treasury operations, including direct ownership of escalations, partner issues, or ticket queues, and 2+ years directly managing a team
• Deep working knowledge of domestic payment rails (ACH/Nacha, wires, RTP) and experience with international money movement is a strong plus
• Experience managing the operational side of a bank or payment partner relationship, including escalations, issue triage, and partner reviews
• Track record of operating within a compliance program (Nacha Risk Self-Assessment, SOC 1, unclaimed property, or similar), including audits and controls work
• Strong people leadership: you've hired, coached, and managed performance for a team of analysts or similar operational ICs
• Comfortable operating with real ambiguity and driving cross-functional work without needing a fully defined process
• AI-fluent: you use it as a genuine lever for yourself and expect your team to as well
• Nacha AAP or AFPP certification is a strong plus