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 a senior, technically minded workforce management planner who can design and scale AI-powered forecasting and capacity planning systems. You will report into the Planning People Empower and play a leading role in shaping how AI is adopted across forecasting, scheduling, and intraday operations. This role is equal parts strategic design and hands-on execution: you'll build the frameworks, pipelines, and governance structures that elevate WFM from reactive to predictive.

Schedule Note:

Coverage hours are between 6am-6pm MT

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Use AI to identify demand shifts, seasonal patterns, and emerging workforce risks before they impact operations.
• Connect AI-generated insights to operational decisions across staffing, scheduling, and capacity planning.
• Develop and maintain capacity plans, providing recommendations on hiring, staffing, and efficiency improvements for our CX teams.
• Participate in an on-call PagerDuty rotation to monitor and respond to real-time alerts — including system outages, service level breaches, and routing failures — ensuring rapid escalation and resolution during off-hours incidents.
• Design scalable AI-enabled WFM workflows across forecasting, scheduling, and intraday functions.
• Build and maintain AI-powered WFM data pipelines that integrate multiple data sources (volume, AHT, shrinkage) to enable predictive and near-real-time insights.
• Continuously monitor and adjust forecasts using AI-driven models and traditional methods as demand evolves.
• Design governance frameworks for AI-enabled WFM workflows, including monitoring, validation, and escalation processes.
• Partner with Legal, Data, and Product to ensure AI implementations meet organizational standards and compliance requirements.
• Lead cross-functional AI initiatives for WFM, influencing how teams across the organization use AI in planning and operations.
• Facilitate stakeholder meetings on forecasting, capacity planning, and AI adoption progress as member and facilitator aligned to the Operational Rhythm Meeting structure.
• Identify potential risks to workforce capacity and proactively devise contingency plans.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to implement risk mitigation strategies.
• Evaluate and recommend process enhancements to boost efficiency and capacity utilization.
• Analyze data to identify gaps and opportunities within the CX organization.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• AI fluency required: Demonstrated ability to adopt and operationalize AI tools in a WFM or contact center context; designing or implementing AI/ML-powered forecasting, automation, or analytics workflows. Gusto is an AI-forward company and active AI use is expected daily.
• Strong analytical and data visualization skills; demonstrated experience building dashboards and interactive reporting tools to surface WFM insights for operations and leadership; demonstrated analytical skills in volume forecasting, employee workloads, and staffing optimization.
• Excellent judgment, communication, and problem-solving skills — able to translate complex data into clear, actionable recommendations for stakeholders at all levels.
• Familiarity with COPC, ICMI, and/or SWPP standards is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• 7+ years in a capacity planning and forecasting role
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence planning and operations practices across teams
• Experience building or managing data pipelines that integrate multiple WFM data sources (volume, AHT, shrinkage, scheduling)
• Proficiency in data modeling, statistical analysis, and data visualization
• Experience in a high-volume, fast-paced contact center environment
• Experience with BPOs
• Familiarity with AI governance concepts including model monitoring, validation, and responsible AI practices

The cash compensation range for this role is $105,000/yearly to $129,00/yearly in Denver and Las Vegas, and most remote locations, and $98,775/yearly to $121,000/yearly in Phoenix. Remote locations will vary based on our geographical pay approach. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate location, experience and expertise, and may vary from the level and 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.

Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.

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