Y Combinator Expansion Account Manager Leader
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
As the Leader of Account Management, you'll manage a team of 12+ Account Managers who own the full customer lifecycle post-sale, from value based selling through to activation and adoption. The measure of success in this role is Net Dollar Retention: durable expansion revenue, value realization and retention. This is a people-leadership role first — you'll coach your team toward AI-native ways of working, not just AI-aware, and hold a genuinely high performance bar for a team built to own outcomes end to end.
About the Team
The Account Management team helps small businesses get real value out of Gusto's products. Each team understands their entire book of business and anticipates their needs, identifies growth opportunities as they occur, builds and develops pipeline and positions the right solution for each customer. From there they drive activation and adoption leading to customer value realization and retention. You'll join a peer group of experienced leaders and should expect your team's size and scope to grow over time as we continue investing in this team.
Here's what you'll do day-to-day:
Leadership & Team Performance
- Lead and develop a high-performing Account Management team, holding a high bar for both value based selling, revenue results and coaching quality.
- Run a weekly cadence of forecast calls, pipeline review, and activity coaching (dials, connects, and other lead indicators) that ties directly to revenue outcomes.
- Drive goal setting, sales strategy, and hands-on coaching to exceed expansion and retention targets.
- Set and drive team-level AI adoption goals; model AI-fluent workflows for your team.
Revenue Growth & Full-Lifecycle Ownership
- Build and manage a proactive outbound motion that drives expansion revenue across your team's book.
- Ensure your team stays engaged post-sale, driving product activation, adoption, and utilization to convert expansion into durable retention.
- Optimize sales processes and KPIs across the full funnel, from expansion to retention.
Operational Excellence & Strategic Execution
- Leverage customer and usage data to refine segmentation, targeting, and account strategy.
- Know your numbers: report pipeline, forecast, and performance data up to the business clearly and regularly.
- Implement tools and workflows, including AI, to boost team productivity and efficiency, with quality.
Here's what we're looking for:
- 5+ years leading high-performing SaaS/tech Account Management or Sales teams, with a track record of driving expansion revenue, retention, and quota attainment.
- Proven ability to own the full customer lifecycle — from outbound prospecting and value based - consultative selling through post-sale activation and adoption strategies that drive measurable retention.
- Expertise in value based selling, sales coaching, pipeline management and forecasting.
- Comfortable holding a consistent high performance bar.
- Strong business acumen — able to produce pipeline, forecasting, and performance data and use it to coach a team and report clearly to leadership.
- Thrives in fast-paced, high-growth environments with strong change management skills.
- Excellent cross-functional communication and influence abilities.
- Proven, day-to-day experience integrating AI into how you work and lead. Track record of driving AI adoption and fluency within a team.
Our cash compensation range for this role is $144,000 to $220,000 OTE in Denver & Atlanta. $127,000 to $213,000 OTE for Phoenix. 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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