Principal Data Scientist - Product

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.

About the Role

Gusto is looking for highly skilled, motivated Data Scientists with extensive experience (10+ years) applying their expertise in a business environment. As a Principal Data Scientist, you will play a crucial role in leveraging experimentation, statistical inference, and causal analysis to drive strategic decision making that contributes to the overall success of our organization. The ideal candidate is a trusted data storyteller with strong statistical and coding skills, and a passion for applying these skills to help small businesses thrive.

In this role you will work closely with our Product, Engineering, Design, Finance, and other Data teams to become an expert in the data for your domain, define and track metrics that help us understand our business performance, and dive deep into our Payroll, Benefits, and HR 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.

Here's what you'll do day-to-day :

Strategic Leadership : Shape the analytical strategy for a major product or business area. Identify high-leverage opportunities, set long-term measurement and experimentation direction, and align executive stakeholders around data-driven priorities.

Execution Excellence : Drive and execute on org-level analytical roadmaps that shape company strategy. Achieve alignment and ensure consistent analytical rigor and metric integrity across product domains.

Scaled Impact : In addition to being an expert in statistical methods and driving impact through execution, you will drive frameworks for experimentation, causal analysis, and metric design that scale across multiple teams and influence org-wide decision quality.

Thought Partnership : Serve as a trusted advisor to senior product, engineering, and business leaders. Anticipate emerging questions, proactively define success measures, and advocate for data-informed strategy across the org.

Analytical Innovation : Push the boundaries of statistical modeling, experimentation, and AI-assisted analytics. Design methods and tools that expand how Gusto leverages data to drive customer and business impact.

Mentorship : Mentor and coach more junior data scientists, raising the bar for analytical thinking and storytelling.

Here's what we're looking for :

10+ years of experience in Data Science at a product-focused software company.

Strong SQL and Python skills.

Proven ability to apply statistical methods, causal inference, and experimental design to real business problems.

Experience developing Machine Learning models is a plus.

Excellent communication skills, with a track record of influencing cross-functional stakeholders and leadership.

Demonstrated experience leading large, technically complex projects with clear business impact.

A proactive, resilient problem-solver who independently structures ambiguous problems into actionable insights.

Passion for mentoring others and raising the bar for data science craft across the team.

BS / MS / PhD in a quantitative field (Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, Applied Math, etc.) or equivalent industry experience.

Compensation

Our cash compensation range is $170,000–$210,000 per year in Denver, $185,000–$225,000 in Los Angeles, and $200,000–$240,000 for San Francisco, Seattle and New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise.

Work Location

Employees based in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City are expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2–3 days per week. The same expectations apply to all Gusto roles in these locations.

EEO Statement

Gusto is 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 and related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other 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.

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