Talent Development Leader, Foundational Talent Products
Denver, CO - Hybrid · San Francisco, CA - Hybrid · 8+ years experience · Hybrid · Posted Oct 2, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 8+ years experience
- Workplace
- Hybrid
- Location
- Denver, CO - Hybrid · San Francisco, CA - Hybrid
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
- We are seeking a talent product leader to spearhead the design and development of our enterprise capability framework across both individual contributor and leadership tracks.
- In this high-impact, strategic role, you will architect the foundational engine for our Talent Development function.
- Beyond defining the capability model, you will manage the full product lifecycle of our learning solutions—from user discovery and MVP prototyping to shipping, scaling, and maintaining high-impact learning products.
Responsibilities
- Define the product roadmap for our capability framework, managing it as a live product that evolves based on user needs, performance data, and business strategy across individual contributor and leadership tracks, explicitly embedding AI-native competencies.
- Partner directly with content designers to co-create, build, and ship blended learning experiences, using iterative development cycles to continuously improve and scale solutions in response to evolving business needs.
- Establish the strategic vision for core enablement programs using a hub-and-spoke model, collaborating with curriculum designers and content leads to scale blended learning experiences.
- Own the architectural design for modular content and automated governance, establishing standards for chunking, tagging, and dynamically updating learning objects as source material or business needs evolve.
- Partner closely with HR business partners and executive stakeholders to analyze skill data, validate capabilities, and align learning investments with core business goals.
- Collaborate with People Technology teams to write functional and technical requirements for the capability engine, productizing learning experiences natively within HR tech platforms and daily workflows.
- Partner directly with executive and business leaders across the enterprise to proactively diagnose emerging capability needs, translating complex operational priorities into clear, accessible training and actionable guidance.
Requirements
- Typically 8+ years of progressive experience in Talent Development, Learning Architecture, Technical Instructional Design, or Organizational Design, with a track record of building foundational programs from scratch.
- Ability to establish vision, guide strategic policy development, and architect agile solutions in real time amidst shifting business landscapes.
- Strong strategic judgment and cross-functional fluency, with proven ability to partner with HR business partners and executive leaders to translate complex organizational data into clear capability priorities.
- Expertise in technical instructional design and modular architecture—proficient in structuring, tagging, and object-oriented content design to ensure learning is evergreen, searchable, and adaptable.
- Passionate about leveraging AI and automation to streamline learning design processes and experienced in defining AI-native skills within capability frameworks.
- Exceptional relationship management skills, with a track record of driving strategic consensus across diverse business customers/users and partner teams.
- Thrives in fast-paced, high-growth environments with the agility to establish trusted, scalable learning infrastructure amidst rapid change.
- Experience designing and integrating content across various platforms (e.g., LMS/LXP systems, internal wikis, and workflow-embedded tools).
- Ability to instrument learning assets with data tracking to measure efficacy (e.g., click-through, completion, knowledge gain) and use those insights to iteratively optimize the content.
- Experience integrating generative AI or automation into the content production pipeline—not just as an outcome, but as a tool to speed up prototyping, drafting, or adaptive pathing.
Benefits
- Competitive base pay
- Benefits
- Equity (RSUs)
Workplace
- Hybrid model with office expectations in Denver, San Francisco, or New York City approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role).
- 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, including on non-office days.
Skills
- Instructional Design
- Talent Development
- Organizational Design
- Modular Architecture
- Generative AI
- Automation
- A/B Testing
- Rapid Prototyping
- LMS
- LXP
