Principal Product Manager, Payments

Gusto is on a mission to grow the small business economy by providing essential services like payroll and HR. They are seeking a Principal Product Manager to lead the development of their financial ledger system and transaction reconciliation process, ensuring compliance and data integrity for small and medium businesses.

Responsibilities:

• Ownership: You will own the roadmap for building a scalable and compliant ledger system for tracking money movement at Gusto
• North Star: Your goal is to build a system that is accurate and compliant that continues to ensure our reputation as a trusted party with customers, regulators, and partners
• Collaborate: You will work closely with our application teams, accounting, engineering, and data team to drive the roadmap
• Product Strategy & Roadmap: Define and champion the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for the ledger system and transaction reconciliation processes. This includes understanding internal stakeholder needs (Finance, Audit, Legal), regulatory requirements (GAAP, SOX), and industry best practices
• Requirements Gathering & Prioritization: Conduct in-depth analysis of current financial workflows, identify control gaps, and translate complex regulatory requirements into clear, actionable product specifications and user stories. Prioritize features based on business impact, risk mitigation, and development effort
• System Thinking: Collaborate closely with engineering, finance, and internal audit teams to design and build a scalable, reliable, and auditable ledger system. This includes defining end to end transaction flows, data models, integration points with existing systems (e.g., payroll processing, general ledger), and reporting capabilities
• Transaction Reconciliation Ownership: Develop and implement a comprehensive and automated transaction reconciliation system to ensure accuracy and completeness across all financial transactions. This includes defining reconciliation and classification rules, identifying discrepancies, and establishing clear workflows for investigation and resolution
• Regulatory Compliance & Audit Support: Ensure the developed systems and processes meet all relevant SOX requirements and other applicable financial regulations. Act as the primary product liaison during internal and external audits, providing documentation and explanations as needed
• IT General Controls (ITGC) Integration: Work closely with IT and audit teams to incorporate ITGC best practices, including role-based access control (RBAC), segregation of duties (SoD), change management, and logical access controls, into the design and functionality of the compliance ledger and reconciliation systems
• Partner Management: Model a collaboration and deep customer empathy while communicating product plans, progress, and challenges to a diverse set of stakeholders, including executive leadership, finance, engineering, legal, and audit teams. Foster strong collaborative relationships across departments
• Performance Monitoring & Optimization: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) for the ledger and reconciliation systems. Monitor performance, identify areas for improvement, and drive continuous optimization
• Risk Management: Proactively identify potential risks related to financial data integrity and compliance, and develop mitigation strategies within the product roadmap
• Applied AI Usage: Develop automated accounting reconciliation systems that streamline and enhance manual tasks

Requirements:

• 8+ years of product management experience, with a proven track record of successfully delivering complex financial or compliance-focused software products
• Strong understanding of financial accounting principles, general ledger systems, and transaction lifecycle
• Deep knowledge of GAAP and PCAOB compliance requirements and experience in building systems that meet them is essential
• Proficiency in SQL
• Experience with building and optimizing transaction reconciliation processes, ideally in a high-volume environment
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to translate complex business problems into clear, concise product requirements
• Exceptional communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively with diverse teams
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Computer Science, or a related field
• Familiarity with the payroll industry and its unique financial complexities is highly desirable
• Ideally, holds a CPA, CFA, or CMA certification
• Experience working at a fintech company, particularly in the payroll or payments space
• Experience with enterprise-grade accounting software (e.g., NetSuite, SAP, Oracle Financials)
• Experience with data analytics tools and reporting platforms
• Familiarity with IT General Controls (ITGC) and best practices, including role-based access control (RBAC) and segregation of duties (SoD)