Senior Manager, Contracts Manager and Operations

Senior Manager, Contracts Manager and Operations

Denver, CO;
San Francisco, CA;
New York, NY

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.

Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

We’re looking for a visionary Senior Manager, Contracts Management and Operations to lead the next evolution of how contracting happens s role goes far beyond contract review—it’s about re‑designing how contracting happens at Gusto, using cutting‑edge AI technology and systems, process design, and change leadership to create scalable, intelligent systems.

In this role, you will own Gusto’s vendor contracting process end‑to‑end, while driving AI‑focused transformation across contract operations. You will set the standards, playbooks, and tooling that allow Gusto’s commercial legal function to scale with speed and intelligence as the company grows.

The Legal & Compliance team partners with Gusto teams to enable innovation, facilitate responsible company growth, accelerate the Gusto roadmap, and provide compliant products to our customers, through solution‑focused counsel on legal and business risks. We are passionate about using groundbreaking technology and excellent service to elevate the experience of small business owners and their employees. Each team member is a true owner and makes a tremendous impact every day.

The Commercial Legal team is at the forefront of that mission. We’re responsible for contracting, procurement enablement, and designing the contracting processes, playbooks, and terms frameworks that allow Gusto to grow responsibly  combine legal judgment, process mastery, and forward‑looking technology to do our jobs smarter and better every day. You’ll be joining a team of true owners who thrive on impact—and you’ll play a critical role in taking us into the next generation of commercial legal.

• Define and execute the long‑term vision for contract management and operations, aligning process excellence, technology, and stakeholder experience.
• Drive change management initiatives that reshape how Gusto teams engage with contracts.
• Serve as the bridge between Legal, Procurement, Security, & Engineering to ensure our contracting infrastructure scales intelligently with Gusto’s growth.

• Own Gusto’s high‑volume vendor contracting pipeline—not just by reviewing and negotiating contracts, but by designing and implementing smarter processes that keep pace with a fast‑growing business.
• See the vendor queue as a system to optimize, using thresholds, playbooks, and tooling to separate the routine from the high‑risk.
• Define smart risk taking principles that balance consistency and speed, ensuring contracts move through review and approval quickly while still protecting the company.
• Partner closely with Procurement, Privacy, Security, and other Third Party Risk Management stakeholders to define SLAs and deliver a scalable process.

• Develop and refine templates, playbooks, and approval flows that make our processes faster, smarter, and repeatable.
• Drive efficiency across procurement and cross‑functional teams by embedding scalable workflows.
• Report regularly on metrics—AI adoption, cycle times, execution rates—demonstrating how Commercial Legal accelerates company goals.
• Architect and own the roadmap for contract lifecycle management (CLM), AI review tools, and data systems (we currently use Ironclad and GCAI).
• Identify, pilot, and integrate emerging technologies that automate low‑risk contracts, augment legal decision‑making, and ensure the Commercial Legal team is always on the leading edge of contracting innovation.

• Build a metrics‑first culture—develop KPIs, dashboards,…