PEO Sales, Senior Account Executive
About the role
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.
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
Gusto is building its PEO sales org from the ground up, and we're looking for a quota-carrying seller to be one of the founding members of that team. This is a true ground-floor opportunity: you'll be among the first reps closing PEO business at Gusto, working directly with the Head of PEO Sales to prove out and scale the motion. You'll drive new PEO revenue by selling Gusto's co-employment solution to both net-new prospects and our existing base of 400,000+ customers — Gusto's single biggest competitive advantage over legacy PEOs. The market opportunity is real, the pace is fast, and the early sellers on this team will help define what 'good' looks like. Use AI-powered workflows as a core part of how you sell: running assigned tools daily, surfacing friction and inefficiencies as you find them, and collaborating with your team to influence what gets built or improved next. If you're excited to roll up your sleeves, lead by example, and architect something from scratch, let's talk.
About the Team
You'll be an early individual contributor on Gusto's founding PEO sales team, reporting to the Head of PEO Sales. As one of the first sellers, you'll carry a personal book of business, run the full sales cycle end to end, and serve as a Subject Matter Expert who guides prospects through complex co-employment buying decisions. You'll partner closely with HR, benefits, and payroll counterparts to deliver a seamless customer experience, and you'll work alongside the Head of PEO to surface what's working in the field — feedback that directly shapes the playbook, tooling, and pipeline architecture as the org scales. Your biggest unfair advantage: Gusto's existing install base. Like the best scaled PEOs, a meaningful share of your pipeline will come from converting existing payroll customers to PEO — and you'll be one of the first to run that motion at scale.
Here's what you'll do day-to-day
- Own the full sales cycle. Prospect, qualify, run discovery, demo, navigate complex buying groups, and close. This is a quota-carrying role for a seller who's comfortable owning a deal from first touch to signed agreement.
- Sell across both motions. Close net-new prospects and convert existing Gusto payroll customers to PEO. You'll learn the distinct objections, value propositions, and rhythms of in-base selling vs. cold-start prospecting.
- Serve as a PEO Subject Matter Expert. Guide prospects through co-employment, benefits, compliance, and the practical realities of moving onto a PEO. Build and maintain deep knowledge of PEO compliance, co-employment regulations, and applicable state and federal employment law.
- Sell with selling-season fluency. Understand a