Senior Software Engineer- Payroll Data

Rippling; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity opportunities

Competitive salary

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Rippling, based in San Francisco, is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to own payroll data models and materialization pipelines across 40+ countries. You will drive data contracts, performance optimization, and observability while mentoring teammates in a cross-functional environment.

You will design scalable data architectures for earnings, deductions, taxes, and employer costs, balancing correctness with extensibility and speed. Strong Python/Django background required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience focusing on data modeling, pipelines or data platforms.
• Deep experience designing data models for complex domains with normalization, temporal state, and schema evolution.
• Strong backend fundamentals with Python, Django, or similar stacks.
• Experience building and operating materialization or ETL pipelines at scale.
• Proven ability to design clean data contracts/interfaces used by multiple teams with proper versioning and documentation.
• Strong debugging and problem-solving skills in data-critical systems.

Responsibilities

• Own design and evolution of payroll data models across 40+ countries.
• Architect and scale materialization pipelines for reporting, analytics, filings, and compliance.
• Define and maintain data contracts between the payroll data layer and consumers.
• Tackle complex data modeling, including temporal state and multi-country variation.
• Drive performance optimization for materialization and query paths.
• Improve observability and tooling for data pipelines to detect drift and failures.
• Lead cross-team discussions on schema evolution and materialization strategies.
• Mentor engineers and raise data modeling standards across the team.

Skills

Data modeling

Data pipelines

Backend engineering

Python

Django

Data contracts

Tools

Trino

Iceberg

Job description

Rippling is a company that connects HR, IT and finance systems into a single platform, allowing businesses to manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle. Based in San Francisco, Rippling has raised $1.8B+ from top investors and is recognized as one of America’s best startup employers.

Why This Role

Rippling is looking for a seasoned Senior Software Engineer to join the Payroll Data team, one of the most foundational teams in the Global Payroll organization. In this role you will design and evolve core payroll data models and materialization pipelines that shape the capabilities of the entire payroll product.

What You Will Do

• Own the design and evolution of payroll data models spanning earnings, deductions, taxes, contributions, and employer costs across 40+ countries, balancing correctness, extensibility, and query performance.
• Architect and scale materialization pipelines that transform raw payroll events and configurations into consistent, query‑ready datasets for reporting, analytics, filings, and compliance.
• Define and maintain data contracts between the payroll data layer and its consumers — run management, tax engine, filings, object graph, RQL, and finance reporting — ensuring stability and clarity at every integration boundary.
• Tackle hard data modeling problems including temporal state management, multi‑country regulatory variation, and bitemporal data patterns.
• Drive performance optimization across materialization and query paths, ensuring payroll data is available with the latency, freshness, and correctness guarantees that downstream systems require.
• Improve observability and operational tooling for data pipelines — monitoring for drift, staleness, schema violations, and materialization failures in a system where incorrect data has direct financial consequences.
• Lead cross‑team technical discussions on data model changes, schema evolution, and materialization strategies that affect multiple payroll teams.
• Mentor engineers and raise the team’s standards for data modeling rigor, pipeline reliability, testing, and documentation.
• Shape the long‑term data architecture by working with stakeholders across payroll, platform, and analytics to anticipate new country launches, product features, and reporting requirements.

What You Will Have

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong focus on data modeling, data pipelines, or data platform work.
• Deep experience designing data models for complex, real‑world domains — you think carefully about normalization, temporal state, schema evolution, and trade‑offs between flexibility and query performance.
• Strong backend engineering fundamentals, with experience in Python, Django, or similar stacks.
• Experience building and operating materialization or ETL pipelines — transforming event‑driven or transactional data into consistent, queryable datasets at scale.
• Proven ability to design clean data contracts and interfaces consumed by multiple teams, with attention to backwards compatibility, versioning, and documentation.
• Strong debugging and problem‑solving skills, particularly in systems where data correctness issues surface downstream and require tracing back through multiple layers.
• Comfort working in ambiguous, cross‑functional environments where data model decisions require understanding both technical constraints and business domain nuance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to articulate modeling trade‑offs, align partner teams on schema changes, and document data semantics clearly.
• Experience with payroll, fintech, HR tech, or regulated financial systems is a plus.
• Familiarity with bitemporal data patterns, event sourcing, or analytical query engines (e.g. Trino, Iceberg) is a plus.

Communication matters

This role sits at the intersection of many teams — your ability to define clear abstractions and align stakeholders is as important as your code.

Additional Information

Rippling is an equal‑opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and do not discriminate based on any legally protected characteristic. We are dedicated to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities who need assistance during the hiring process. To request an accommodation, please email [e-mail].

We highly value in‑office collaboration. For employees residing within a defined radius of a Rippling office, working on‑site at least three days a week is considered an essential function of the role.

This position offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, and equity opportunities. The exact salary will be determined based on experience, skills, and location.