Senior AI Platform Architect & Leader

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling, based in San Francisco, seeks a Senior Staff Software Engineer to own broad AI platform charters and lead foundational systems across AI capabilities. You will design, review, and implement back-end infrastructure, ensuring scalability and reliability while mentoring engineers.

Strong backend expertise and experience in large-scale systems are essential; AI/ML background is a plus but not mandatory.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience.
• Deep hands-on coding ability; design, review, debug and write code regularly.
• Strong programming knowledge in Python, Java, Go, C++, Scala, Kotlin or C#.
• Proven experience owning broad, ambiguous technical charters across multiple systems.
• Strong architecture and system design depth for large-scale production systems.
• Strong technical judgment across scale, latency, observability and production ops.
• Ability to define direction while staying closely connected to implementation.
• Ability to influence and lead without formal authority.
• High intellectual horsepower, fast learning, comfortable in ambiguity.
• Strong product/platform judgment and link between tech decisions and business impact.
• AI/ML background is a strong plus; experience in AI platform infra is valuable.

Responsibilities

• Own broad AI Platform charters across multiple systems and teams.
• Lead architecture and execution for foundational AI platform systems.
• Build and guide work across AI platform infrastructure and model-related infra.
• Support AI capabilities across payroll, benefits, HR products, talent, IT and data cloud.
• Lead without formal authority while remaining execution-focused.
• Write, review, debug production code and prototype solutions.
• Partner with Product, Infra, Platform, AI and senior engineers to scale AI systems.
• Mentor engineers and raise engineering standards across design, coding and reliability.
• Define reusable platform primitives for Rippling product teams.
• Help shape the long-term technical foundation for Rippling AI.

Skills

12+ years of software engineering

Python

Java

Go

C++

Scala

Kotlin

C#

design & debugging

Job description

Rippling, based in San Francisco, seeks a Senior Staff Software Engineer to own broad AI platform charters and lead foundational systems across AI capabilities. You will design, review, and implement back-end infrastructure, ensuring scalability and reliability while mentoring engineers.

Strong backend expertise and experience in large-scale systems are essential; AI/ML background is a plus but not mandatory.