Senior Backend Platform Engineer (Distributed Systems)

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 189,000 - 315,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling in San Francisco, CA is seeking a senior backend engineer to help build scalable core services on the Platform team, participating in both product and platform layers.

You will design and implement distributed systems using Python, MongoDB, CDC, Kafka, and big data tools, with autonomy and collaboration across 10+ product teams. This role offers strong ownership and opportunities to influence architecture and developer experience.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in backend engineering.
• Experience writing testable, performant backend code.
• Experience in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Ability to mentor junior developers and work with autonomy.

Responsibilities

• Work on distributed processing engines and databases.
• Develop high-quality software using stacks like Python, MongoDB, CDC, and Kafka.
• Leverage big data technologies (Aurora, Trino/Presto, Pinot, Iceberg, Flink).
• Build data platforms, data lakes, and ingestion systems at scale.
• Design, develop, test, and improve software and user-facing experiences.
• Collaborate with architects and senior developers on state-of-the-art projects.
• Contribute to product design and implementation discussions.
• Turn ideas into production-ready solutions.

Skills

8+ years experience

Backend development

Testable code

Mentoring

Autonomy

Tools

Python

MongoDB

CDC

Kafka

Job description

Rippling in San Francisco, CA is seeking a senior backend engineer to help build scalable core services on the Platform team, participating in both product and platform layers.

You will design and implement distributed systems using Python, MongoDB, CDC, Kafka, and big data tools, with autonomy and collaboration across 10+ product teams. This role offers strong ownership and opportunities to influence architecture and developer experience.