Senior Software Engineer, Backend - Data Cloud

Rippling

Seattle (WA)

On-site

USD 168,000 - 280,000

Full time

5 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Benefits

Equity

In-office work policy

Job summary

Rippling seeks an experienced backend engineer to join the Data Cloud Team, focusing on distributed engines and large-scale data platforms. You will design, build, test, and optimize backend systems using Python, MongoDB, Kafka, and related big data tech.

Collaboration with architects and senior engineers is essential to shape product direction and delivery. The role emphasizes autonomy, mentorship, and a results-driven mindset in a fast-paced environment, with in-office policy and equity and

Qualifications

6+ years of backend engineering experience.
Experience delivering testable, performant backend code.
Ability to thrive with autonomy in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

Work on distributed processing engines and databases.
Develop high-quality software with Python, MongoDB, Kafka.
Leverage big data technologies like Aurora, Trino, Presto, Pinot, Flink.
Build data platforms, data lakes, and ingestion systems at scale.
Design, develop, code, test software systems and UX.
Collaborate with architects and senior developers on state-of-the-art work.
Contribute to product design and implementation discussions.
Find unique solutions to take projects from idea to production.

Skills

Backend engineering

Mentoring

Autonomy

Distributed systems

Testing

Tools

Python

MongoDB

Kafka

Aurora

Trino

Presto

Flink

Iceberg

Job description

About Rippling

Rippling gives businesses one place to run HR, IT, and Finance. It brings together all of the workforce systems that are normally scattered across a company, like payroll, expenses, benefits, and computers. For the first time ever, you can manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle in a single system. Take onboarding, for example. With Rippling, you can hire a new employee anywhere in the world and set up their payroll, corporate card, computer, benefits, and even third-party apps like Slack and Microsoft 365—all within 90 seconds. Based in San Francisco, CA, Rippling has raised $1.4B+ from the world’s top investors—including Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Greenoaks, and Bedrock—and was named one of America's best startup employers by Forbes. We prioritize candidate safety. Please be aware that all official communication will only be sent from @Rippling.com addresses.

About The Data Cloud Team

Rippling Data Cloud is a new suite of products that aggregates data from across your company into Rippling, connects it to worker identity, and makes it available for analysis, visualization and action. It preserves and enriches data context to enable precise and accurate answers to your most important and nuanced business questions. It's a complete data stack including data connectors, transformations, visualizations, AI-powered analytics, and even inbound Zero-Copy. It understands how all of that data relates to employees, managers, departments, locations, cost centers, permissions, and historical changes in your ever-changing business. That makes it possible to ask questions that traditional BI systems struggle to answer correctly.

Data Cloud and AI are deeply connected in Rippling. Data Cloud is the data infrastructure layer that powers Rippling AI. Here's how they relate:

Data Cloud provides the unified data that AI reasons over:

Rippling AI leverages the Employee Graph and all platform data (payroll rules, earnings types, deduction logic, permissions, etc.) as its source of truthBecause Rippling is a unified platform rather than stitched-together acquisitions, the data is clean, consistent, and complete which makes AI answers accurate and context-awareAI respects the same permissions model as the rest of the platform, so it only surfaces data the user is authorized to see

The Rippling AI unlocks advanced Data Cloud capabilities:

AI Dashboards: build dashboards from scratch using natural language prompts
Transformations: full publish access
Pipelines: ingest data via managed connectors
Lineage & Catalog: explore data lineage for reports
Advanced features: parameters, SQL queries, and the ability to incorporate third-party data

Why this matters

Most HR/Finance systems weren't built for AI. Their data is messy and fragmented. Rippling AI is described as the first "context-aware, senior analyst" for HR and Finance teams because it sits on top of a unified data model (Data Cloud + Employee Graph) that actually understands your business logic end-to-end.

What We Build

The team is focused on the following core domains:

Analytics – Focuses on the reporting and dashboarding products that enable users to visualize and analyze data within Rippling.
Data Access – Owns the query engine (RQL, Rippling Query Language) that powers data retrieval across the platform. This area includes sub-teams responsible for query execution, data ingestion, and query history.
Data Management – Owns the metadata and data catalog layer, including how data assets are discovered, governed, and documented.
Ingest & Prep – Responsible for bringing external data into Rippling. This area includes Managed Connectors (pre-built integrations with third-party systems) and Transformations (data shaping and preparation).
Insights – A newer area within Data Cloud focused on surfacing actionable insights from data.

What You'll Do

Work on distributed processing engines and distributed databases
Develop high-quality software with attention to detail using tech stacks like Python, MongoDB, CDC, and Kafka
Leverage big data technologies like Aurora, Trino, Presto, Pinot, Iceberg, Flink and more.
Build custom programming languages within the Rippling Platform
Create data platforms, data lakes, and data ingestion systems that work at scale
Design, develop, code, and test software systems, improvements, products, and user-facing experiences
Work alongside software architects and senior developers doing state-of-the-art development work
Contribute to product design and implementation discussions
Find and build unique solutions to implement projects from the idea phase to production

What You'll Need

6+ years experience in backend engineering roles
Experience writing testable and performant backend code
Experience working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
Experience mentoring less-experienced developers
Ability to thrive in an environment that grants you a lot of autonomy to explore creative solutions

Additional Information

Rippling is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, or any other legally protected characteristics, Rippling is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities who need assistance during the hiring process. To request a reasonable accommodation, please email accomodations@rippling.com

Rippling highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. For office-based employees (employees who live within a defined radius of a Rippling office), Rippling considers working in the office, at least three days a week under current policy, to be an essential function of the employee's role.