Senior Software Engineer, RQL

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling is seeking a backend engineer to help evolve distributed processing engines and databases. You will work across product and platform layers, delivering scalable services used by 10+ product teams.

You will write testable, high-performance backend code in Python, work with MongoDB, CDC, Kafka, and big data tech like Aurora, Trino, Presto, Pinot, Iceberg and Flink, and mentor junior developers in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience
• Experience writing testable, performant backend code
• Experience in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Experience mentoring less-experienced developers
• Ability to thrive with autonomy and creative problem solving

Responsibilities

• Work on distributed processing engines and databases
• Develop high-quality backend software using Python, MongoDB, CDC, and Kafka
• Leverage big data tech like Aurora, Trino, Presto, Pinot, Iceberg, Flink
• Build custom languages within the Rippling Platform
• Create data platforms, data lakes, and data ingestion systems that scale
• Design, develop, code, and test software systems and user-facing experiences
• Collaborate with architects and senior developers on advanced projects
• Contribute to product design and implementation discussions
• Find and implement solutions from idea to production

Skills

Backend engineering

Testing

Mentoring

Autonomy

Tools

Python

MongoDB

CDC

Kafka

Aurora

Trino

Presto

Pinot

Iceberg

Flink

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 Role

The Platform team is responsible for developing core services and cross‑cutting products that form the building blocks at Rippling. Other engineering teams at Rippling leverage these fundamental Lego blocks to create complex products on top of them.
The team owns the analytics, customizable workflows, data platform, reporting, permissions, and custom fields products. All these projects have customer‑facing product components and core platform components supporting 10+ product teams. This is a unique opportunity to work on both product and platform layers at the same time.
At Rippling, we want users to configure and customize our features/products without complexity. Therefore, we’ve created a new language called Rippling Query Language (RQL) which allows our customers to write Queries and scripts to create Formula Fields inside of our analytics suite, applications in Data Cloud and extend functionality elsewhere across Rippling.
RQL internally has its own grammar, parser, query translator, distributed query processing engine, and a distributed datastore. You will work on challenging technical challenges like distributed systems and big data technologies.

What You Will 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 Will Need

• 5+ 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 [e-mail]
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.
This role will receive a competitive salary + benefits + equity. The salary for US‑based employees will be aligned with one of the ranges below based on location; see which tier applies to your location here.

The pay range for this role is:

168,000 - 280,000 USD per year(US Tier 1)