Senior Staff Software Engineer, Platform

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 260,000 - 340,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to shape the future of its platform and AI infrastructure. You will define architecture across core platform services, drive scalable systems, and influence hundreds of engineers working on HR, IT, and FinTech products.

You will lead cross‑functional initiatives, mentor engineers, and ensure secure, reliable data interactions across live business data, workflows, and permissions. This is a deeply technical leadership role at scale.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience at senior levels.
• Deep expertise designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience building platform infrastructure or shared services.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across large teams.
• Strong architectural judgment and scalable system design experience.
• Experience with Python, Go, Java, or similar backend languages.
• Strong CS fundamentals: distributed systems, concurrency, data modeling, networking.
• Experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments with ambiguity.
• Exceptional communication and influence across engineers and leaders.
• Product mindset with a focus on enabling developers and customers.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior technical leader within Rippling's engineering organization.
• Define and drive long-term architecture of core platform systems powering products and engineers.
• Design scalable, reliable distributed systems as foundational blocks across the company.
• Lead cross-organizational initiatives spanning multiple teams and domains.
• Translate ambiguous requirements into durable technical solutions.
• Drive architectural decisions shaping Rippling's platform and AI infrastructure.
• Partner with senior leaders to shape platform strategy and direction.
• Build infrastructure enabling AI systems to securely interact with live data and systems.
• Develop core platform primitives to accelerate product development.
• Raise engineering bar via reviews, mentorship and operational excellence.
• Act as the DRI for critical technical initiatives.

Skills

Distributed systems

Platform infrastructure

Technical leadership

Architectural judgment

Backend systems

Python/Go/Java

CS fundamentals

High-growth environments

Communication skills

Product mindset

AI in enterprise

Job description

Senior Staff Software Engineer, Platform

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

Most companies build applications.

Platform Engineering at Rippling builds the systems that make entire categories of applications possible.

We're hiring a Senior Staff Engineer to help define the future of Rippling's core platform and AI infrastructure. This is a rare opportunity to work on foundational systems that sit at the center of the company and influence nearly every product, engineering team, and customer experience.

Rippling's platform is unlike a traditional infrastructure stack. At its core is a dynamically stitched, permissions‑aware business ontology that connects data, workflows, identities, permissions, and business processes across HR, IT, Finance, and Operations. Built on top of that foundation are the systems that power our Object Platform, event‑driven dependency graph, workflow engine, search capabilities, developer ecosystem, and Rippling Query Language (RQL).

As AI becomes deeply embedded across the product suite, these platform systems become even more critical. Every AI experience at Rippling must operate against live business data, respect complex permission boundaries, understand organizational context, and execute actions safely and reliably. The infrastructure enabling those capabilities is being built today.

As a Senior Staff Engineer, you'll help define the architecture that powers both Rippling's platform and its next generation of AI-native products. You'll solve distributed systems challenges at significant scale, drive company‑wide technical strategy, and influence how hundreds of engineers build software across the organization.

This is a deeply technical leadership role for someone who wants to work on foundational systems, tackle difficult architectural problems, and leave a lasting imprint on a rapidly growing engineering organization.

What You Will Do

• Serve as a senior technical leader within Rippling's engineering organization
• Define and drive the long‑term architecture of core platform systems that power dozens of products and hundreds of engineers
• Design highly scalable, reliable, and extensible distributed systems that serve as foundational building blocks across the company
• Lead large, cross‑organizational initiatives that span multiple teams, products, and technical domains
• Translate ambiguous business and product requirements into elegant, durable technical solutions
• Drive architectural decisions that impact the future evolution of Rippling's Business Operating System
• Partner closely with senior engineering leaders to shape platform strategy and technical direction
• Build the infrastructure that enables AI systems to securely interact with live business data, workflows, permissions, and operational systems
• Develop core platform primitives that accelerate product development across the company
• Raise the engineering bar through mentorship, design reviews, technical leadership, and operational excellence
• Act as the directly responsible individual (DRI) for some of the company's most critical technical initiatives
• Help define how platform infrastructure evolves to support increasingly intelligent and autonomous software systems

What You Will Need

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant experience operating at the Staff or Senior Staff level
• Deep expertise designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems
• Strong experience developing platform infrastructure, shared services, or foundational engineering systems
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across large engineering organizations
• Strong architectural judgment and a track record of designing systems that scale with both business growth and organizational complexity
• Experience building highly reliable backend systems in languages such as Python, Go, Java, or similar
• Strong computer science fundamentals, including distributed systems, concurrency, data modeling, networking, and systems design
• Experience operating in fast‑paced, high‑growth environments where ambiguity is high and execution speed matters
• Exceptional communication and influence skills, with the ability to align engineers, engineering leaders, and executive stakeholders
• A product mindset and passion for building platforms that unlock leverage for both developers and customers
• Excitement about the role AI will play in transforming enterprise software and the infrastructure required to support it

Why This Role Is Unique

Very few companies are attempting to build what Rippling is building.

You'll work on the foundational systems that power an integrated Business Operating System spanning HR, IT, Finance, Identity, and Operations. You'll help architect the platform that enables hundreds of engineers to build products faster, while simultaneously defining the infrastructure that powers the next generation of AI experiences across the company.

The systems you design won't support a single product or team. They'll become part of the foundation that every product at Rippling is built upon.

If you're excited by hard distributed systems problems, platform architecture at scale, and helping define how AI interacts with real‑world business systems, we'd love to talk.

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 .

A variety of factors are considered when determining someone’s compensation–including a candidate’s professional background, experience, and location. Final offer amounts may vary from the amounts listed below.