Staff Software Engineer - Data Bridge

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling is assembling founding members for the Data Bridge team to build data systems powering ML models and new product lines. We aim to enable 500+ integrations and support HR, IT, and Benefits products.

You will own end-to-end data ingestion capabilities, build scalable infrastructure, and work with partners across Rippling’s product space. This role emphasizes operational excellence and architectural influence.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend engineering experience.
• Significant leadership experience driving cross-functional projects.
• Expertise building complex distributed services with high availability and SLAs.
• Experience building large-scale APIs and developer tools.
• Strong CS fundamentals and architectural knowledge.
• Passion for product-focused environments with customer impact.
• Experience with distributed data processing frameworks like Spark or Flink.
• Bonus: integrations with 3rd party SaaS and AWS familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Lead mission-critical projects and end-to-end data ingestions with high quality.
• Own one or more products, APIs, or platform spaces.
• Work within central infrastructure to deliver scalable data ingestion systems and data lake architecture.
• Collaborate with partners and customers across domains for feedback.
• Ensure operational excellence and scale platform capabilities across Rippling products.
• Grow engineering skills and tackle hard technical problems.
• Influence architecture and technology choices across the company.

Skills

Distributed systems

Leadership

API design

Backend development

AWS

Tools

Apache Spark

Flink

Observability tooling

Workflow orchestration

Job description

About the role

The Data Bridge team at Rippling is assembling founding members to build data systems that will power ML models and new product lines. Our team is a foundational platform component positioned at the core of Rippling’s compound startup strategy. We’re set to build advanced data systems, enabling Rippling to exceed its current 500+ integrations and solidify its reputation as the go-to for launching groundbreaking HR, IT, and Benefits products.

As the market increasingly rewards organizations that own scaled distribution networks, control extensive data sets, and rapidly bring products to market, Rippling and the Data Bridge team are poised to lead. If you are serious about your craft, eager to establish infrastructure with a long-term impact, and have a focused approach to delivering substantial value quickly, we’d love to have you on the Data Bridge team at Rippling.

What you will do

• Lead mission-critical projects and deliver data ingestions capabilities end-to-end with high quality
• Have clear ownership of one or many products, APIs or platform spaces
• Work within Rippling’s central infrastructure team, responsible for delivering highly scalable distributed data ingestion systems, build a data lake architecture for various downstream systems to consume
• Get exposure to partners and customers in different business domains, who will help provide feedback for your product space
• Ensure operational excellence and scale the platform capabilities to serve many different UCs across Rippling Products.
• Build and grow your engineering skills in different challenging areas and solve hard technical problems
• Influence architecture, technology selections, and trends of the whole company

What you will need

• 8+ years of professional work experience as a backend engineer
• Significant leadership experience driving complex cross-functional projects across teams, product managers, designers, etc
• Expertise in building complex distributed services with high availability and strict SLAs
• Experience building large-scale user-facing applications, APIs, and developer tools
• Strong CS fundamentals, and knowledge of architecture and common design patterns
• You’re passionate about being in a product-focused environment where everyone cares deeply about customer impact
• You have experience of running data processing pipelines in production using distributed data processing frameworks like Apache Spark or Flink.
• Bonus points if you’ve built integrations with 3rd party SaaS providers and workflow orchestration systems
• Bonus points if you’ve previously worked with AWS and have working knowledge of observability tooling

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.