Staff Software Engineer - Data Cloud Applied ML

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Rippling's Data Cloud team is hiring a Staff Software Engineer to architect and build AI platforms for a unified data platform. You will own end-to-end schema retrieval, training pipelines, and RL environments, partnering with AI Platform, Infrastructure, Security, and Product Engineering to scale and de-risk AI features across the workforce system.

You will mentor engineers, drive technical direction, and contribute to multi-team initiatives while ensuring quality, reliability, and performance

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with distributed systems in production.
• Experience deploying and maintaining LLMs in production environments.
• Experience optimizing model inference at scale, including LLMs and embeddings.
• Backend proficiency in Python, Go, or Java.
• Cloud-native infra experience: Kubernetes, containers, observability, reliability.
• Ability to drive cross-functional technical strategy and execution.

Responsibilities

• Build a state-of-the-art schema retrieval system over varied schemas.
• Scale AI training pipelines for data retrieval and model generation.
• Design RL training environments for structured/unstructured data retrieval.
• Develop agent harnesses for safe AI features on Data Cloud.
• Optimize model serving and inference for scale and UX.
• Collaborate with AI Platform, Infra, Security, and Product Eng to define standards.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor engineers across multiple teams.

Skills

Distributed systems

LLMs in production

Backend engineering

Python

Go

Java

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

About the role

Data Cloud is Rippling’s unified data platform that makes operational data across HR, IT, and Finance queryable, governable, and actionable for analytics, reporting, and intelligent product workflows.

We’re hiring a Staff Software Engineer to build the AI platforms within Data Cloud. At Rippling, you aren’t just building an AI feature; you are architecting the intelligence layer for the unified workforce system. This is a high-impact platform role focused on building state of the art systems for schema retrieval, query planning, and execution. You will partner closely with Rippling’s AI Platform team to define shared primitives for model tuning, inference, evaluation, and development of task specific agent harnesses, while owning Data Cloud-specific capabilities that improve quality, reliability, and scale.

What you will do

• Develop a state of the art schema retrieval system that operates over Rippling native and customer defined schema.
• Implement and scale Data Cloud’s AI training pipelines for data retrieval, from designing data generation to managing training clusters.
• Design and build RL training environments for structured and unstructured data retrieval.
• Develop agent harnesses enabling product teams to safely build AI features on Data Cloud.
• Optimize model serving and inference for scale from GPU level performance to agentic user experiences.
• Partner with AI Platform, Infrastructure, Security, and Product Engineering to drive architecture, standards, and rollout plans.
• Lead technical direction, mentor engineers, and drive execution on multi-team, ambiguous initiatives.

What you will need

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including significant ownership of distributed systems in production.
• Experience post training and deploying LLMs in production environments.
• Experience optimizing model inference at scale, particularly with LLMs and embedding models.
• Strong backend engineering skills in one or more languages such as Python, Go, or Java.
• Experience with cloud-native infrastructure (Kubernetes, container orchestration, observability, reliability engineering).
• Ability to drive cross-functional technical strategy and execute through influence across teams.

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.