Staff Software Engineer - Payroll Calculation

Rippling; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling is seeking a Staff Engineer for the Payroll Calculations team in New York. You will architect and scale the global payroll calculation engine, ensuring accuracy across countries, and lead end-to-end delivery of complex features.

You will mentor engineers, drive performance improvements, and shape the long-term technical vision for this core platform. Strong collaboration with product and HRIS is essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proven track record in building large-scale distributed backend systems.
• Strong expertise in Python and Django.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and architecture decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical architecture for next-gen global payroll calculation engine.
• Own end-to-end delivery of high-impact features from design to production.
• Drive the technical roadmap, tackle performance bottlenecks and refactors.
• Turn ambiguous challenges into concrete plans for the team.
• Mentor engineers and promote best practices for code quality and observability.
• Collaborate with Product Management, HRIS, and other teams to deliver platform-wide solutions.

Skills

8+ yrs exp

Distributed backend

Python & Django

Technical leadership

Product sense

Communication

Lifecycle management

Tools

MongoDB

Job description

About the role

Payroll is the most critical financial transaction between a company and its people. The Rippling Payroll Calculations team is the engine at the heart of this process, responsible for accurately calculating every component of a paycheck—from earnings and deductions to complex taxes and withholdings—for employees worldwide. This engine is mission-critical, processing billions of dollars and integrating deeply with HRIS, Benefits, and Time & Attendance.

We are building this calculation engine to be a scalable, global platform, enabling Rippling to launch new countries rapidly and reliably. As a Staff Engineer on this team, you will be a key technical leader shaping the future of this core platform. You will be responsible for the architecture, scalability, and long-term technical vision of the calculation services. Your work will directly impact our ability to scale globally, ensure 100% accuracy, and build the foundational framework that all other payroll product teams rely on.

What you will do

• Lead technical architecture for the next generation of our global payroll calculation engine, designing scalable frameworks that support operations across multiple countries.
• Own the end-to-end delivery of high-impact, complex features, from initial design and technical specifications through to production deployment and monitoring.
• Drive the technical roadmap for the Calculations team, identifying and tackling performance bottlenecks, reliability improvements, and architectural refactors.
• Take on ambiguous technical challenges (e.g., “design a system to support any country’s tax model”) and turn them into concrete, actionable plans for the team.
• Exercise expert technical judgment in building scalable, maintainable, and extensible systems, ensuring data integrity across complex and interdependent services.
• Raise the engineering bar for the entire organization by mentoring senior and junior engineers, leading in-depth design reviews, and championing best practices for code quality, testing, and observability.
• Collaborate across functions with Product Management, HRIS, and other engineering leaders to deliver cohesive, platform-wide solutions.

What you will need

• 8+ years of professional experience as a software engineer, with a proven track record of technical leadership and driving org-wide impact.
• Expertise in building large-scale, distributed backend systems. Strong proficiency in Python and Django is highly preferred.
• Experience managing the complete project lifecycle , transforming intricate ideas and ambiguous requirements into successful launches independently.
• Deep expertise in system architecture , data modeling, and building core services with clean abstractions.
• A keen product sense and a passion for advocating for the customer, with experience building robust systems that directly impact business-critical flows.
• Outstanding capacity to convey intricate technical concepts clearly and precisely, both in writing and verbally, to diverse functional teams.
• Experience with MongoDB or similar NoSQL databases is a strong plus.

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.