Staff Software Engineer - Payroll Processing

Rippling; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 315,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling in San Francisco, CA is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead payroll processing, shaping the core platform that handles billions in payments monthly. You will own architecture, scalability, and long-term technical vision, collaborating with product, payments, risk, and accounting teams to deliver robust, scalable payroll solutions.

The role emphasizes mentoring engineers, driving design reviews, improving observability, and raising the engineering bar across the organization.

Qualifications

• 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.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of projects, while also thriving in a team environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical architecture for the next generation of our global payroll processing engine.
• Own the end-to-end delivery of high-impact, complex features from design to production deployment.
• Drive the technical roadmap for the Payroll processing team and address performance bottlenecks and reliability improvements.
• Tackle ambiguous technical challenges and turn them into actionable plans for the team.
• Exercise expert technical judgment to build scalable, maintainable systems with data integrity.
• Raise the engineering bar by mentoring engineers, leading design reviews, and promoting best practices.
• Collaborate with Product, Payments, Risk, Accounting and other engineering leaders on platform-wide solutions.

Skills

8+ years experience

Distributed backend

Python

Django

Leadership

Architecture

Product sense

Communication

Tools

MongoDB

Job description

Staff Software Engineer - Payroll Processing

About this position

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

Payroll is the most critical financial transaction between a company and its people. The Rippling Payroll Processing is a core platform team responsible for all payments, banking, accounting and reporting functions in Payroll. This includes making sure the right amount is paid to each employee at the right time. To further enhance the integrity and efficiency of our operations, our team integrates robust risk management to prevent fraudulent activities. We manage core payment adjustment infrastructures and different funding/payment methods. We also ensure payroll & payments data is readily available to employees and admins via pay stubs, accounting integration, payroll journals, debit summaries, etc. We provide an unique opportunity for highly motivated individuals to work and ship impactful, user-facing, and challenging projects end-to-end.

As a Staff Engineer on this team, you will be a key technical leader shaping the future of this core platform which processes billions of dollars every month. You will be responsible for the architecture, scalability, and long-term technical vision of these services. Your work will directly impact our ability to scale globally.

What you will do

• Lead technical architecture for the next generation of our global payroll processing 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 Payroll processing team, identifying and tackling performance bottlenecks, reliability improvements, and architectural refactors.
• Take on ambiguous technical challenges 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, Payments, Risk, Accounting 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.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of projects, while also thriving in a team environment.

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.

*Commission is not guaranteed

The pay range for this role is: 180,000 - 315,000 USD per year(US)