Staff Software Engineer - Search Platform

Rippling; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Rippling is seeking a senior backend/platform engineer to own architecture for Search. You will design cross-platform primitives powering the next generation of Rippling features and partner with product leadership to shape the roadmap.

Lead the indexing, retrieval, relevance, and query performance at scale while collaborating with Data Cloud, platform, and AI teams to build shared search primitives across Rippling’s products.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in backend/platform engineering with ownership of distributed systems.
• Deep experience in search infrastructure and relevance tuning.
• Strong systems design fundamentals for storage, indexing, and query execution.
• Experience with data platforms and large-scale ingestion/serving paths.
• Proficiency in Python, Go, or Java.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the technical vision for Rippling search systems, including indexing pipelines and ranking.
• Tackle open-ended challenges in hybrid retrieval and semantic/vector search.
• Build and operate high-performance infrastructure capable of scaling with low latency.
• Define relevance strategy, offline benchmarks, and production monitoring.
• Build reusable search platform abstractions used by multiple Rippling products.
• Elevate engineering through design reviews, mentorship, and best-in-class standards.

Skills

Distributed systems

Search infrastructure

Backend languages (Python/Go/Java)

Systems design

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

OpenSearch/Elasticsearch

Lucene/Solr

Job description

About the role

You will be the primary technical authority for Search at Rippling, designing cross-platform search primitives that will power the next generation of our product features. You will partner with the Product leadership to influence the roadmap, ensuring Search capabilities are a competitive advantage for our product suite. You will own architecture and execution for indexing, retrieval, relevance/ranking, and query performance at scale. You’ll partner across with Product leadership Data Cloud, platform, and AI/product teams to build shared search primitives that power multiple product surfaces.

What you will do

• Define and lead the technical vision for Rippling search systems: indexing pipelines, query serving, ranking/relevance, and retrieval quality measurement
• Tackle open-ended challenges in hybrid retrieval, semantic/vector search, and metadata ranking to push the boundaries of what our platform can do.
• Build and operate resilient, high-performance infrastructure (OpenSearch/Elasticsearch) capable of supporting 10x scale growth while maintaining rigorous standards for latency, freshness, correctness and cost-efficiency.
• Define relevance strategy and evaluation: offline benchmarks, quality metrics, and production monitoring.
• Build reusable search platform abstractions used by multiple Rippling products.
• Elevate the entire engineering organization through strategic design reviews, mentorship, and the establishment of "best-in-class" operational standards.

What you will need

• 8+ years in backend/platform engineering with ownership of distributed systems in production.
• Deep experience in search infrastructure (OpenSearch/Elasticsearch/Solr/Lucene-style systems), indexing, and relevance tuning.
• Strong systems design fundamentals: storage/index design, query execution, performance optimization, and reliability engineering.
• Experience with data platforms and schema-rich systems, including large-scale ingestion and serving paths.
• Proficiency in at least one backend language (Python, Go, or Java).
• Strong cross-functional execution and ability to lead ambiguous multi-team platform initiatives.

Nice to have

• Hybrid retrieval, semantic/vector search, or ML-assisted ranking experience.
• Experience with analytics/query ecosystems (e.g., Trino/Presto, Kafka, Iceberg, Spark).
• Experience building discoverability products such as catalog search, field selection, metadata ranking.

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.