US Managed Payroll Lead - Build & Scale

Rippling, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 73,000 - 105,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive salary

Job summary

Rippling, Inc. is expanding its Managed Payroll in the US and seeks a Lead to own and scale the effort. You will run payroll operations, build client relationships, and shape the operating model from the ground up while maintaining service quality.

You will lead a hands-on team, drive automation initiatives, and collaborate with Product and Engineering to prioritize features. This role blends leadership with execution in a fast-paced, AI-forward environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on US managed or outsourced payroll experience, covering multi-state processing.
• 2+ years in a team lead, supervisor, or manager role within a payroll service delivery environment.
• Demonstrated experience standing up or materially improving a team, process, or service — not just inheriting and maintaining one.
• Strong working knowledge of federal and state payroll regulations, including tax withholding, garnishments, benefits deductions, and leave compliance.
• Proven ability to manage client-facing relationships at a senior level, including navigating escalations and difficult conversations.
• Comfortable working in fast-moving, ambiguous environments — you make decisions with incomplete information and course-correct quickly.
• A builder’s mindset: you document what you learn, close gaps proactively, and leave things better than you found them.
• Genuine comfort with technology and automation; experience contributing to tooling decisions or product feedback loops is a strong plus.
• Proficiency in Google Workspace and/or Microsoft Excel; experience with Salesforce, JIRA, or similar tools is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a US Managed Payroll team, scaling capacity as the customer portfolio grows.
• Own payroll execution and client relationships for key accounts with focus on accuracy and service quality.
• Define and implement the operating model, SOPs, playbooks, escalation frameworks, and onboarding materials.
• Identify tooling and automation opportunities, collaborating with Product and Engineering to prioritize them.
• Maintain hands-on involvement in payroll during early program stages and complex accounts.
• Set performance expectations, coach the team, and foster continuous improvement.
• Partner with Product/Engineering on roadmap input and testing of new features.
• Manage cross-functional escalations with Sales, Implementation, Compliance, and Legal.
• Monitor SLAs, accuracy, client satisfaction, and team capacity to drive decisions.

Skills

Payroll management

Team leadership

Client relationships

Regulatory compliance

Automation mindset

Google Workspace

Excel

Tools

Salesforce

JIRA

Job description

Rippling, Inc. is expanding its Managed Payroll in the US and seeks a Lead to own and scale the effort. You will run payroll operations, build client relationships, and shape the operating model from the ground up while maintaining service quality.

You will lead a hands-on team, drive automation initiatives, and collaborate with Product and Engineering to prioritize features. This role blends leadership with execution in a fast-paced, AI-forward environment.