Senior Staff Software Engineer, Platform

Senior Staff Engineer

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.

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

This is a deeply technical leadership role for someone who wants to work on foundational systems, tackle difficult architectural problems, and leave a lasting imprint on a rapidly growing engineering organization.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior technical leader within Rippling's engineering organization
• Define and drive the long-term architecture of core platform systems that power dozens of products and hundreds of engineers
• Design highly scalable, reliable, and extensible distributed systems that serve as foundational building blocks across the company
• Lead large, cross-organizational initiatives that span multiple teams, products, and technical domains
• Translate ambiguous business and product requirements into elegant, durable technical solutions
• Drive architectural decisions that impact the future evolution of Rippling's Business Operating System
• Partner closely with senior engineering leaders to shape platform strategy and technical direction
• Build the infrastructure that enables AI systems to securely interact with live business data, workflows, permissions, and operational systems
• Develop core platform primitives that accelerate product development across the company
• Raise the engineering bar through mentorship, design reviews, technical leadership, and operational excellence
• Act as the directly responsible individual (DRI) for some of the company's most critical technical initiatives
• Help define how platform infrastructure evolves to support increasingly intelligent and autonomous software systems

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant experience operating at the Staff or Senior Staff level
• Deep expertise designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems
• Strong experience developing platform infrastructure, shared services, or foundational engineering systems
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across large engineering organizations
• Strong architectural judgment and a track record of designing systems that scale with both business growth and organizational complexity
• Experience building highly reliable backend systems in languages such as Python, Go, Java, or similar
• Strong computer science fundamentals, including distributed systems, concurrency, data modeling, networking, and systems design
• Experience operating in fast-paced, high-growth environments where ambiguity is high and execution speed matters
• Exceptional communication and influence skills, with the ability to align engineers, engineering leaders, and executive stakeholders
• A product mindset and passion for building platforms that unlock leverage for both developers and customers
• Excitement about the role AI will play in transforming enterprise software and the infrastructure required to support it

Qualifications

• Experience building AI-native products
• Experience defining and driving the long-term architecture of core platform systems
• Experience leading large, cross-organizational initiatives
• Experience translating business and product requirements into technical solutions
• Experience designing and building highly reliable backend systems
• Experience operating in fast-paced, high-growth environments
• Experience shaping platform strategy and technical direction
• Experience building core platform primitives
• Experience raising the engineering bar through mentorship and design reviews
• Experience acting as a DRI for critical technical initiatives
• Experience defining how platform infrastructure evolves to support increasingly intelligent systems

Benefits

• Competitive salary + benefits + equity
• Flexible work arrangements, including the option to work from home
• Health insurance, including medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Retirement savings plan with employer match
• Employee assistance program
• Professional development opportunities
• Regular team-building activities and social events
• Flexible vacation policy

Pay

• Salary range: $201,000 - $335,000 CAD per year (CA)
• Salary range: $207,000 - $345,000 USD per year (US)

Schedule

• Full-time position

Company

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 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.