Staff Software Engineer - Payroll Data

Overview

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.

Responsibilities

• Architect and Build Core Data Systems: Design and implement scalable data infrastructure and pipelines that power payroll reports, pay stubs, tax and accounting integrations, billing, and AI use cases.
• Define the Unified Query Layer: Partner with other Staff and Principal engineers to design and evolve a cohesive data query layer that spans batch and real-time processing, reducing fragmentation and enabling consistent access patterns.
• Own End-to-End Data Pipelines: Build and maintain ETL and streaming pipelines, owning data correctness, schema evolution, backfills, and lifecycle management across upstream and downstream systems.
• Drive Non-Functional Excellence: Lead by example in building systems that are observable, debuggable, scalable, and reliable. Set standards for monitoring, logging, alerting, and data quality checks.
• Solve Deep Interoperability Problems: Tackle complex challenges at the boundaries between Payroll Data and other core systems (Object Graph, Reporting, RQL, AI), ensuring clean abstractions and long-term extensibility.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Act as a technical multiplier—review designs, unblock other engineers, mentor senior engineers, and raise the overall technical bar of the team.
• Partner Cross-Functionally: Work closely with Product, Platform, AI, and other Payroll teams to translate product needs into robust platform capabilities while influencing roadmaps with data-informed tradeoffs.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with demonstrated impact on complex backend or data-intensive systems.
• Strong data infrastructure background, including experience with data pipelines, ETL/ELT systems, or large-scale data platforms.
• Expertise in distributed systems, with an understanding of tradeoffs across batch vs. real-time processing, data materialization, and aggregation strategies.
• Proficiency in a modern backend language (e.g., Go, Java, Python) and comfort working across multiple systems and services.
• Experience with transactional and analytical data stores, and optimizing schemas and queries for correctness and performance.
• Platform mindset, with a track record of building reusable abstractions and primitives consumed by many teams or products.
• Operational rigor, including hands-on experience designing for observability, reliability, and debuggability in production systems.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts and influence design decisions across teams.
• Ownership and autonomy, balanced with collaboration—comfortable leading large initiatives while partnering effectively with others.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Experience with NoSQL databases like Cassandra, MongoDB, or DynamoDB.
• Experience with data warehousing tools like Snowflake, Redshift, or BigQuery.
• Experience with data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, or Looker.
• Experience with machine learning and AI frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Scikit-Learn.

Skills

• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to think critically.
• Experience with data modeling and database design.
• Experience with data security and compliance practices.
• Experience with data governance and data privacy regulations.

Benefits

• Competitive salary + benefits + equity.
• Flexible work schedule.
• Health insurance coverage.
• Retirement savings plan.
• Professional development opportunities.
• Employee referral program.
• Remote work options for eligible employees.

Pay

• The pay range for this role is: 180,000 - 315,000 USD per year (US San Francisco Bay Area).

Schedule

• This role will receive a competitive salary + benefits + equity.

About the 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.