Staff Software Engineer - Rippling AI

Overview

Ripping gives businesses one place to manage HR, IT, and Finance. It integrates all of the workforce systems into a single system.

About the Role

Join Rippling, a San Francisco-based company that has raised $1.4B+ from top investors and was named one of America's best startup employers by Forbes. We prioritize candidate safety and are committed to building an autonomous operating system for work.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end technical architecture for high-impact AI platform initiatives from design through production
• Lead a cross-functional pod of highly talented engineers, interacting with product, infra, and platform organizations
• Build scalable agent infrastructure that automates repetitive, high-frequency workflows across Rippling's product surface
• Design systems that are observable, self-correcting, and capable of improving over time with minimal human intervention
• Develop harness and platform capabilities that encode business logic and institutional knowledge into reliable, automated workflows
• Partner closely with Product to ensure AI-powered surfaces are trustworthy, controllable, and intuitive for end users and admins
• Mentor engineers across the org, establish best practices for AI platform development, and raise the technical bar broadly
• Track the frontier, translate model capability improvements into architectural decisions and move quickly when new approaches unlock better outcomes

Requirements

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with a proven track record of technical leadership and org-wide impact
• Deep expertise in platform and distributed systems engineering — you've built reliable, observable, large-scale systems
• Strong hands-on coding skills, you are an active contributor in the codebase alongside your leadership responsibilities
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional technical initiatives and driving alignment across multiple teams
• Strong product instincts, you translate ambiguous problems into durable platform capabilities and partner effectively with product teams
• Clear, precise communication to diverse audiences, both written and verbal
• Comfort with ambiguity and high velocity, the roadmap evolves as the technology evolves

Qualifications

• Recent hands-on experience building AI agents is a plus

Benefits

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities who need assistance during the hiring process. To request a reasonable accommodation, please email accommodations@rippling.com

Pay

The pay range for this role is: 198,000 - 330,000 USD per year (US San Francisco Bay Area) 198,000 - 330,000 USD per year (US Tier 1)

Schedule

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.