Staff Software Engineer - Search Platform

Technical Overview

Rippling provides a unified platform for managing HR, IT, and Finance operations. Key features include:

• Hiring a new employee and setting up payroll, corporate cards, computers, benefits, and third-party apps like Slack and Microsoft 365 within 90 seconds.
• Named one of America's best startup employers by Forbes.
• Prioritizes candidate safety with official communications only from @Ripping.com addresses.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Requirements

• 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.
• 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.

Qualifications

• 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.
• 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.

Benefits

• Competitive salary + benefits + equity.
• Office-based employees must work at least three days a week.

Pay

• Salary range: 189,000 - 315,000 USD per year (US Tier 1)

Schedule

• Flexible work schedule.

Skills

• Backend Platform Engineering
• Search Infrastructure
• Relevance Tuning
• Data Platforms
• Backend Languages (Python, Go, Java)
• Analytics/Query Ecosystems (Trino/Presto, Kafka, Iceberg, Spark)
• Discoverability Products (Catalog Search, Field Selection, Metadata Ranking)

Benefits

• Candidate Safety
• Equal Opportunity Employer
• Reasonable Accommodations

Company Culture

• Collaborative Work Environment
• Company Culture