Staff Software Engineer - Variable Compensation

About Rippling

Rippling offers a unified workforce platform that integrates HR and IT functions such as payroll, benefits, computer provisioning, and applications management. It simplifies employee onboarding by automating many tasks, enabling setup of payroll, health insurance, and software access within 90 seconds. Headquartered in San Francisco, Rippling has secured $1.8B in funding from top global investors and was recognized by Forbes as one of the country's top startup employers.

Variable Compensation Team

This team develops an AI-driven compensation platform that intersects Finance, HR, and Artificial Intelligence to innovate the management and distribution of performance-based pay. It is divided into key areas: building a flexible compensation engine, payment orchestration systems, AI-driven plan design and explainability features.

Technical Challenges

• Engineering highly scalable systems processing millions of payouts for diverse compensation plans.
• Developing a versatile rules engine to support complex, customized compensation models.
• Ensuring financial systems accuracy and resilience with high availability.
• Designing AI-native architectures that convert vague compensation concepts into executable code using automation.

Role Overview

The Staff Software Engineer position offers leadership with significant visibility and growth prospects. Responsibilities include designing and delivering Rippling's finance platform alongside cross-functional teams, ensuring scalable, reliable, and high-quality financial service offerings.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain large-scale, distributed systems for Rippling’s HRIS.
• Engage in hands-on development using Python, Golang, and Java, including code reviews.
• Lead technical direction, promote engineering best practices, and adopt new technologies.
• Mentor engineers, fostering continuous learning and collaboration.
• Design systems capable of millions of simultaneous users ensuring high reliability.
• Create modular and clean APIs including Backend for Frontend systems.
• Develop petabyte-scale analytical and transactional storage solutions using tools like Presto, S3, Snowflake, MySQL, Aurora, and MongoDB.
• Build highly available systems targeting 99.99% to 99.999% uptime.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and tracing to ensure system health and performance.
• Develop streaming and workflow solutions with technologies such as Spark Streaming, Apache Flink, and Kafka Connect.
• Collaborate with product management, data science, and operations to align on goals and deliverables.
• Drive innovation through awareness of industry trends and emerging technologies.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation and standards for architecture and operations.

Required Qualifications

• Over 9 years’ experience in software engineering focused on large-scale distributed system design and scalable service development.
• Proficiency in Python, Golang, and Java programming languages.
• Strong background in distributed computing, data architecture, and scalable system design.
• Demonstrated leadership in technical roles and mentorship of engineering teams.
• Experience building systems handling millions of simultaneous users with emphasis on reliability and SLA compliance.
• Expertise in creating modular APIs, including Backend for Frontend designs.
• Knowledge of both analytical and transactional storage platforms such as Presto, S3, Snowflake, MySQL, Aurora, and MongoDB.
• Experience with public cloud platforms like AWS and streaming technologies including Spark Streaming, Apache Flink, and Kafka Connect.
• Understanding of transactional and analytical workflow systems.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for diverse audiences.
• Experience integrating AI-assisted workflows (e.g., Claude, Cursor) to boost engineering efficiency.
• Ability to quickly comprehend complex codebases and independently resolve ambiguous or evolving problems.

Why Join Rippling?

You will have the chance to work beyond feature development, gaining deep expertise in the financial domain including Finance, Risk, Compliance, KYC, and Accounting. This role offers opportunities to impact real-world financial systems and become a "Real Finance Engineer" combining product insight with infrastructure mastery.

Additional Information

Rippling is committed to equal opportunity employment and fostering a diverse, inclusive workplace. It does not discriminate based on any legally protected characteristics and provides reasonable accommodations during the hiring process. The company values in-office collaboration, requiring employees within 40 miles of an office to work on-site at least three days weekly. Compensation includes competitive salary, benefits, and equity, with offers reflecting candidate background, experience, and location.