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Staff Software Engineer - Payroll Data

Rippling· Engineering
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Hybrid (San Francisco, CA)$180k - $315kfull-timePosted 9mo ago

About the role

Staff Software Engineer on the Payroll Data team responsible for high-scale data infrastructure and query systems powering Rippling’s Global Payroll ecosystem, including ingestion, materialization, aggregation, and querying across real-time and batch systems.

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.

Qualifications

  • 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.

Skills

Required:Data infrastructureDistributed systemsBackend programming

Benefits

  • Competitive salary + benefits + equity
  • Reasonable accommodations available (accommodations@rippling.com)
  • In-office collaboration emphasis (3 days/week in office for eligible roles)
Last updated Oct 7, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Rippling

#1 Workforce Management System | HR, IT, Finance

Rippling eliminates the friction from running a business, combining HR, IT, and Finance apps on a unified data platform.

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