Senior Staff Software Engineer Rippling AI

About the role

Rippling is building core parts of Rippling AI and the AI Platform. These foundational systems will support AI capabilities across Payroll Benefits HR Products Talent Spend IT Data Cloud and other product areas.

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer you will own broad ambiguous high-impact technical charters across AI platform infrastructure. Key areas include harness engineering eval frameworks model-related infrastructure selective model training work sandboxing scaling latency reliability background agents and enterprise intelligence systems.

The team is looking for extremely strong hands-on engineers. AI/ML background is a strong plus but not mandatory. The strongest signal is deep backend/systems engineering foundation high intellectual horsepower ability to move fast in ambiguity and willingness to design review debug and write code regularly.

What you will do

• Own broad AI Platform charters across multiple systems and teams.
• Lead architecture and execution for foundational systems supporting AI capabilities across Rippling.
• Build and guide work across AI platform infrastructure harness engineering eval frameworks model-related infrastructure sandboxing scaling latency and reliability.
• Support AI capabilities across Payroll Benefits HR Products Talent Spend IT and Data Cloud.
• Lead without formal authority while staying deeply connected to execution.
• Write code review critical code paths debug complex production issues prototype solutions and make implementation-level decisions.
• Partner with Product Infra Platform AI and senior engineering stakeholders to convert ambiguous AI/product bets into scalable systems.
• Mentor Staff Senior and SE II engineers while raising engineering standards across design coding debugging reliability and operational excellence.
• Define technical patterns and platform primitives that can be reused by product teams across Rippling.
• Help shape the long-term technical foundation for Rippling AI.

Qualifications

• 14 years of software engineering experience depending on quality of scope and impact.
• Strong backend platform infrastructure distributed systems or systems engineering foundation.
• Deep hands-on coding ability; must be able to design review debug and write code regularly.
• Strong programming knowledge in one or more languages such as Python Java Go/Golang C Scala Kotlin or C#.
• Proven experience owning broad ambiguous technical charters across multiple systems or teams.
• Strong architecture and system design depth across large-scale production systems.
• Strong technical judgment across scale reliability latency observability APIs data modeling concurrency and production operations.
• Ability to influence and lead without formal authority while staying close to implementation.
• High intellectual horsepower fast learning ability and comfort operating in ambiguity.
• Strong product/platform judgment and ability to connect technical decisions to business and customer impact.
• Ability to mentor and elevate engineers across levels.
• AI/ML background is a strong plus but not mandatory; practical exposure or strong adjacent experience in AI platform infrastructure agents evals ML/data infra model infrastructure inference sandboxing workflow automation scaling latency or reliability is highly valuable.

Preferred qualifications

• Prior experience building AI platform infrastructure eval frameworks harness systems LLM tooling model-quality systems or ML/data infrastructure.
• Experience with sandboxing inference systems scaling latency optimization reliability engineering or large-scale distributed platforms.
• Strong Python and SQL knowledge.
• Experience with Go Java C or Scala in backend infra platform or distributed systems environments.
• Experience building internal platforms used by multiple product teams.
• Prior experience in high-growth / hyper-growth startups or fast-moving product-led technology companies.
• Exposure to enterprise SaaS fintech HR tech payroll benefits compliance IT Data Cloud or workflow-heavy platforms.
• Ability to operate as a builder-leader: someone who can define direction align stakeholders and still build.

Why Rippling

• Backed by world-class investors (Kleiner Perkins Sequoia Bedrock GIC Elad Gil Goldman Sachs)
• Valued among the fastest-growing SaaS companies in history
• Build at the heart of Ripplings Finance platform where Payroll Spend Bill Pay and Banking converge into a unified ecosystem.
• Join a team that pushes the limits of possible builds winning systems and moves fast with conviction.

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 is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities who need assistance during the hiring process. To request a reasonable accommodation please email

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 employees role.

This role will receive a competitive salary benefits equity. The salary for US-based employees will be aligned with one of the ranges below based on location; see which tier applies to your location here.

A variety of factors are considered when determining someones compensationincluding a candidates professional background experience and location. Final offer amounts may vary from the amounts listed below.

Required Experience:

Staff IC