Principal Software Engineer

About Rippling

Rippling gives businesses one place to run HR, IT, and Finance. It brings together all of the workforce systems that are normally scattered across a company, like payroll, expenses, benefits, and computers. For the first time ever, you can manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle in a single system.

Take onboarding, for example. With Rippling, you can hire a new employee anywhere in the world and set up their payroll, corporate card, computer, benefits, and even third-party apps like Slack and Microsoft 365—all within 90 seconds.

Based in San Francisco, CA, Rippling has raised $1.85B+ from the world’s top investors—including Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Greenoaks, and Bedrock—and was named one of America's best startup employers by Forbes.

We prioritize candidate safety. Please be aware that all official communication will only be sent from @Rippling.com addresses.

The Principal Engineer will join the HR / HCM team, which owns Rippling’s unified human capital management platform : a global, all-in-one system managing the full employee lifecycle — HRIS, recruiting, performance, benefits, payroll, workforce management, compliance, reporting, and global operations. This team builds highly secure, scalable, and compliant automation and workflow systems that enable HR teams and employees to self-serve, reduce manual overhead, and make strategic data-driven decisions. Deep experience with global compliance, data integrity, distributed systems, workflow engines, and excellent UX is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and Lead : Design, develop, and maintain internet-scale, highly distributed systems and scalable services for the Rippling Unity Platform.
• Hands-On Coding : Actively participate in coding and code reviews, using languages such as Python, Golang, and Java.
• Technical Leadership : Provide visionary technical leadership, setting the direction for engineering best practices and the adoption of advanced technologies.
• Mentorship : Mentor and support engineers across the organization, fostering a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and technical excellence.
• System Design : Architect systems capable of handling millions of users simultaneously, ensuring high performance, reliability, and scalability.
• API Development : Design and implement clean, modularized abstraction APIs and programmatic APIs for both end users and engineers, including Backend for Frontend (BFF) systems.
• Storage Solutions : Design and implement Analytical systems that encompass both analytical (e.g., Presto, S3, Snowflake) and transactional (e.g., MySQL, Aurora, MongoDB) systems. They should be able to handle petabyte scale
• Resiliency and SLAs : Develop and maintain systems with high availability and reliability, targeting four or five 9s (99.99% or 99.999%) uptime.
• Observability : Implement comprehensive observability practices, including monitoring, logging, and tracing, to ensure system health and performance.
• Streaming and Workflow Systems : Build and integrate streaming solutions (e.g., Spark Streaming, Apache Flink, Kafka Connect) and workflow systems for both transactional and analytical workflows.
• Collaboration : Work closely with cross-functional teams, including product management, data science, and operations, to align on strategic goals and ensure successful project delivery.
• Innovation : Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies, driving innovation and continuous improvement within the Rippling Unity Platform.
• Documentation and Standards : Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation and standards for system architecture, design, and operational processes.

Required Qualifications