Staff Software Engineer, Payroll Calculation

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.

• →Lead architecture and technical strategy for Rippling’s payroll calculation systems.
• →Write critical production code and lead from the front on high-impact technical initiatives.
• →Design frameworks that make payroll logic configurable, versioned, testable, explainable, scalable, and easy to debug.
• →Leverage AI to make payroll logic easier to build, validate, explain, and operate, without compromising accuracy, auditability, or control.
• →Build systems that support enterprise-scale payroll for large employers with complex legal-entity structures and approval workflows.
• →Help expand Rippling’s native payroll capabilities across new countries and jurisdictions.
• →Drive improvements in distributed systems, database performance, caching, reliability, and operability.
• →Partner cross-functionally with product, design, payroll operations, HRIS, and other engineering teams to deliver end-to-end customer outcomes.
• →Mentor senior and mid-level engineers across payroll calculation areas such as platform, earnings, deductions, taxes, and jurisdiction-specific logic.

• →Staff-level experience designing and scaling complex production systems where correctness and auditability are critical.
• →Strong engineering fundamentals across architecture, data modeling, distributed systems, databases, caching, and reliability.
• →A track record of setting technical direction and leading complex initiatives across multiple teams.
• →Strong product judgment and the ability to connect platform decisions to customer outcomes.
• →Excellent communication skills and comfort driving alignment across engineering, product, and non-technical stakeholders.
• →Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment where priorities and requirements evolve quickly.
• →Payroll experience is helpful but not required. We value engineers who have worked on other high-integrity domains where correctness, auditability, and customer trust are essential.

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 accommodations@rippling.com

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 employee's 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 someone’s compensation–including a candidate’s professional background, experience, and location. Final offer amounts may vary from the amounts listed below.