Managed Payroll Lead

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 $1.4B+ 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.

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Rippling is expanding its Managed Payroll offering in the US, and we’re looking for a Managed Payroll Lead to own and scale that effort. This is a rare opportunity to shape a service from its earliest stage — defining the operating model, setting the standard for delivery, and building the foundation for a best-in-class customer experience.

You will be both a hands-on operator and a people leader. In the near term, that means running payroll, owning client relationships, and sitting in the detail alongside your team. Over time, it means developing the people, processes, and infrastructure that allow the program to grow without sacrificing service quality.

Rippling is an AI-forward environment, and this role is no exception. Automation and AI-assisted workflows handle the busy work, freeing you and your team to focus on what matters most: delivering an exceptional customer experience and navigating the complexity that no tool can fully anticipate. Comfort with — and curiosity about — evolving technology is a must.

This role is right for someone who has led a managed or outsourced payroll team, thrives in ambiguity, and gets genuine satisfaction from building something from the ground up. You won’t have all the answers on day one — and that’s the point.

Please note we will not be hiring this position in the San Francisco Bay Area or New York City Metro

• Team leadership & development
• Onboard and develop a team of US Managed Payroll Specialists, building capacity as the customer portfolio grows
• Set clear performance expectations, provide regular coaching and feedback, and create an environment where the team can do their best work
• Serve as the first point of escalation for your team — helping them navigate complex accounts, difficult client situations, and edge cases
• Foster a culture of accuracy, ownership, and continuous improvement
• Own the design and documentation of the US Managed Payroll operating model — SOPs, playbooks, escalation frameworks, quality standards, and onboarding materials
• Identify tooling and automation opportunities and work with Product and Engineering to prioritize and implement them
• Build the feedback loop between operations and product: surface patterns, flag risks, and advocate for improvements that will scale the program effectively
• Define and track the metrics that matter — SLAs, accuracy rates, client satisfaction, team capacity — and use them to drive decisions
• Maintain hands-on involvement in payroll execution, particularly during the early stage of the program and when supporting complex or high-risk accounts
• Own a portfolio of strategic or escalated client relationships, ensuring service delivery meets the highest standards
• Oversee pre-validation, approval coordination, and post-run quality checks across the team’s accounts
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and…