Senior Engineering Manager - Payroll Platform

Senior Engineering Manager - Payroll Platform

Rippling Seattle, Washington, United States Engineering

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—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  addresses.

As the Senior Engineering Manager for the Payroll Platform team, you’ll lead a high-impact engineering team building the foundational platform within payroll organization that enables and supports critical flows around payroll processing, approvals, corrections, and many more.

In addition, this role will have a significant impact on Rippling’s growth and success, shaping technical and business decisions that influence the product and company.

• Architect for Scale:
  Lead the predominant backend strategy to evolve the Run Management engine, ensuring it can handle massive data throughput and complex orchestration logic.
• Orchestrate Complexity:
  Manage the flow of raw HR inputs into the calculation engine, ensuring the end-to-end tail engine produces accurate, reliable outputs for high-stakes financial processes.
• Drive Platform Excellence:
  Operate as a pure platform leader. Focus on systems design, infrastructure reliability, and backend efficiency rather than traditional consumer-facing product features.
• Collaborate Across Charters:
  Act as a strong communicator and bridge between the Onboarding and Payroll Processing pods, ensuring the Run Management layer serves as a seamless interface.

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5+ years in a senior leadership capacity.
• Scale Veteran:
  Understands the nuances of high-concurrency systems and distributed platform architecture.
• Infrastructure Mindset:
  Background in building robust systems on top of cloud infrastructure, ideally managing data platform or infrastructure-heavy teams.
• Leader of Leaders:
  Significant experience coaching and developing Engineering Managers.
• Backend Specialist:
  Deep technical expertise in backend systems and orchestration patterns.
• Strong Communicator:
  Navigates a complex organizational structure, managing multiple charters and stakeholders with clarity and precision.

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, email

Rippling highly values employees working in-office to foster a collaborative environment and company culture. For office-based employees within a defined radius of a Rippling office, working in the office, at least three days a week, is considered an essential function of the role.

This role will receive a competitive salary + benefits + equity. Salary for US-based employees will be aligned with one of the ranges below based on location.

Pay range for this role: $207,000 – $345,000 USD per year (San Francisco Bay Area) and $207,000 – $345,000 USD per year (US Tier
1).