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 ResponsibilitiesArchitect 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 QualificationsExperience: 18+ years of experience in software engineering, with a significant focus on building large-scale distributed systems and scalable services.Technical Expertise: Proficient in coding with languages such as Python, Golang, and Java. Deep understanding of distributed computing principles, data architecture, and scalable system design.Leadership: Demonstrated experience in technical leadership roles, with a proven track record of mentoring and developing engineering teams.Systems Expertise: Extensive experience in building systems handling millions of users in parallel and developing scalable services. Deep understanding of SLAs, system resiliency, and observability.API Development: Expertise in designing and implementing clean, modularized abstraction APIs and programmatic APIs, including BFF for front-end systems.Storage Systems: Expertise in both analytical (e.g., Presto, S3, Snowflake) and transactional (e.g., MySQL, Aurora, MongoDB) storage systems.Cloud and Streaming: Experience with public cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, S3) and streaming technologies (e.g., Spark Streaming, Apache Flink, Kafka Connect).Workflow Systems: Understanding of both transactional and analytical workflow systems.Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.