Senior Software Engineer, Backend Full Stack - Data Cloud

About the Data Cloud Team

Rippling Data Cloud is a new suite of products that aggregates data from across your company into Rippling, connects it to worker identity, and makes it available for analysis, visualization and action. It preserves and enriches data context to enable precise and accurate answers to your most important and nuanced business questions.

It's a complete data stack including data connectors, transformations, visualizations, AI-powered analytics, and even inbound Zero-Copy. It understands how all of that data relates to employees, managers, departments, locations, cost centers, permissions, and historical changes in your ever-changing business. That makes it possible to ask questions that traditional BI systems struggle to answer correctly.

Data Cloud as the foundation for Rippling AI

Data Cloud and AI are deeply connected in Rippling. Data Cloud is the data infrastructure layer that powers Rippling AI. Here's how they relate:

Data Cloud provides the unified data that AI reasons over:

Rippling AI leverages the Employee Graph and all platform data (payroll rules, earnings types, deduction logic, permissions, etc.) as its source of truthBecause Rippling is a unified platform rather than stitched-together acquisitions, the data is clean, consistent, and complete which makes AI answers accurate and context-awareAI respects the same permissions model as the rest of the platform, so it only surfaces data the user is authorized to see

The Rippling AI unlocks advanced Data Cloud capabilities:

• AI Dashboards: build dashboards from scratch using natural language prompts
• Transformations: full publish access
• Pipelines: ingest data via managed connectors
• Lineage & Catalog: explore data lineage for reports
• Advanced features: parameters, SQL queries, and the ability to incorporate third-party data

Why this matters

Most HR/Finance systems weren't built for AI. Their data is messy and fragmented. Rippling AI is described as the first "context-aware, senior analyst" for HR and Finance teams because it sits on top of a unified data model (Data Cloud + Employee Graph) that actually understands your business logic end-to-end.

What We Build

The team is focused on the following core domains:

• Analytics – Focuses on the reporting and dashboarding products that enable users to visualize and analyze data within Rippling.
• Data Access – Owns the query engine (RQL, Rippling Query Language) that powers data retrieval across the platform. This area includes sub-teams responsible for query execution, data ingestion, and query history.
• Data Management – Owns the metadata and data catalog layer, including how data assets are discovered, governed, and documented.
• Ingest & Prep – Responsible for bringing external data into Rippling. This area includes Managed Connectors (pre-built integrations with third-party systems) and Transformations (data shaping and preparation).
• Insights – A newer area within Data Cloud focused on surfacing actionable insights from data.

What you will do

• Develop and improve both product backend capabilities and user-facing features, working across the stack to make them shine
• Collaborate closely with PMs and designers to translate complex product requirements and visual designs into responsive, high-quality code.
• Move quickly and confidently, making smart decisions to fill in the gaps where product details aren’t fully defined—always learning from user feedback.
• Play an active role in building a culture of excellence within our product and engineering teams.

What you will need

• 5+ years of experience in a production environment using Python, Django, or related technologies.
• Familiarity in frontend development with React or typescript.
• Exposure and hands on experience with systems operating at a significant technical and organizational scale
• Strong product intuition: you care about design and user experience and are quick to identify how these could be improved.
• Experience shipping complex projects
• Deep understanding of CS/algorithms fundamentals
• Strong communication skills with a variety of stakeholders

Additional Information

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 View email address on click.appcast.io

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.