Senior Engineering Manager - Platform

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 $1.4B+ 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.

We prioritize candidate safety. Please be aware that all official communication will only be sent from @Rippling.com addresses.

About the role

Rippling's Platform organization owns the foundational systems that power the entire company. We support nearly 1,000 engineers building across a wide range of products and internal tools, providing the shared infrastructure and abstractions that enable teams to move quickly and build reliably at scale.

At the core of the platform are systems like a dynamically stitched, permission-aware ontology, a highly scalable object store, an event-driven dependency engine, and Rippling Query Language (RQL). These power critical capabilities across automation (workflows and approvals), group management, data pipelines, event delivery, application development, search and AI platform, and our object graph and data catalog.

We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead and scale teams within this ecosystem. In this role, you'll be responsible for driving strong execution, improving system reliability, and building platform capabilities that unlock leverage across the company. You'll partner closely with product and engineering leaders to translate complex requirements into clear technical plans and deliver incremental, high-impact improvements.

What you will do

• Lead and grow a team of high-performing engineers focused on building and scaling core platform systems
• Define team vision and technical strategy aligned with company and platform priorities
• Drive execution on complex, multi-team initiatives with clear ownership and predictable delivery
• Improve developer experience and platform adoption across engineering teams
• Establish and evolve engineering processes that enable speed, quality, and operational excellence
• Maintain a high bar for system design, code quality, and reliability through hands-on technical leadership
• Partner closely with product, design, and cross-functional stakeholders to shape roadmap and prioritize work
• Develop and mentor engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, impact, and continuous improvement

What you will need

• 8+ years of experience building and shipping software, with a strong foundation in distributed systems
• 4+ years of experience managing and developing high-performing engineering teams
• Experience working on internal platforms, developer infrastructure, or large-scale backend systems
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives from idea through execution
• Strong technical judgment with the ability to guide architecture and system design decisions
• Product-minded approach to building platforms that serve internal users effectively
• Experience operating in fast-paced, high-growth environments
• Track record of hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineering talent

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.


The pay range for this role is:

198,000 - 346,500 USD per year (US)