Corporate Development & Partnerships Manager

Corporate Development & Partnerships Manager About this position 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. Rippling AI, our newest product, takes this mission further by helping businesses manage payroll, HR, IT, finance — not by generating plausible responses, but by writing real queries against live data, showing its work, and taking real action on behalf of customers. 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. About The Role Rippling is one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in history, with a compound platform covering HR, IT, and Finance across 100+ countries. As our platform scales on an accelerated basis with Rippling AI and our use of AI tools internally, we see opportunities to extend our product offering and reach through M&A. We treat corporate development — whether product acquisitions or acquihires — as a core strategic function. The team is focused on making the right decision for Rippling and its customers, by evaluating build, buy, and partner strategies across our broad product surface area. As Corporate Development & Partnerships Manager, you'll work directly with Rippling's SVP of Corporate Development and CFO on the full spectrum of deals that shape our strategic direction. You'll own deal work end-to-end — from initial market mapping and thesis development, to financial modeling, management engagement, term sheet negotiation, legal coordination, and post-close integration planning. This is a deal-execution-heavy role with a high analytical bar. The best candidates will be comfortable building a financial model, drafting a term sheet, presenting a build/buy/partner recommendation to senior leadership, and managing a live diligence process. Alongside the core Corporate Development work, you'll also own top strategic partnerships for Rippling's IT and Spend products — with the majority of your time focused on Corporate Development. This role carries significant responsibility and is best suited for self-starters with a breadth of deal experience across private equity, investment banking, or corporate development at a large technology company or high-growth startup. There is meaningful room to grow, measure your impact, and scale with the organization as we build a world-class Corporate Development team. What You’ll Do: Own the full acquisition pipeline — from proactive market mapping and competitive landscaping to investment thesis development and management engagement. You'll identify targets, build the strategic case (informing the CEO, CFO and Board), and drive the process from first conversation to signed deal. This includes diligence steps across product, financial, legal, and technical dimensions. Lead financial analysis for every deal: build DCF models, run comparable transaction analyses, construct pro forma revenue and cost scenarios, and model acquisition impact against Rippling's annual and long-range financial plans. Run structured diligence across product, engineering, legal, finance, HR, and customer channels — coordinating internal workstreams while conducting external market and customer research to independently validate the strategic and commercial thesis. Drive deals to close: draft and negotiate term sheets and LOIs, own key commercial terms in coordination with Legal, and build post-close integration frameworks that convert deal rationale into realized value. On select IT and Spend product partnerships: structure and negotiate high-value agreements (spanning product integrations and referral/distribution partnerships), manage an active partnership portfolio, track performance metrics, and lead terms renegotiations as Rippling's business needs evolve. Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience. An advanced degree is a plus. 5–8 years of experience in core finance roles including investment banking and private equity. M&A or deal execution experience is strongly preferred. Demonstrated ability to own a deal process end-to-end: from sourcing and thesis development through diligence, negotiation, and close. Strong financial modeling skills and experience negotiating complex commercial agreements. Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with internal and external stakeholders to get deals to the finish line. Self-starter with excellent time management, project management, finance and strategy skills. Excellent communication skills with demonstrated experience working with senior leadership. Organized, attentive to detail, and intellectually curious. 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. The pay range for this role is: 159,000 - 265,000 USD per year (US San Francisco Bay Area). #J-18808-Ljbffr Rippling