Backend Software Engineer Jobs in San Francisco, CA

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 Platform Team

The Platform Engineering team is the invisible engine that powers all of Rippling's integrated products—HR, IT, and Finance. Our mission is to build the core infrastructure, tools, and shared services that allow every other engineering team to ship highly reliable, secure, and globally scalable features with maximum velocity. We manage the foundational components that ensure Rippling's single, unified platform operates efficiently and securely.

Our Scope: Foundational Systems for 1,000+ Engineers

Operating as a critical scaled team, we own and operate a variety of mission-critical systems that directly support close to 1,000 engineers building products and internal platforms across Rippling. We deliver the most foundational shared systems inside the Platform organization.

What you will do

• Design, implement, and test reliable backend services and APIs that power core product features and business logic at scale.
• Work across key technical domains, including API design, data modeling, event modeling, and optimizing service performance.
• Own the development lifecycle for defined features, from implementation and testing to deployment, monitoring, and support in a production environment.
• Effectively integrate into cross-functional teams, contribute to technical discovery, and rapidly learn from code and system feedback.

What you will need

• 2+ years of professional experience as a backend engineer, preferably with Python, Go, or a similar production language, and strong experience with relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL).
• Care about business impact, balancing technical craft with speed and the bottom line to deliver value quickly.
• Ability to thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments, demonstrating resilience and agility in the face of changing product needs.
• Excellent skills in communicating complex technical ideas with clarity to enable effective collaboration with peers and 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 accomodations@rippling.com

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.