Senior Software Engineer, Backend - AI Platform
As a Senior Software Engineer on the AI Platform team, you will own end-to-end technical design and implementation for high-impact AI platform initiatives. You will build scalable agent infrastructure, design observable and self-correcting systems, and mentor junior engineers.
About the job
What you will do
- Own end-to-end technical design and implementation for high-impact AI platform initiatives from design through production
- Collaborate closely with engineers across product, infra, and platform organizations
- Build scalable agent infrastructure that automates repetitive, high-frequency workflows across Rippling's product surface
- Design systems that are observable, self-correcting, and capable of improving over time with minimal human intervention
- Develop harness and platform capabilities that encode business logic and institutional knowledge into reliable, automated workflows
- Partner closely with Product to ensure AI-powered surfaces are trustworthy, controllable, and intuitive for end users and admins
- Mentor junior engineers, contribute to best practices for AI platform development, and raise the technical bar on your team
- Track the frontier, translate model capability improvements into architectural decisions and move quickly when new approaches unlock better outcomes
What you will need
- 5+ years of software engineering experience with a proven track record of owning and delivering complex technical projects
- Strong expertise in platform and distributed systems engineering — you've built reliable, observable, large-scale systems
- Strong hands-on coding skills; you are an active, high-output contributor in the codebase
- Experience driving technical initiatives end-to-end, including collaborating across teams to deliver outcomes
- Strong product instincts — you translate ambiguous problems into durable platform capabilities and partner effectively with product teams
- Clear, precise communication to diverse audiences, both written and verbal
- Comfort with ambiguity and high velocity; the roadmap evolves as the technology evolves
- Recent hands-on experience building AI agents is a plus
Additional Information
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.
Skills
Distributed Systems, Platform Engineering, AI Agents, System Design, Software Engineering
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