# Staff Software Engineer

**Company:** [Rippling](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/rippling)
**Location:** New York, NY
**Role:** ML Engineering
**Salary:** $189k – $315k/yr
**Experience:** 8+ years
**Skills:** AI Agents, llm infrastructure, Distributed Systems, Platform Engineering, automation systems, plugin connectivity, Agentic Workflows, Python, Java, TypeScript
**Posted:** 2026-07-28

> Build foundational AI agent infrastructure at Rippling, owning agent creation, invocation, skill packaging, plugin connectivity, and automations. Lead platform and distributed systems work with 8+ years experience, technical leadership, and cross-functional impact.

## Job Description

## What you will do
- Own major AI agent infrastructure initiatives across backend, platform, and AI-enabled systems
- Lead design and execution for systems supporting agent creation, invocation, triggering, skill packaging, plugin connectivity, and automation orchestration
- Build the foundational tools and primitives that enable both internal Rippling teams and external customers to create and deploy their own AI agents
- Act as a technical lead for cross-functional work involving Product, AI Infra, Platform, and Engineering teams across the AI Cloud org
- Break down ambiguous technical problems into clear architecture and execution plans
- Write code, review critical code paths, debug production issues, and make implementation-level decisions daily
- Build platform systems that are reusable across multiple Rippling product teams
- Raise the engineering bar through design reviews, code reviews, mentoring, and technical guidance
- Balance speed, quality, reliability, and long-term platform maintainability in a fast-moving environment

## What you will need
- 8+ years of software engineering experience with a proven track record of technical leadership and org-wide impact
- Deep expertise in platform and distributed systems engineering — you've built reliable, observable, large-scale systems
- Strong hands-on coding skills, you are an active contributor in the codebase alongside your leadership responsibilities
- Experience leading complex, cross-functional technical initiatives and driving alignment across multiple teams
- 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
- Strong curiosity around AI agents, LLM infrastructure, agentic workflows, automation systems, or plugin/tool-use architectures
- Recent hands-on experience building AI agents is a plus

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**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/2c24c7c7-b243-4e21-98dd-cd56d25b33fb
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/2c24c7c7-b243-4e21-98dd-cd56d25b33fb