Rippling is revolutionizing how businesses manage HR, IT, and Finance by consolidating scattered workforce systems into a single, powerful platform. From payroll and expenses to benefits and IT assets, Rippling automates the entire employee lifecycle. Imagine onboarding new hires globally in just 90 seconds, setting up their payroll, corporate cards, computers, benefits, and essential third-party apps.

Based in San Francisco, Rippling has secured significant funding from top investors and is recognized as a leading startup employer. We prioritize candidate safety; all official communications originate from @Rippling.com addresses.

As a Senior Software Engineer on the AI Governance team, you will play a pivotal role in defining and building a groundbreaking new product category. Your work will focus on creating systems that ensure AI usage is attributable, policy-compliant, budget-conscious, and auditable in real-time. This role offers the opportunity to tackle highly ambiguous yet impactful challenges, building foundational platform technology while staying connected to evolving customer needs.

You will lead the technical architecture for core AI governance systems, including MCP access control, model gateway policy enforcement, runtime authorization, audit pipelines, and usage attribution. Responsibilities include designing robust distributed systems that enforce policies at the point of use without introducing latency or fragility. You'll also develop identity-aware controls linking AI usage to Rippling's organizational data, own complex product and technical problems across shadow AI detection, agent permissions, tool access, spend attribution, and data protection, and collaborate with Product, Security, Legal, IT, and Engineering leaders to establish durable platform capabilities. Additionally, you'll set the technical direction for a new team, defining architecture reviews, design standards, reliability expectations, and long-term system boundaries, while mentoring senior engineers and elevating the engineering bar for secure, observable, and trusted systems.

We are seeking a seasoned professional with over 6 years of experience in software engineering, demonstrating a strong history of technical leadership and organization-wide impact. Essential qualifications include deep expertise in backend and distributed systems, with proven ability in designing services characterized by clear ownership, high reliability, and well-defined interfaces. A high degree of initiative and a bias for action are crucial, enabling the transformation of ambiguous product concepts into focused launches, rapid feedback loops, and robust technical foundations.

An AI-native engineering mindset is highly valued, including hands-on experience leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity and the discernment to identify areas requiring human oversight for correctness, security, and architectural integrity. Strong judgment in security and systems, particularly concerning authorization, identity, data movement, audit logs, or policy enforcement, is expected. A product sensibility for enterprise software, emphasizing customer-visible impact and operational simplicity, is also important. Candidates must possess the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, adeptly navigating trade-offs between security, usability, and speed. While familiarity with AI infrastructure, LLM gateways, MCP, developer tools, identity systems, or data protection is considered a significant advantage, it is not a mandatory requirement.