Growth Lead - SEM

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 role

Rippling is looking for a Growth Lead, SEM to drive qualified pipeline and efficient revenue growth through paid search. This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who combines deep B2B SEM expertise with strong business judgment and the ability to turn opportunities into measurable results.

Reporting to the Director of Search Marketing, you will own end-to-end strategy and execution across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, initially focused on Rippling’s Finance and IT products. You will also help shape the broader SEM strategy and lead initiatives across product lines as business priorities evolve.

You will independently develop your roadmap, identify growth opportunities, and make investment decisions grounded in marginal returns, incrementality, and opportunity cost. You will partner closely with business leaders and teams across Marketing, Sales, Analytics, and Growth Operations to connect channel decisions to business outcomes.

As a senior member of the team, you will mentor other marketers, strengthen how we operate, and serve as a trusted SEM expert for stakeholders. Success means delivering results in your own portfolio while improving the capabilities and effectiveness of the broader team.

What you will do

• Own SEM strategy and business outcomes: Lead strategy, planning, and hands-on execution for your product portfolio. Take accountability for qualified pipeline, revenue contribution, efficiency, and budget management.
• Build and drive your roadmap: Translate business objectives into annual plans and quarterly priorities. Proactively identify opportunities, size their potential impact, and lead initiatives from diagnosis through execution without waiting for detailed direction.
• Allocate investment based on marginal returns: Develop and independently apply a framework for determining where the next dollar will generate the greatest incremental value. Reallocate budgets across campaigns and products, evaluate opportunity costs, and manage forecasts and pacing.
• Lead experimentation and measure incrementality: Design tests that answer meaningful business questions across bidding, targeting, creative, landing pages, and investment levels. Distinguish attributed performance from incremental growth, communicate uncertainty, and scale approaches supported by evidence.
• Strengthen B2B measurement and bidding signals: Partner with Growth Operations and Analytics to connect CRM outcomes to reporting and optimization. Improve offline conversion imports, signal quality, and conversion goals for longer sales cycles, including predictive value-based bidding where appropriate.
• Apply expert judgment to structure and automation: Continuously improve account architecture, bidding portfolios, and campaign strategy. Evaluate capabilities such as AI Max, Performance Max, and automated bidding, using clear hypotheses and appropriate controls to improve business results.
• Improve the full acquisition funnel: Work with CRO, Web, Product Marketing, and Sales to improve messaging, landing page relevance, conversion rates, and downstream lead quality. Turn customer and sales feedback into actionable improvements.
• Lead stakeholder communication: Proactively communicate opportunities, recommendations, performance trends, and risks. Explain SEM clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences, align stakeholders on tradeoffs, and constructively challenge requests when another approach would create more value.
• Raise the team’s capabilities and operating standards: Mentor teammates and serve as an established source of SEM expertise. Build shared frameworks, QA safeguards, and AI-assisted workflows that improve execution quality, accelerate analysis, and make successful approaches repeatable.

What you will need

• Substantial B2B SEM experience: Typically 10+ years in SEM or performance marketing, including significant hands-on ownership of B2B paid search programs. Experience with sales-assisted acquisition and longer buying cycles is required.
• Deep platform expertise: Advanced knowledge of Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, including campaign architecture, targeting, automated bidding, conversion goals, experimentation, and reporting. Ability to explain the reasoning behind platform decisions and evaluate their business impact.
• A record of independent ownership: Demonstrated success managing substantial, multi-million-dollar budgets and improving qualified pipeline, revenue, and efficiency. Experience setting strategy, creating your own roadmap, and delivering results in complex or ambiguous environments.
• Strong investment judgment: A practical understanding of marginal returns, opportunity costs, and incrementality, with experience applying these concepts to budget allocation and prioritization. Ability to make defensible decisions when data is incomplete or outcomes are delayed.
• B2B measurement expertise: Experience using CRM data, offline conversion imports, and measurement across longer sales cycles to inform bidding and investment decisions. Understanding of conversion lag, signal quality, and the tradeoffs between conversion volume and downstream value.
• Analytical and technical fluency: Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills, with proficiency in SQL or demonstrated ability to use AI tools and agents to query data, automate analysis, and validate outputs. Working knowledge of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, plus familiarity with conversion APIs, enhanced conversions, and server-side tracking.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management: Ability to turn complex analysis into clear recommendations for technical and nontechnical audiences. Experience influencing senior stakeholders, communicating risks early, and building alignment around priorities and tradeoffs.
• Leadership through expertise: Experience mentoring other marketers, improving shared processes, and raising execution standards without relying on formal management authority. Strong accountability for campaign QA, measurement reliability, and budget discipline.

Additional experience that would be valuable

• Marketing Finance or IT software, including spend management, payroll, identity, or device management.
• Direct partnership with Sales or SDR teams to improve qualification, funnel conversion, and feedback loops.
• Experience with Contentful or similar content management systems to support landing page development and experimentation.

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 [email protected]

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.