Clark Tomlinson

Staff software engineer with 15+ years scaling consumer SaaS platforms. Track record of leading frontend architecture across large engineering organizations and turning legacy systems into modern, performant ones. Comfortable owning technical direction across teams while staying hands-on in the codebase.

1. Rippling

   1. Staff Software Engineer

      Oct 2025 — Present · Remote

      • Leading the migration of 1M+ daily active When I Work users onto the Rippling platform post-acquisition, spanning Python/Django, Go, and React/TypeScript
      • Mapping legacy scheduling and time-tracking systems onto Rippling's workforce management primitives with zero disruption to production traffic

2. When I Work

   Aug 2015 — Oct 2025

   Acquired by Rippling, October 2025

   1. Principal Software Engineer (Software Architect)

      Apr 2023 — Oct 2025 · Remote

      • Set frontend architecture and technical standards for a 60-engineer, 8-product-team organization serving 1M+ daily active users
      • Cut onboarding time for new engineers and shipped features faster by standardizing tooling, patterns, and review processes across every full-stack team
      • Eliminated duplicate infrastructure solutions across the codebase by aligning product teams on shared architecture decisions through documentation and reviews
      • Shipped organization-wide technical changes by partnering with staff engineers across backend, mobile, and platform through the Architecture Guild
   2. Staff Software Engineer

      Apr 2022 — Apr 2023 · Remote

      • Led a team of 5 engineers while also serving as the technical owner of frontend development across all 8+ product teams
      • Mentored senior and mid-level engineers through code review, design review, and 1:1 technical coaching; multiple direct reports promoted during tenure
      • Set the technical roadmap for frontend infrastructure in partnership with product leadership
   3. Lead Software Engineer

      Sep 2019 — Apr 2022 · Remote

      • Architected and shipped a new React-based frontend platform from the ground up, replacing a 7-year-old Backbone/jQuery codebase across the entire product
      • Migrated every product feature onto the new platform by embedding rotationally with each engineering team, leading the cutover and training engineers on the new patterns
      • Rewrote the Scheduler — When I Work's flagship product — delivering a 12x throughput improvement and enabling accounts with thousands of users and tens of thousands of shifts, up from a prior ceiling of ~100 users and ~50 shifts
   4. Senior Software Engineer

      Nov 2017 — Sep 2019 · Remote

      • Selected to architect the new React frontend platform after identifying scaling limitations in the existing Backbone/jQuery stack
      • Took ownership of frontend health across all engineering teams, establishing the patterns that became the foundation of the company-wide migration
   5. Software Engineer

      Aug 2015 — Nov 2017 · Remote

      • Built features across scheduling, time tracking, and shift trading in a Backbone/jQuery and PHP stack serving hundreds of thousands of users

3. ownCloud

   1. Software Engineer

      Aug 2014 — Aug 2015 · Remote

      • Maintained and extended the core of an open-source file sync and share platform alongside 300+ globally distributed contributors using PHP, jQuery, and REST APIs

4. INSP, LLC

   1. Senior Web Developer / Web Developer

      Sep 2011 — Aug 2014 · Indian Land, SC

      • Managed 50+ websites and 500+ domains across non-cloud server environments, including DNS, SSL certificates, and on-prem infrastructure
      • Built custom WordPress plugins and integrations using object-oriented PHP, Laravel components, and third-party REST APIs