As Chief Technology Officer at Rippling, Albert Strasheim thrives in high-growth environments where scaling systems under pressure is the norm. Known for arriving at pivotal inflection points often when early infrastructure is on the brink of collapse, he has repeatedly rebuilt and hardened core systems while they’re still in production. At Rippling, he orchestrates the work of dozens of engineering teams, “connecting the dots” between products, platforms, and people to keep a fast-moving, multi-product company running smoothly. His approach centers on creating the kind of environment he wished for as a junior engineer—one where efficiency and collaboration make it easier for teams to deliver at speed.
Born and raised in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Strasheim earned a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering before embarking on a career that took him from South Africa to Spain, and ultimately to the United States in 2013. Now based in San Francisco, he has held key roles at companies like Cloudflare, Mesosphere, and Segment. In each, he tackled large-scale engineering challenges rebuilding Cloudflare’s log processing pipeline, overhauling Segment’s data infrastructure, and now guiding Rippling’s technology strategy, recruiting top talent, and ensuring the company’s systems can handle massive growth without slowing down.
For Strasheim, technical leadership is inseparable from building the right teams. He deliberately mixes early-career engineers valued for their fresh perspective and ability to challenge assumptions with seasoned professionals who have “built something once or twice before.” Recruiting is a deliberate craft: he treats it like selling a vision, showing candidates the scale and complexity of the engineering problems they’ll face, and practicing what he calls the “anti-sell” to ensure only those ready for the intensity will join. This approach proved successful when he reorganized Rippling’s infrastructure team, applying proven structures to boost efficiency and create lasting stability showing the impact of matching the right people to the right challenges.