Rippling, a business software provider, has appointed Adrian Ludwig as its new Chief Security Officer, bringing extensive experience in securing large-scale platforms to the company.
Ludwig’s career spans more than two decades, marked by his work in building security capabilities during significant technological shifts across cloud, mobile, and identity innovation. His background includes identifying vulnerabilities for the U.
S. Department of Defense, securing early web applications at Adobe, and shaping the mobile security model as Director of Android Security at Google, where he protected billions of users. He later scaled trust and cloud security initiatives as Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Trust Officer at Atlassian. Most recently, Ludwig served as Chief Architect and CISO at Tools for Humanity, leading efforts in privacy-preserving, global proof-of-human identity infrastructure.
Albert Strasheim, Rippling’s Chief Technology Officer, emphasized the importance of trust for a platform that redefines how companies operate on a single system. Strasheim stated that Ludwig’s experience in securing technologies for billions of people and millions of businesses will be crucial as Rippling secures its platform and customers in the evolving AI era, enabling security to drive innovation rather than constrain it.
At Rippling, Ludwig will oversee the company’s global security strategy, encompassing product security, infrastructure protection, trust, and risk management. His mandate is to ensure that security is an integrated architectural advantage as customers increasingly consolidate workforce and business operations onto Rippling’s platform. Ludwig’s approach focuses on engineering security into products as a core primitive, fostering speed, resilience, and trust.
Rippling’s commitment to delivering scalable security is reinforced by this appointment, deepening its focus on an integrated IT and security infrastructure. This infrastructure supports organizations, from high-growth startups to large enterprises, in managing devices, identities, and data confidently. Ludwig reiterated that Rippling is building a critical business system of record, and for such a central platform, security must be foundational. He aims to make world-class security an invisible, reliable constant for every customer, facilitating faster operations with complete confidence.
Rippling offers businesses a unified platform for HR, Payroll, IT, and Spend globally, integrating various workforce systems like payroll, expenses, and benefits. The company, based in San Francisco, CA, has secured $1.8 billion in funding from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Sequoia, and Bedrock.
