Lead Engineer

Summary

Join Xero as a Lead Engineer and be a key member of the technical leadership group, driving initiatives and influencing technical direction across the entire Ecosystem. This hands-on role involves leading, mentoring, and contributing to the codebase while tackling complex technical challenges. You will drive technical strategy, write code, and accelerate the team, making key architectural decisions and seeing them through to production. The role focuses on technical leadership, mentorship, and driving key initiatives without people management responsibilities. You'll work on ambitious projects, shaping the architecture and long-term technical vision. This is an opportunity to shape major initiatives, take ownership, and help Xero move faster.

Requirements

• A strong capability for technical leadership and full-stack engineering , with the ability to guide complex software projects from concept to launch
• Proficiency in modern web technologies. Our stack is primarily C# on the backend and TypeScript/React on the frontend. More than specific tool experience, we value your strong engineering fundamentals and your drive to master new technologies as they emerge
• Deep capability in cloud architecture and system design , with the ability to build and operate scalable, resilient microservices-based systems on AWS
• A bias for action and a result-oriented approach. You excel at balancing technical investment with product priorities to deliver impactful outcomes, fast
• A passion for multiplying your impact. You're a coach and a mentor who knows that your success is measured by the team's success. You clear roadblocks and empower other engineers to build amazing things
• An obsession with improvement. You constantly seek out and champion new tools and approaches—like AI-powered coding—to make the whole team more productive
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills , with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

Responsibilities

• Lead from the front: Provide hands-on technical leadership and mentorship, fostering a culture of high-velocity, innovation, and continuous improvement
• Be a hands-on coder: Actively write code and contribute to the codebase, tackling our most complex technical challenges
• Drive our technical direction: In collaboration with other lead engineers and our principal engineer, you'll shape the architecture and define the long-term technical vision for our most critical and innovative projects
• Raise the bar: Champion high standards for code quality through thoughtful PR reviews, and by improving our testing, CI/CD, and security practices

Benefits

• Offering very generous paid leave to use however you’d like (plus statutory holidays!), dedicated paid leave to care for your physical and mental wellbeing as well as an Employee Assistance Program to access mental health care for you and your family
• Health insurance, life insurance, and income protection
• We offer wellbeing and sports programmes, employee resource groups, 26 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices, flexible working, career development, and many other benefits that reflect our human value