As a Principal Engineer in our Engineering Productivity team, you'll partner with our engineering community to build frictionless, developer-first platform tools that remove barriers and empower engineers to focus on what they do best; shipping high-impact software faster, safer, and at scale. Your work directly shapes how thousands of engineers across Xero work, influencing the tools, practices, and cultures that enable them to succeed.
You'll tackle some of the most complex technical challenges across our organisation, from optimising developer workflows to scaling our AI-native development practices. In this role, you're not assigned to a single team; instead, you'll work across our engineering landscape to identify and solve the highest-impact problems - collaborating with multiple teams and stakeholders to drive meaningful change.
The team & how they connectEngineering Productivity is a specialist team within Xero's engineering organisation, focused on enabling our developer community through platforms and tooling. We collaborate closely with product teams, infrastructure teams, and technical leadership across the organisation to remove friction and accelerate delivery. Our team operates with high trust, psychological safety, and a genuine commitment to diverse perspectives - we believe the best solutions come from teams that think differently.
The team is currently working onInner-Loop Mastery: Supercharging local coding speed and developer experience through our Xero AI Engineering Toolkit
Frictionless Delivery: Accelerating pull request reviews and environment provisioning to unblock our outer-loop development flow
Unified Tooling: Consolidating our developer toolchain to eliminate context switching and cognitive load across our engineering teams
Uncompromising Quality: Balancing speed with engineering excellence using Tech Health Scorecards and sustainable development practices
This is a distributed role across Australia and New Zealand. Our teams are predominantly remote-first, with occasional in-person gatherings to strengthen connections and tackle complex problems together. We hold 1-2 on-site sessions per quarter (typically in Melbourne or Wellington/Auckland), and we maintain flexible working hours and arrangements to support your personal circumstances. We believe great technical work happens when people have autonomy over how and where they work.
Here are some of the things we are looking forYou bring demonstrated expertise in DevEx, DevOps, or Platform Engineering, with a proven track record of building products and platforms that engineers love to use
You possess a platform-as-a-product mindset - you think deeply about your customers (engineers), understand their pain points, and design solutions that scale elegantly
You're comfortable navigating ambiguous, rapidly evolving environments and can thrive when roadmaps shift and requirements remain fluid - you Go Bold and Go Fast even when the path isn't entirely clear
Your communication skills enable you to influence and collaborate with senior technical stakeholders and executives across the organisation, translating complex technical concepts into compelling narratives
You bring either exposure to or hands-on experience with AI-native development practices, spec-driven development, or modern AI development lifecycles that shape how we build tomorrow
You mentor and grow others through influence and example rather than authority, helping engineers and teams level up and discover their potential
Apply even if your experience isn't a perfect match! At Xero, we hire based on your skills, passion, and the unique perspective you can bring to enhance our culture and team.
Skills Required
- Demonstrated expertise in DevEx, DevOps, or Platform Engineering
- Proven track record of building products and platforms used by engineers
- Platform-as-a-product mindset and ability to design scalable solutions around customer pain points
- Ability to navigate ambiguity and rapidly changing roadmaps
- Strong communication and stakeholder influence skills, including engagement with senior technical leaders and executives
- Exposure to or hands-on experience with AI-native development, spec-driven development, or modern AI development lifecycles
- Ability to mentor and develop engineers through influence and example
Xero Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off is described as extensive, with multiple leave types including annual PTO, dedicated wellbeing days, extra “Xtra” days, year-end shutdown time, and a paid volunteer day. U.S. job postings and benefits pages consistently highlight breadth that emphasizes rest and wellbeing.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental provisions are portrayed as particularly strong, including 26 weeks of fully paid leave for primary caregivers and fully paid partner leave. Family-forming support through Carrot is also highlighted.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is outlined as broad, with Cigna/Kaiser medical options plus dental, vision, FSAs, and Modern Health support for employees and families. U.S. sources also note subsidized plan options and HSA contributions.
Xero Insights
What We Do
Xero is small business accounting software that provides a platform on which businesses can build a fully integrated solution. It’s designed to make life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world. Xero minimises tedious admin by automating routine tasks, delivers valuable insights when needed, and brings together business data, trusted advisors, and powerful apps in one intuitive platform. By alleviating pain points, Xero empowers small business owners to supercharge their business, simplifying the complex and freeing up time from manual admin so they can focus on what really matters to build the business they’ve always envisaged.
Why Work With Us
Xero is a human-centric organization where you’ll have a tangible impact on the success of small businesses and their communities, globally. Our team of energised, forward-thinkers work to make life better for our customers and each other every day. We’re also always committed to supporting you with a flexible environment.
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Xero Teams
Xero Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Join us from home or at one of our beautiful workspaces. Xero has offices in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Singapore, and South Africa.
