Join Xero's Search team as a Search Engineer and help maintain and evolve one of the largest search clusters in the Southern Hemisphere. You'll work on infrastructure that powers Xero for 200,000+ daily active users, handling 50+ million searchable documents and 400TB of data at 99.9% uptime.
In this role, you'll grow your search engineering skills while contributing to meaningful projects. You'll work on both search-specific and generalist engineering tasks, collaborate with experienced engineers through code reviews, and gradually take on larger responsibilities as you develop expertise.
The team and how they connectYou'll be part of a small, tight-knit distributed team across Melbourne, New South Wales, and New Zealand, now part of Xero's Catalyst platform division. The team works collaboratively with a Product Manager, a Principal Architect, and the broader Catalyst Platform team. This is a great environment to learn search engineering at scale whilst working alongside senior engineers and technical leaders.
What the team is currently working onHorizon 2 platform rebuild - Contribute to a four-year search platform modernisation project
Cluster maintenance and evolution - Help maintain our search infrastructure at 99.9% uptime across massive scale
Operational Data Layer (ODL) integration - Work on ingestion pipeline integration with the new platform
Exploring new partnerships - Collaborate on integrations with Mobile, Files, and AI-adjacent search capabilities
Work remotely within Australia or New Zealand or hybrid from one of our offices. The team gathers in Melbourne approximately every six months for in-person collaboration, and there are optional "boost days" for office work when you'd like to connect with colleagues face-to-face.
What we're looking forSearch engineering experience - You've built or maintained search systems and are keen to deepen your expertise in this domain
Solid software engineering fundamentals - You understand core software engineering principles and write clean, maintainable code
Growth mindset - You're eager to learn from experienced engineers and tackle increasingly complex problems
Collaboration skills - You work well with others across engineering, product, and infrastructure teams in a distributed environment
Initiative and ownership - You take on tasks with enthusiasm and aren't afraid to ask questions when you need support
Skills Required
- Search engineering experience building or maintaining search systems
- Solid software engineering fundamentals
- Ability to write clean, maintainable code
- Growth mindset and willingness to learn
- Strong collaboration skills across engineering, product, and infrastructure teams
- Initiative and ownership
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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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.
