---
title: 'ENGINEERING MANAGER - SRE at Xero'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-sre-xero-melbourne-bk4j48wr8d5d'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-19'
---

# ENGINEERING MANAGER - SRE at Xero

- **Company:** [Xero](https://feeny.ai/companies/xero)
- **Location:** Melbourne, Australia
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/xero/70d10228-148f-456e-b188-43d42c38e84b

## Job description

## The role and its impact

We are seeking an Engineering Manager for our Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team. In this leadership role, you will own and drive our reliability programme, focusing on high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR) testing and incident management across our Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions. You will lead a growing team through a critical period of expansion, building a culture where reliability is woven into the DNA of the business, not treated as an afterthought. Your work will have significant impact on Xero's customer experience and operational resilience. By partnering with platform teams, observability specialists, and cross-functional stakeholders, you will close systemic reliability gaps and help reduce customer-detected incidents by 70–80%. You will also shape how our engineering culture evolves, mentoring engineers and fostering an environment where thoughtful problem-solving and ownership are valued. The team and how they connect The Australia-based SRE team currently comprises two skilled engineers and is growing to at least four by year-end. The team operates collaboratively with Cloud Engineering, Observability, Database Reliability Engineering, and Shared Services to elevate Xero's reliability posture across our platform. You will report to the Head of Engineering for Reliability and partner closely with a US-based Engineering Manager who owns incident management for the EMEA/US time zone, ensuring seamless global coverage. Together, you will run Xero's reliability programme, working in lockstep to deliver measurable improvements in how the business detects, responds to, and prevents incidents. The team is currently working on

- Building and maturing a continuous HA/DR testing cadence, moving from ad hoc to reliable weekly execution
- Establishing and optimising incident command protocols across APAC and EMEA regions, with a focus on time-to-mitigation against clear targets
- Closing cross-team reliability gaps identified between Observability, Tooling, and product engineering through structured collaboration
- Growing the team from two to four engineers whilst maintaining high incident response standards and driving a reliability-first mindset Where and how you can work We have no standing office attendance requirement; we expect you to join us in person approximately once per quarter. We offer the flexibility to work in a way that suits your rhythm and your team's needs, whilst maintaining the collaboration and connection that makes us stronger together. Here are some of the things we are looking for
- You bring proven SRE or infrastructure leadership experience, ideally managing incident command at scale, with a demonstrable track record of building or maturing HA/DR programmes.
- You possess strong software engineering skills and are comfortable diving into code to solve reliability problems, not just process; fluency with AI-assisted tooling is a core capability, not a nice-to-have.
- Your agency and curiosity shine through—you think and act beyond the job description, bias toward independent problem-solving over waiting for direction, and bring a genuine enthusiasm for lifting reliability across the business.
- You excel at stakeholder management and can influence peer teams without formal authority, forging durable relationships across regions, platforms, and functions with both conviction and empathy.
- You are comfortable operating across time zones and managing distributed teams with ease, bringing calm and clarity to high-pressure incident response moments.
- You care about growing and developing engineers. You will shape the team's culture through structured onboarding, regular one-to-ones, and mentorship that helps people thrive and stay. 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.

## About Xero

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Xero provides cloud-based accounting and financial management software for small businesses, serving over 4.9 million customers worldwide.
- **Entity Type**: Public (ASX: XRO, S&P/ASX 200 component)
- **Headquarters**: Wellington, New Zealand
- **Founded**: July 6, 2006
- **Founders**: Rod Drury, Hamish Edwards

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Cloud accounting software (SaaS)
- **Target customers**: Small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers (B2B)
- **Mission**: To make life better for small businesses globally by automating routine tasks and delivering actionable insights.

## Products & Services
- **Xero Accounting Software**: Cloud-based platform for invoicing, bank reconciliation, expense tracking, payroll, and financial reporting. Sold by subscription (Starter, Standard, Premium tiers).
- **JAX – AI Finance Partner**: An AI-powered assistant integrated into Xero that automates routine tasks and provides insights to help businesses grow.
- **Xero Ecosystem**: Over 1,000 third-party app integrations via the Xero App Store, covering payments, inventory, CRM, and more.
- **Xero for Nonprofits**: Discounted subscriptions (25% off) for eligible nonprofit and community organisations.
- **Xero for Purpose**: Social impact initiatives including financial literacy programmes (Unlock Your Numbers), sustainability tools (Sumday carbon app), and the Xero Beautiful Business Fund (NZ$750,000+ in funding annually).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed in provided sources (publicly traded with market cap available on ASX; latest data not included in search results).
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue NZ$2.103 billion (FY2025); Net income NZ$227.8 million (FY2025).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Board Chair David Thodey; CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy. In June 2025, Xero announced an agreement to acquire Melio, a New York-based payments provider, for $2.5 billion.
- **Growth Signals**: Achieved Rule of 40 outcomes of 41.0% (May 2024) and 43.9% (Nov 2024). Customer base grew to 4.9 million. Headcount of 4,610 employees (2025). Expanding globally with offices in New Zealand, Australia, UK, US, Canada, South Africa, and Singapore.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Market leader** in cloud accounting across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.
- **AI-first approach** with JAX, embedded directly into the core product to reduce manual work.
- **Extensive integration ecosystem** (1,000+ apps) creating high switching costs for customers.
- **Strong brand trust** built over 19 years with a focus on small business success.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI and automation**: Deepening AI capabilities (JAX) to deliver predictive insights and automate finance workflows.
- **Payments expansion**: Acquisition of Melio to strengthen payments capabilities for small businesses.
- **Sustainability**: Reducing carbon emissions (72% reduction in scope 1 & 2), offering free carbon accounting tools, and supporting small business sustainability.
- **Social impact**: Scaling programmes like the Beautiful Business Fund and financial literacy initiatives.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Values-driven, human-centric organisation with a focus on making a tangible impact on small businesses globally.
- **Flexibility**: Emphasises a flexible environment and time for what matters most (remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated but implied).
- **Perks & benefits**:
  - One paid day off per year for volunteering (Community Connect programme).
  - Free access to Sumday carbon accounting app for employees.
  - Financial literacy resources and mentorship programmes.
- **Engineering & innovation**: Dedicated Engineering and Data & AI teams (open roles visible on careers page). Global collaboration across 7+ countries.
- **Diversity & inclusion**: Indigenous inclusion initiatives (te ao Māori in NZ, Reconciliation Action Plan in Australia), support for Indigenous communities.
- **Sustainability focus**: Employees can contribute to environmental goals through company-wide initiatives.

## Sources
1. [Wikipedia – Xero](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xero)
2. [Xero About Page](https://www.xero.com/au/about/)
3. [Xero Careers – Inside Xero](https://careers.xero.com/inside-xero/)
4. [Xero Careers – Teams](https://careers.xero.com/)
5. [Xero Homepage](https://www.xero.com/)

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- [Lead Engineer (Accounting Core Team)](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-engineer-accounting-core-team-xero-vancouver-166dm2s9yxbk) — Vancouver, Canada
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- [Senior Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-account-executive-xero-san-mateo-m0t8f26txf5q) — San Mateo, CA
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