---
title: 'Lead Engineer at Xero'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-engineer-xero-auckland-v0fntgrp8wx7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Lead Engineer at Xero

- **Company:** [Xero](https://feeny.ai/companies/xero)
- **Location:** Auckland, New Zealand
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/xero/da773841-f0d4-4893-b6d9-706644183615

## Job description

## ABOUT XERO AND THE TEAM

At Xero, our purpose is to make running a business beautiful by empowering small businesses with world-class technology. The Reporting Platform is one of the most heavily used products across the entire Xero suite, serving over 150 reports—such as Profit & Loss and Revenue statements—to millions of users, accountants, and bookkeepers.

As part of our growing engineering group, this team operates across Wellington and Vancouver. We are seeking a Lead Engineer to bridge drive technical initiatives in your pod, modernize legacy frameworks, and drive engineering maturity across high-scale platform systems.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

In this position, you will balance your time roughly 50% hands-on coding and executing projects alongside senior engineers and 50% strategic focusing on technical discovery, incident management, and long-term roadmap planning.

Key Responsibilities:

- Hands-on Delivery & Architecture for Product Features in Reporting: Lead technical design and implementation, balancing speed, quality, and architectural standards across complex systems to deliver features in Reporting
- Modernize Legacy Systems: Guide software application development to modernize legacy .NET frameworks, safely shifting traffic and rolling out updates at scale.
- Drive AI Integration: Capitalize on unique opportunities to embed AI directly into our reporting products and software development lifecycle (SDLC) and improve the overall Engineer experience in reporting.
- Incident Management & Quality: Lead incident response, participate in the team's on-call roster, and establish robust testing and continuous deployment strategies.
- Team Leadership & Mentorship: Elevate team capability by coaching senior engineers, improving multi-quarter project planning, and fostering an inclusive engineering culture.

## WHAT YOU'LL BRING

We care more about your ability to build high-scale systems and solve complex architectural challenges than rigid formal credentials.

- Large-Scale System Experience: Experience operating in high-volume, high-transaction environments (e.g., Fintech, Banking, Major SaaS, or Medtech).
- Full-Stack Proficiency: Experience or strong familiarity with full-stack development, particularly .NET / C#, React, and SQL (tech stack experience is preferred/nice-to-have, with legacy modernization expertise prioritized).
- Proven Technical Maturity & Ownership: A bias for action, strong communication skills, and a builder mindset where you take accountability for end-to-end deliverables.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ability to facilitate technical discovery, break down operational silos, and align stakeholders across multi-quarter initiatives.

WHY JOIN US?

- High-Impact Work: Work on critical software used daily by millions of global small business customers.
- Growth & AI Opportunity: Help set the standard for modern development practices and spearhead early-stage AI initiatives in our product ecosystem.
- Flexible Working Environment: While Wellington is our preferred hub, we welcome applicants working remotely.
- Inclusive Values: We live by our values—We make it Xero, We make it beautiful, We make it happen, We make it human, and We make it together.

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/)

## Other roles at Xero

- [Senior Mobile Engineer – iOS / Android](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mobile-engineer-ios-android-xero-melbourne-mdxvb7gz77n9) — Melbourne, Australia
- [Senior Mobile Engineer – React Native](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mobile-engineer-react-native-xero-sydney-mveske2x9djw) — Sydney, Australia
- [Senior Mobile Engineer - iOS/Android](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mobile-engineer-ios-android-xero-sydney-kptpp7j9ekfa) — Sydney, Australia
- [Senior Mobile Engineer - React Native](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mobile-engineer-react-native-xero-melbourne-ascg2ez078kr) — Melbourne, Australia
- [Associate Security Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-security-engineer-xero-melbourne-mawp8hnc0tcc) — Melbourne, Australia
- [Lead Product Manager – Payments Risk](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-product-manager-payments-risk-xero-vancouver-n95mxmrchcb9) — Vancouver, Canada
- [Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-xero-denver-0r89a4awmjpv) — Denver, CO
- [Senior Engineer - AI Builder](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-engineer-ai-builder-xero-sydney-2rb7b59np7jf) — Sydney, Australia
- [Solutions Consultant](https://feeny.ai/job/solutions-consultant-xero-melbourne-n47m435fpyzz) — Melbourne, Australia
- [Senior Machine Learning Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-machine-learning-engineer-xero-ontario-1gbmfz62vsqp) — Ontario, Canada