---
title: 'Lead Engineer at Xero'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-engineer-xero-melbourne-cavgkj9g2emk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-19'
---

# Lead Engineer at Xero

- **Company:** [Xero](https://feeny.ai/companies/xero)
- **Location:** Melbourne, Australia
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-07-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/xero/976e7e1d-2d13-48d6-be07-8dd143290959

## Job description

At Xero, our purpose is to make running a business beautiful. By delivering smart, efficient tools to millions of small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers worldwide, we empower communities and help build a stronger global economy. As a Lead Engineer, you will model the standard for engineering excellence at Xero. You will balance hands-on technical execution with strategic engineering leadership—guiding technical design, mentoring a high-performing team, and delivering multi-quarter product and platform goals. This is a unique opportunity to lead a team through a significant AI transformation. You will lead the charge in harnessing agentic AI to optimize software development workflows while embedding intelligent, agentic features directly into our customer-facing products.

## What You’ll Do

- Drive AI & Modernization Initiatives: Lead technical design and implementation, balancing legacy code modernization (C# / .NET, React) with cutting-edge agentic AI integration across internal workflows and customer features.
- Hands-on Technical Leadership: Guide system architecture, simplify complex technical designs, and write clean, scalable, maintainable code.
- Elevate Engineering Excellence: Identify technical blockers, champion modern quality and testing strategies, optimize CI/CD deployment pipelines, and maintain system resilience.
- Incident Management & Reliability: Recognise failure patterns, participate in the team on-call roster, lead incident responses, and facilitate post-mortems.
- Mentor & Lift Team Capability: Actively coach and mentor engineers, establishing a psychologically safe, inclusive, and high-performing culture focused on continuous learning.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Strategy: Build strong cross-functional relationships, break down operational silos, and influence technical roadmaps to achieve wider organizational goals.

## What You’ll Bring

We value problem-solving ability, adaptable thinking, and hands-on capability over rigid formal checklists.

- Technical Expertise: Strong background in C# and .NET environments is preferred (or expertise in similar OO languages like Java with a language-agnostic mindset and quick adaptability).
- Distributed Architecture & Scale: Proven experience designing, building, and maintaining scalable distributed systems and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS).
- AI Enthusiast / Forward-Thinker: Genuine interest or hands-on experience in leveraging AI tools, LLMs, or agentic AI systems to transform engineering workflows and user experiences.
- Diverse Environmental Exposure: Experience navigating complex codebases, legacy modernization, or fast-paced technical environments (e.g., consulting, fintech, banking, SaaS, or regulated sectors).
- Pragmatic Leadership: A track record of coaching engineers, managing technical trade-offs, and resolving complex technical challenges with clear communication.
- Note: A formal Computer Science degree is not mandatory—we prioritize real-world experience, skills, and impact.

Where & How You'll Work We offer a flexible hybrid working model designed to balance autonomy, focus, and connection. You can split your time between working remotely from home and collaborating in-person with your team at our vibrant offices in Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane. Why Join Xero? Apply even if your experience isn't a perfect match! At Xero, we hire based on your skills, passion, and the unique perspective you bring to our 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 AB Journey Manager - Onboarding](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-ab-journey-manager-onboarding-xero-san-mateo-f1eamh70fgx5) — San Mateo, CA
- [Marketing Manager, North America](https://feeny.ai/job/marketing-manager-north-america-xero-denver-e5306hbahke3) — Denver, CO
- [Lead Engineer (Accounting Core Team)](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-engineer-accounting-core-team-xero-vancouver-166dm2s9yxbk) — Vancouver, Canada
- [Senior/Applied Scientist - AI Products](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-applied-scientist-ai-products-xero-melbourne-kwwa3xcj3n0r) — Melbourne, Australia
- [Senior Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-account-executive-xero-san-mateo-m0t8f26txf5q) — San Mateo, CA
- [Paid Social Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/paid-social-specialist-xero-wellington-j8czp8heb6sn) — Wellington, New Zealand
- [Paid Social Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/paid-social-specialist-xero-auckland-y5g3d60s3bt2) — Auckland, New Zealand
- [Paid Social Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/paid-social-specialist-xero-brisbane-8v2tb12v3t36) — Brisbane, Australia
- [Paid Social Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/paid-social-specialist-xero-sydney-8nxjxhgaa8cg) — Sydney, Australia
- [Paid Social Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/paid-social-specialist-xero-melbourne-9hg51nh8039n) — Melbourne, Australia