Principal Engineer

Principal Engineer

At Xero, we're here to help supercharge small businesses. We do this by automating routine tasks, surfacing actionable insights and connecting businesses with the right data, advisors and apps. When that happens, we're not only making life better for small business, we'll be building a stronger economy that can change the world.

As a Principal Engineer at Xero, you will work with multiple teams across our Enterprise Technology portfolio to deliver software to our customers faster. You will lead initiatives to improve the technical capabilities of engineers and evolve the software architecture to align with the product roadmap.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Driving Engineering Excellence: You'll help define engineering standards, frameworks, and best practices across the organisation. You'll advocate for new technology and tooling, promote quality standards, and proactively address technical debt.
• Shaping Technical Strategy: You'll contribute to the technical roadmap and architectural direction for your product group and influence group-level technical strategy. You'll simplify complex technical challenges and make data-driven decisions.
• Mentorship and Leadership: You'll break down silos and facilitate collaboration across teams. You'll mentor and coach engineers on technical challenges and career development, fostering a culture of learning and development. You'll also participate in recruitment and engage with the external tech community.

What You'll Bring

• Proven experience leading large, complex projects to delivery, with a focus on technical excellence.
• Extensive technical leadership experience with cloud-native platforms, including a strong focus on scalability and reliability.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present compelling messages at an executive level.
• A commitment to fostering a psychologically safe and inclusive environment that supports collaboration and innovation.
• Experience in quantifying the cost of technical debt and determining when to address it.

Offering very generous paid leave to use however you'd like (plus statutory holidays!), dedicated paid leave to care for your physical and mental wellbeing as well as an Employee Assistance Program to access mental health care for you and your family. Health insurance, life insurance, and income protection.

We offer wellbeing and sports programmes, employee resource groups, 26 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices, flexible working, career development, and many other benefits that reflect our human value. You'll do the best work of your life at Xero!