Employee Journey Lead

Xero is looking for an Employee Journey Lead to help shape how People Experience services operate as the company moves toward an AI-first way of working. The role is about turning complex employee journeys into simpler, joined‑up experiences that balance self-service, automation, AI and human support. It sits with the Employee Programmes and Delivery team, and it’s built for someone who enjoys collaborating across People Experience and enterprise teams to move big ideas from discovery through design, piloting and handover.

The person in this role will help ensure clear ownership so improvements stick, while service owners keep running their services. Xero emphasises practical impact over simply shipping changes, and the environment is designed for careful experimentation and learning as you go.

The position is based in Wellington or Melbourne and follows a hybrid model with no mandated office days. Most of the team come in about two days a week, with some colleagues working remotely. The team is largely spread across Australia and New Zealand, so hours are aligned to make collaboration easy. Important decisions are communicated in writing, and the emphasis is on the outcomes you achieve rather than how visible you are. Xero also uses AI to help screen applications, with a real human recruiter reviewing every candidate before any hiring action.

What you’ll actually do to move the needle

You’ll collaborate with Employee Experience, Employee Shared Services, PX Systems and service owners to figure out where you’ll lead and where you’ll partner. The work starts by listening, to employees, people leaders and service teams, to identify journeys where change will matter most. Then you’ll map those journeys from start to finish, uncover root causes and sketch a practical future state that blends self-service capabilities, automation, AI and human support. When you find a well-scoped improvement, you’ll steer it into a governed pilot with clear measures and a plan to hand it over to the team that runs it day to day.

What you’ll need to bring to the table

Here’s what the team is looking for, rephrased from the role’s requirements:

• You’re strong at reimagining journeys from the ground up, using methods like journey mapping, service blueprinting and root-cause analysis.
• You can see how people, processes, policies and technology fit together and you’re able to define who does what and when handoffs happen.
• You’ve got a track record of taking ambiguous, cross‑functional work from discovery through pilot to handover, with a good sense of when to lead and when to partner.
• You’re curious about where AI and automation genuinely help, with sensible human oversight and a bias for small, fast tests that prove value without rushing.
• You build trust quickly, influence service owners without formal authority, and explain your thinking in plain terms to both technical and non‑technical partners.
• You want to Go Further by sharing what you know through reusable tools, playbooks and coaching that help others improve their practice.

Pay, benefits and practical details you can count on

The role is open to candidates based in Wellington or Melbourne, with a hybrid setup and no mandated office days. The team generally clocks in around two in‑office days per week, while some teammates work remotely. The wider team is concentrated in Australia and New Zealand, so working hours are coordinated to support collaboration across the region. Communication tends to be written for important updates, and the focus is on the impact delivered rather than levels of visibility.

Advice for applicants to stand out in this search

Lead your resume with a concrete example of end-to-end journey work you’ve owned, from discovery through a pilot to handover, including a measurable outcome you achieved for the business or for employees.

Demonstrate the must‑have skills by detailing a time when you mapped a journey, identified root causes, and clearly defined roles and handoffs across multiple teams, showing how you moved things forward without formal authority.

For the interview, prepare to walk through a real scenario where you balanced AI or automation with human oversight, describing the small tests you ran, what you learned, and how you scaled the solution responsibly.

Ask a pointed question about how the team decides where to apply automation versus human support, and request an example of a recent journey improvement that shipped quickly and was measured for real impact.