Lead Engineer
XeroJobsCloseBy Editorial Insights
Xero is seeking a Lead Engineer to join the Reporting Platform team, guiding technical initiatives across high-scale systems while shaping the long-term roadmap. The role splits roughly 50 percent hands-on coding and delivery and 50 percent strategic discovery, incident management, and architecture. You will lead design and modernization of legacy .NET frameworks, drive AI integration into reporting products, and mentor engineers to raise overall capability. To succeed, demonstrate experience with large-scale, high-transaction environments, full-stack work with .NET/C#, React, and SQL, and a proven ownership mindset with cross-functional collaboration. Highlight concrete outcomes, multi-quarter plans, and incident responses; apply even if not a perfect match, and tailor your materials to show impact, alignment with Xero values, and willingness to work hybrid from Parnell or remote.
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.