Principal Engineer

Role and Impact

As a Principal Engineer, you will collaborate across multiple teams within the product group to accelerate delivery of world-class software to customers. You will set engineering quality standards, steer the evolution of technical architecture aligned to product goals, and lead initiatives that enhance the engineering capabilities within the organization.

Working alongside engineering leaders, you will influence technical strategy at the group level, eliminate organizational silos, and promote data-driven architectural decisions that enable early value release to address complex customer challenges at scale.

Team and Collaboration

You will join a cooperative product group where engineering practices are guided across multiple teams. The team prioritizes balancing automation, system performance, operational health, and deployment pipelines, with keen attention to security and data protocols. By advocating for company-wide quality standards and fostering an inclusive environment, the group ensures high-quality, reliable outcomes.

Initial Focus Areas

• Directing engineering methods across several teams and setting architectural direction across the portfolio.
• Participating in the design of scalable, reliable, and high-performance cloud-native applications.
• Championing company-wide quality benchmarks, assisting teams in defining Service Level Objectives (SLOs), and embedding security standards within system development.
• Developing frameworks to measure technical debt and proactively mitigating production issues through advanced tooling.

Working Environment

Xero provides flexible work options to support both productivity and wellbeing, combining remote work with collaborative office time. Boost days encourage in-person connection, collaboration, and innovation.

Key Qualifications

• Demonstrated leadership on significant, complex technical projects in cloud-native environments with emphasis on scalability, performance, and system reliability.
• Outstanding ability to communicate intricate technical concepts effectively to both technical peers and executive stakeholders.
• Proven skills in shaping long-term technical roadmaps and aligning engineering execution with broader business goals.
• Strong analytical skills to break down complex problems into actionable goals and negotiate technical trade-offs thoughtfully.
• Experience establishing methodologies to quantify technical debt and strategically balancing debt remediation with feature development.
• Committed to mentoring engineers, enhancing delivery processes, and fostering a collaborative, inclusive workplace culture.

Additional Information

We encourage applications from candidates whose experience may not precisely align with all criteria. The focus is on skills, passion, and the unique perspectives candidates bring to strengthen our team and culture.