Senior Mobile Engineer (Android)

About the Role

Xero is seeking an experienced Senior Android Engineer to lead the development and maintenance of the Xero Me mobile applications, a key component of the Payroll product utilized by small businesses. These applications facilitate crucial payroll and workforce management activities such as pay, leave, timesheets, expenses, and document handling, ensuring reliability and excellence.

Responsibilities

In this position, you will take ownership of critical outcomes impacting millions of employees and employers daily. Your role will involve high-velocity delivery of features with a focus on system security, scalability, and performance for native Android and iOS apps, as well as backend services. You will have autonomy to design systems, guide API contracts, and influence architectural decisions that shape the product's future. Additionally, this role is central to Xero’s strategic shift towards cross-platform mobile engineering, enabling you to enhance expertise in Android while growing proficiency in iOS and shared engineering practices.

Team and Work Environment

You will collaborate with engineers who highly value craftsmanship, mentorship, and continuous learning. The role includes hands-on technical leadership avenues like impactful code reviews, mentoring junior engineers, and shaping engineering standards across mobile and backend teams. This is a hybrid role based in Melbourne or Sydney, offering flexibility while encouraging collaboration with regular team meetups and knowledge sharing sessions.

Technical Requirements

• Proven Android engineering skills, including expertise in performance tuning, accessibility standards, testing methodologies, and release management for large-scale applications.
• Experience incorporating AI tools such as copilot systems, code generation, or AI-powered debugging aids to enhance productivity responsibly, maintaining high standards for correctness, privacy, and security.
• Familiarity with iOS conventions to partner effectively with iOS engineers and contribute to common architectural decisions.
• Background in API and backend service development, including designing or improving service endpoints, contracts, and integrations; familiarity with technologies like .NET, AWS, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines is advantageous.

Leadership & Personal Attributes

• Customer-centric approach, clearly linking engineering choices to business needs and user outcomes.
• Adaptable growth mindset comfortable with ambiguity, able to help the team navigate changes and prioritize pragmatically.
• Bias toward action, favoring incremental delivery and learning through implementation over prolonged analysis.
• Strong communication skills to translate business requirements into technical solutions and articulate trade-offs with data-backed reasoning.
• Commitment to mentorship through thorough code reviews, sharing knowledge, and offering constructive feedback that elevates overall team capabilities.

Additional Information

This is a compelling opportunity for a motivated engineer aiming to progress from strong individual contributor to influential leader shaping culture, engineering calibre, and product impact at scale. Applicants with diverse backgrounds and experience levels are encouraged to apply, as the focus is on skills, passion, curiosity, and the value you bring to the team environment.