Define and drive the long-term technical vision for Platform API at Xero.
Shape how millions of small businesses and their advisors experience Xero through a stable, well-designed API layer.
Design and steward APIs for AI
and agent-driven automation across Xero’s accounting workflows.
Key voice in shaping technical direction within the team and across Xero’s broader engineering community.
Work across domain and organizational boundaries, partnering closely with product management, AI/ML teams, and engineering squads.

A deep background in backend or platform engineering at scale; ideally in multi-tenant SaaS or distributed systems environments, with strong proficiency in a modern language such as C#, Go, or Java
Proven experience designing and evolving external-facing APIs and SDKs, including lifecycle practices such as versioning, deprecation, and backward compatibility, with a genuine interest in developer experience
Familiarity with event-driven architecture (webhooks, message queues, pub/sub patterns, and idempotent consumers) and the ability to design for failure and recovery in these systems
A track record of leading complex, cross-team technical initiatives: shaping technical strategy, facilitating design reviews and RFCs, and aligning multiple stakeholders without losing momentum
Exposure to LLM
or ML-powered products, agentic architectures, or AI safety and governance concerns, and an understanding of how API and event design decisions affect model quality, safety, and reliability
A genuine approach to mentoring and growing engineering capability in others; from coaching individual engineers through to building communities of practice around platform and API thinking.

Comprehensive Benefits: World-class health, wellness, and retirement programs.
Xero Perks including Wellbeing days, generous leave, and dedicated professional development budgets.

Principal Engineer, API Platform

Key skills