Principal Software Engineer

The role / impact

We are looking for a Principal Engineer to join the teams behind the Xero Accounting App (XAA), our flagship mobile experience that helps small business owners stay on top of their finances wherever they are. You will define the standard for engineering excellence at Xero, strengthening technical capabilities and evolving the architectural direction to support our global product roadmap.

You will bridge the gap between product vision, strategy, and execution, shaping the technical roadmap to ensure our technical decisions align with strategic goals. We need a leader who can solve engineering problems at scale, seeking clarity within complexity and demonstrating smart ways to simplify while breaking down silos and driving cross-functional collaboration.

Initially, you will focus on

• Hybrid Mobile Evolution: Defining reference patterns for integration and performance in an environment where native and React Native technologies coexist.

• Systemic Operational Excellence: Leading the strategic prevention of issues by defining frameworks for SLOs and quality standards.

• Capability Elevation: Acting as a force multiplier by coaching lead engineers, recruiting top talent, and engaging with the broader tech community.

• Efficiency: Define and execute a vision for AI-led engineering that transforms how software is designed, built, tested, and maintained, delivering step-function improvements in development productivity and velocity across teams.

Where and how you can work

Our teams are located in Australia and this hybrid role is based in Melbourne or Sydney, offering the flexibility to balance deep-focus work with high-bandwidth collaboration in our beautiful offices.

Here are some of the things we are looking for

• You bring extensive experience building and leading mobile applications in high-growth, large-scale environments — from horizontally scaling mobile build and release pipelines to architecting cloud-native backend services and APIs (AWS preferred)— with hands-on integration across the mobile stack and deep exposure to both native and cross-platform application development.

• Your approach ensures technical architecture and product strategy are inextricably linked, bridging the gap between technical possibility and beautiful customer experiences.

• You focus on strategic prevention rather than just reacting to incidents, using delivery and production metrics to identify systemic improvements for security and scalability.

• A natural ability to thrive in ambiguity allows you to act as a stabilising force, translating shifting business directions into high-level technical roadmaps.

• You possess a bias for action tempered by systemic thinking, prioritising incremental delivery to de-risk complex technical bets and simplify massive engineering challenges.

• Communication is a fundamental tool for you, enabling you to establish alignment across the organisation and present complex technical trade-offs to leadership with clarity.

Please 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 our culture.