Engineering Manager - Multiple Roles (NZ)

Responsibilities

• End-to-End Roadmap Ownership and Delivery: Own the complete software roadmap and strategic direction for your engineering team, making prioritization decisions aligned with business outcomes. Lead agile delivery processes including sprint planning, dependency management, and cross-functional coordination with Product and Design to ensure high-quality software release cycles. Drive accountability for team velocity, delivery timelines, and technical milestone achievement while maintaining flexibility to redirect focus when outcomes aren't meeting business objectives.
• Technical Leadership and Architecture Guidance: Serve as a genuine technical voice within strategic discussions, leading system design sessions and navigating architectural trade-offs. Guide teams through significant modernization efforts of legacy systems, contribute to build-vs-buy evaluation decisions, and shape the team's technical foundations. Champion best practices in system architecture, platform design, and code quality while maintaining deep enough technical context to make informed strategic decisions about technology choices and infrastructure investments.
• AI-Native Practices Adoption and Innovation: Champion AI-native engineering practices including AI-assisted code review processes, AI-enabled code generation tools, intelligent tooling automation, and agentic workflows. Transform experimentation with emerging AI tools into durable, scalable practices that enhance team productivity and code quality. Mentor engineers on effectively leveraging AI tools while maintaining engineering rigor, and guide the team in balancing AI assistance with critical thinking and architecture ownership.
• High-Performing Team Leadership and Mentorship: Build and lead inclusive, high-performing teams of 6-9 engineers through coaching, mentoring, and advocacy for career progression. Foster psychological safety and transparent communication where team members feel empowered to take ownership. Provide regular feedback, identify skill gaps, and create personalized development plans that challenge engineers to grow while delivering business impact. Celebrate wins and create a collaborative culture where knowledge sharing and continuous learning are embedded.
• Cross-Functional Partnership and Influence: Build strong relationships with Product and Design leaders as an equal strategic partner, not just an executor. Contribute technical perspectives early in product thinking to influence shared strategy and help teams understand technical implications of product decisions. Resolve dependencies proactively across teams, manage complex technical constraints in product planning, and shape domain strategy through collaborative decision-making that balances customer needs, technical sustainability, and business priorities.
• High-Availability Systems Stewardship: Oversee critical systems serving millions of customers worldwide, ensuring reliability, performance, and security meet enterprise standards. Manage incident response processes, establish SLO/SLA frameworks, and drive continuous improvement in system observability and resilience. Lead post-incident reviews to extract learnings and prevent recurrence, while balancing operational excellence with feature delivery velocity.

Benefits

• Hybrid Work Flexibility

  Balance local team presence with global scope through a flexible hybrid model. Work from modern office spaces during designated boost days in Auckland or Wellington while maintaining flexibility for remote work. Limited remote work options available for select team members based in New Zealand locations.

• Career Growth and Development

  Clear pathway for career progression within a rapidly scaling engineering organization. Access to mentorship from experienced technical leaders, opportunities to lead high-impact projects, and investment in continuous learning and skill development through training programs and professional development budgets.

• Impact and Scale

  Lead teams whose work directly impacts millions of customers globally. Own critical platform systems (Payments, Inventory, Small Business Experience) that are core to Xero's product strategy. See the tangible outcomes of your technical decisions reflected in customer success and business growth.

• Technical Excellence Culture

  Work within an organization that values architectural rigor, system design best practices, and code quality. Collaborate with experienced engineers on high-stakes systems while maintaining a relaxed, collaborative team culture that balances delivery velocity with sustainable technical foundations.

• Innovation and AI Leadership

  Pioneer AI-native engineering practices within your team and across the organization. Opportunity to shape how Xero adopts AI-assisted development tools and agentic workflows, positioning your team at the forefront of engineering productivity innovation.

• Inclusive Leadership Environment

  Lead within a culture that prioritizes diverse perspectives, psychological safety, and transparent decision-making. Support for inclusive hiring practices and commitment to building teams where all engineers feel valued and empowered to contribute.