Lead Engineer

The role / impact

Xero reimagined accounting software. Now, we are reimagining the flow of money itself by making a critical, multi-year investment in our new Payments Platform organization, the engine that will power payments across all of Xero’s ecosystem. As a Lead Backend Engineer, you will shape the architectural strategy for the platform, ensuring systems support long-term growth and scalability while eliminating technical complexity across the domain.

This is a rare greenfield opportunity to help define and build a brand-new payments platform from the ground up while connecting that work to a large existing customer base. You will contribute directly to production code, lead experimentation to de-risk ambitious initiatives, and drive major technical advancements that have a highly visible impact on Xero’s future and the small businesses we support.

The team / how they connect

You will join a fast-growing, evolving Payments Platform organisation that bridges horizontal platform infrastructure and vertical, user-facing product delivery. The team operates across Australia and North America, collaborating closely with Product, Design, and Operations to translate complex money movement opportunities into tangible business outcomes. We operate with full-cycle ownership, meaning our engineers collaborate to drive quality, reliability, and engineering velocity end-to-end without a separate QA team.

Initially, the role will focus on:

• Designing and building high-throughput, core money movement services using a language-agnostic backend stack including C#, Java, and Go.

• Establishing the foundational system architecture and API-first headless designs for a new global bill payments product.

• Scaling distributed backend systems using cloud-native platforms, relational databases, and NoSQL technologies.

• Integrating advanced observability tools and sustainable AI capabilities to proactively improve system resilience and developer workflows.

Where and how you can work

This role is open to candidates who can work in a hybrid capacity, connecting regularly with our teams in the San Mateo office. We believe in the power of coming together and offer flexible working arrangements that blend remote productivity with dedicated collaborative days in the office to connect and innovate.

Here are some of the things we are looking for

• You bring a strong foundation in object-oriented programming concepts and system-design thinking, alongside deep expertise in building distributed backend systems at scale.

• A background in designing high-throughput APIs and navigating the constraints of complex, reliable architectural trade-offs will serve you well.

• You possess a natural inclination for operational maturity, showing comfort with full-cycle ownership, on-call rotations, and frequent CI/CD-driven releases.

• Valuable perspectives in payments, fintech, low-latency trading systems, or headless, API-first development would be highly regarded.

• Your leadership style amplifies team impact through active technical mentorship, coaching senior engineers, and leading constructive post-incident improvements.

• A curious approach to evolving workflows, particularly through the responsible adoption of AI-native tooling to elevate engineering velocity and personalization.

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 enhance our culture and team.

Compensation & Total Rewards

At Xero, we value the impact and skills you bring to the team. We don’t just hire for a role; we invest in people. We believe in a Total Package philosophy - which means your value isn't just a single number on a paycheck. While base salary is a core component, we look at your compensation through a holistic lens that includes equity, performance incentives, and world-class benefits.

The expected base salary range for this role in:

• California: $206,600 - $258,200 USD

Individual pay is determined by various factors, including geography, level of experience, and the specific skills you bring to the role.

In addition to base pay, Xero’s roles are eligible for the following forms of variable compensation:

• Variable Pay: Permanent employees are eligible to participate in our annual bonus and equity (RSU) programs. You may also be eligible for performance-based cash or equity (RSUs) incentives depending on your role level, and company performance.

• Comprehensive Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401(k) match, and 21 days PTO, 10 days of Wellbeing leave, 5 days of Xtra Leave, 1 volunteer day, 12 paid holidays, paid parental leave. Further information included on our Xero Perks page.

Xero uses AI to help screen applications based on job-related qualifications. These tools assist our recruiters but do not make automated hiring decisions. A human recruiter reviews all candidates before any hiring action is taken.