Principal Engineer - Backend/Platform Engineering
Backend Engineer · Principal · Full Time
Opens Xero's application page
Role
What you'll do.
Principal Engineer in Xero's Engineering Productivity team, leading platform engineering and developer experience initiatives across thousands of engineers. This role involves building developer-first tools, optimizing engineering workflows, and scaling AI-native development practices. Requires demonstrated expertise in DevEx and Platform Engineering with strong technical leadership and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Responsibilities
- Drive Developer Experience Strategy: Lead initiatives to optimize local coding speed (inner-loop) and outer-loop development flows, directly shaping the technical practices and tools that impact thousands of engineers. Identify critical developer pain points and design platform solutions that remove barriers to productivity.
- Build & Scale AI-Native Development Platforms: Design and implement the Xero AI Engineering Toolkit and other AI-augmented development solutions that accelerate development velocity while maintaining code quality and security standards.
- Cross-Team Technical Leadership: Collaborate with product teams, infrastructure teams, and technical leadership across the organization to identify high-impact problems. Drive architectural decisions and implement solutions that benefit the entire engineering organization, operating across team boundaries without direct authority.
- Architect Unified Developer Toolchain: Consolidate fragmented tooling across Xero's engineering organization, reducing context switching and cognitive load. Design and implement integrated solutions that create seamless developer workflows.
- Balance Speed with Engineering Excellence: Develop and promote sustainability practices, implement Tech Health Scorecards, and establish metrics that ensure platform decisions prioritize long-term maintainability alongside delivery velocity.
- Mentor & Grow Technical Teams: Influence and mentor engineers and technical leaders through example and expertise rather than authority. Help teams develop their technical capabilities, discover their potential, and adopt best practices in platform engineering and developer tooling.
- Communicate Technical Vision to Leadership: Translate complex technical concepts, architectural decisions, and platform strategies into compelling narratives for senior stakeholders and executives. Influence organizational decisions through clear technical communication.
- Own Developer Feedback Loops: Establish tight feedback loops with the engineering community, gather telemetry on platform usage and satisfaction, and iterate platform solutions based on real developer needs and pain points.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Platform Architecture Design
Expertise in designing scalable, maintainable platforms that serve large engineering communities with millions of operations daily.
DevOps & Infrastructure Expertise
Proven experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and infrastructure-as-code solutions at scale.
System Performance Optimization
Ability to identify bottlenecks, optimize workflows, and improve developer iteration cycles through technical innovation.
API Design & Integration
Strong understanding of designing effective APIs and integrations that developers will enthusiastically adopt.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Capability to collect metrics, analyze developer behavior, and make informed decisions about platform improvements.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Formal education in computer science, software engineering, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating deep technical knowledge.
Experience
10+ Years of Software Engineering Experience
Extensive background in software engineering with significant time spent on backend systems, infrastructure, or platform engineering.
5+ Years in Platform or DevOps Engineering
Demonstrated expertise building platforms, developer tools, or infrastructure solutions that impact large engineering organizations.
Track Record of Building Widely-Adopted Products
Proven ability to design and ship developer-focused tools or platforms that thousands of engineers actively use and value.
Cross-Functional Leadership Experience
Experience influencing and collaborating with multiple teams, driving decisions without direct authority, and working with senior stakeholders.
Experience in High-Growth Tech Organizations
Background working in fast-paced environments where requirements shift rapidly, roadmaps are fluid, and adaptability is essential.
Skills
Required
Platform Engineering
Deep expertise in designing and building scalable platform solutions for internal developer communities, with proven ability to think about platforms as products.
Developer Experience (DevEx)
Strong background in improving developer workflows, reducing friction in development cycles, and understanding the pain points of engineering teams.
DevOps & Infrastructure
Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, infrastructure as code, and system reliability practices.
System Architecture & Design
Ability to design complex systems that scale elegantly across large engineering organizations and handle high throughput operations.
Technical Leadership
Proven ability to influence and mentor senior technical stakeholders, drive architectural decisions, and lead initiatives across multiple teams without direct authority.
Communication & Stakeholder Management
Excellent ability to translate complex technical concepts into compelling narratives for executives and technical stakeholders.
Preferred
AI-Native Development Practices
Nice to haveExperience with AI-augmented development workflows, AI coding assistants, or building tools that leverage AI for developer productivity.
Spec-Driven Development
Nice to haveFamiliarity with specification-driven approaches to software development and infrastructure management.
Developer Tooling & Observability
Nice to haveBackground building or improving developer tools, integrated development environments, or observability platforms.
Distributed Systems
Nice to haveUnderstanding of distributed system design patterns and challenges in scaling platforms across large organizations.
Product Mindset
Nice to haveExperience approaching infrastructure and platform work with a product-centric perspective, understanding end-user (engineer) needs deeply.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·NZD 200,000 – 280,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Remote-First Work Environment
Predominantly remote-first position across Australia and New Zealand with flexible working hours, allowing you to maintain work-life balance and autonomy over how and where you work.
Quarterly In-Person Gatherings
Access to 1-2 on-site collaboration sessions per quarter in Melbourne or Wellington/Auckland to strengthen team connections and tackle complex technical problems collaboratively.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Supportive workplace policies accommodating personal circumstances and individual working preferences, recognizing that great technical work thrives with autonomy.
Psychological Safety & Inclusive Culture
High-trust team environment with genuine commitment to diverse perspectives, where the best solutions emerge from teams that think differently and challenge assumptions.
High-Impact Technical Work
Opportunity to directly shape engineering practices and culture across a global organization, working on some of the most complex technical challenges at company scale.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Work across the entire engineering landscape, collaborating with multiple teams and stakeholders, exposing you to diverse technical perspectives and organizational challenges.
AI & Emerging Technology Leadership
Lead the adoption of AI-native development practices and next-generation development lifecycles, positioning you at the forefront of industry innovations.
Professional Growth & Influence
Mentorship opportunities and technical leadership roles that develop your ability to influence without authority and grow emerging technical leaders.
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Initial Application & Resume Review
Submit your application highlighting relevant platform engineering, DevOps, or DevEx experience. Even if your background doesn't perfectly match, emphasize your transferable skills and passion for developer productivity.
- 02
Hiring Manager Phone Screening
Conversation with the Engineering Productivity team leader focused on your background, motivation for the role, and alignment with Xero's culture of going bold and going fast. Expect to discuss specific platform engineering projects you've led.
- 03
Technical Architecture Interview
In-depth discussion with senior engineers about designing scalable platform solutions. You'll likely discuss real platform design decisions, how you'd approach developer experience challenges, and your thinking on system architecture for internal tools.
- 04
Cross-Functional Collaboration Interview
Conversation with engineers from product or infrastructure teams exploring how you collaborate across teams, influence without authority, and gather feedback from diverse stakeholders to shape platform decisions.
- 05
AI & Innovation Discussion
Exploration of your thoughts on AI-native development practices, how you see AI tooling shaping the future of developer workflows, and your vision for modernizing development practices.
- 06
Leadership & Mentorship Interview
Conversation focused on your approach to mentoring and growing others through influence and example. Discuss how you've helped engineers and teams level up, your philosophy on technical leadership, and your ability to communicate complex concepts.
- 07
Final Executive Conversation
Meeting with senior technical leadership or executives to align on vision for developer experience at Xero, discuss your understanding of the role's impact, and ensure mutual fit for this high-impact platform engineering position.
Full posting
Original listing.
The role & impact
As a Principal Engineer in our Engineering Productivity team, you'll partner with our engineering community to build frictionless, developer-first platform tools that remove barriers and empower engineers to focus on what they do best; shipping high-impact software faster, safer, and at scale. Your work directly shapes how thousands of engineers across Xero work, influencing the tools, practices, and cultures that enable them to succeed.
You'll tackle some of the most complex technical challenges across our organisation, from optimising developer workflows to scaling our AI-native development practices. In this role, you're not assigned to a single team; instead, you'll work across our engineering landscape to identify and solve the highest-impact problems - collaborating with multiple teams and stakeholders to drive meaningful change.
The team & how they connect
Engineering Productivity is a specialist team within Xero's engineering organisation, focused on enabling our developer community through platforms and tooling. We collaborate closely with product teams, infrastructure teams, and technical leadership across the organisation to remove friction and accelerate delivery. Our team operates with high trust, psychological safety, and a genuine commitment to diverse perspectives - we believe the best solutions come from teams that think differently.
The team is currently working on
Inner-Loop Mastery: Supercharging local coding speed and developer experience through our Xero AI Engineering Toolkit
Frictionless Delivery: Accelerating pull request reviews and environment provisioning to unblock our outer-loop development flow
Unified Tooling: Consolidating our developer toolchain to eliminate context switching and cognitive load across our engineering teams
Uncompromising Quality: Balancing speed with engineering excellence using Tech Health Scorecards and sustainable development practices
Where and how you can work
This is a distributed role across Australia and New Zealand. Our teams are predominantly remote-first, with occasional in-person gatherings to strengthen connections and tackle complex problems together. We hold 1-2 on-site sessions per quarter (typically in Melbourne or Wellington/Auckland), and we maintain flexible working hours and arrangements to support your personal circumstances. We believe great technical work happens when people have autonomy over how and where they work.
Here are some of the things we are looking for
You bring demonstrated expertise in DevEx, DevOps, or Platform Engineering, with a proven track record of building products and platforms that engineers love to use
You possess a platform-as-a-product mindset - you think deeply about your customers (engineers), understand their pain points, and design solutions that scale elegantly
You're comfortable navigating ambiguous, rapidly evolving environments and can thrive when roadmaps shift and requirements remain fluid - you Go Bold and Go Fast even when the path isn't entirely clear
Your communication skills enable you to influence and collaborate with senior technical stakeholders and executives across the organisation, translating complex technical concepts into compelling narratives
You bring either exposure to or hands-on experience with AI-native development practices, spec-driven development, or modern AI development lifecycles that shape how we build tomorrow
You mentor and grow others through influence and example rather than authority, helping engineers and teams level up and discover their potential
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.
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