Search Engineer
Mid · Full Time
Opens Xero's application page
Role
What you'll do.
Join Xero's Search team as a Search Engineer to maintain and evolve one of the largest search clusters in the Southern Hemisphere, serving 200,000+ daily active users with 50+ million searchable documents at 99.9% uptime. You'll develop advanced search engineering expertise while contributing to a four-year platform modernization initiative, working alongside senior engineers in a distributed team across Australia and New Zealand. This role offers the opportunity to grow your backend infrastructure and distributed systems knowledge while building scalable search solutions that power enterprise cloud accounting software.
Responsibilities
- Search Infrastructure Maintenance and Operations: Maintain and evolve Xero's large-scale search cluster serving 200,000+ daily active users with 50+ million searchable documents across 400TB of data, ensuring 99.9% uptime and peak performance
- Platform Modernization Development: Actively contribute to the Horizon 2 platform rebuild—a four-year strategic initiative to modernize the search platform architecture, implementing new capabilities and improving system efficiency
- Data Ingestion Pipeline Integration: Design and implement integration points between Xero's Operational Data Layer (ODL) and the next-generation search platform, ensuring data consistency and pipeline reliability
- Search Feature Development: Develop and optimize search capabilities across Xero's accounting platform, including relevance ranking improvements, query performance optimization, and new search functionalities
- Cross-Team Collaboration and Integration: Partner with Mobile, Files, and AI-adjacent teams to explore and implement new search capabilities and integrations, contributing technical insights and solutions
- Code Quality and Technical Excellence: Participate in code reviews, architectural discussions, and technical design processes while mentoring junior engineers and maintaining clean, maintainable codebase standards
- Production Incident Response and Troubleshooting: Diagnose and resolve complex issues in production search systems using monitoring tools, observability data, and systematic debugging techniques
- Cluster Management and Scaling: Monitor cluster health metrics, manage index sharding strategies, optimize node allocation, and ensure horizontal scaling strategies support growing data volumes
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Search Systems Engineering
Demonstrated experience building or maintaining search infrastructure, with understanding of indexing strategies, query optimization, and relevance ranking
Backend Development Languages
Proficiency in at least one backend programming language suitable for systems engineering (Java, Go, Rust, Python, or C++)
Distributed Systems Concepts
Solid grasp of distributed computing principles including consistency models, fault tolerance, replication, and high-availability patterns
Database and Storage Systems
Understanding of how search indices work, including knowledge of inverted indices, sharding strategies, and distributed data storage
Monitoring and Observability
Ability to work with logging, metrics, and tracing systems to diagnose issues in production environments and ensure 99.9% uptime
Education
Computer Science or Related Field (Preferred)
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience in backend/infrastructure engineering
Continuous Learning
Demonstrated commitment to developing expertise through technical certifications, side projects, or advanced coursework in search systems or distributed computing
Experience
Search Engineering Experience
2-4 years of professional experience working with search systems, including development, maintenance, or operational responsibilities
Infrastructure Engineering
Background in maintaining or operating large-scale backend systems, clusters, or production infrastructure
Collaborative Engineering Environment
Experience working in distributed or remote-first teams, demonstrating strong asynchronous communication and code review practices
Skills
Required
Search Engine Architecture
Hands-on experience building, maintaining, or optimizing search systems at scale, including understanding of indexing, query processing, and relevance algorithms
Distributed Systems
Strong foundation in designing and working with distributed backend systems, including experience with clustering, replication, and high-availability infrastructure
Backend Software Engineering
Proficiency in core software engineering principles including system design, clean code practices, testing strategies, and code maintainability
Infrastructure and DevOps Fundamentals
Working knowledge of deployment pipelines, monitoring systems, observability tools, and operational excellence practices in production environments
Collaborative Problem Solving
Ability to work effectively in distributed teams through code reviews, design discussions, and asynchronous communication across time zones
Preferred
Elasticsearch or Solr Experience
Nice to haveProven experience with open-source search platforms, particularly Elasticsearch or Apache Solr, including cluster administration and performance tuning
Large-Scale Data Processing
Nice to haveExperience working with petabyte-scale data pipelines, data ingestion systems, or stream processing frameworks
Operational Data Lake Integration
Nice to haveKnowledge of modern data architectures, ETL pipelines, and integration between search systems and centralized data platforms
Cloud Infrastructure
Nice to haveFamiliarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerized deployments relevant to search and infrastructure engineering
Performance Optimization
Nice to haveTrack record of improving system performance under high load, including query optimization, latency reduction, and throughput improvements
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·AUD 120,000 – 160,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Learning and Development
Access to advanced technical training on search systems, distributed architecture, and cloud infrastructure; mentorship from senior engineers and Principal Architect in a collaborative environment
Remote and Flexible Work
Work remotely from Australia or New Zealand or hybrid from Melbourne, Sydney, or Auckland offices; semi-annual team gatherings and optional in-office collaboration days
Impactful Scale
Directly influence systems serving 200,000+ daily active users across Xero's platform; solve interesting technical challenges at petabyte scale
Career Growth Opportunities
Clear pathway to senior engineering roles through exposure to platform modernization initiatives, leadership opportunities, and technical specialization
Health and Wellness
Comprehensive health insurance, mental health support, and wellness programs supporting employee wellbeing
Professional Development
Participation in technical conferences, community events, and speaking opportunities to build industry credibility
Stock Options or Equity
Employee equity participation programs aligned with Xero's company performance
Collaborative Culture
Work with Product Managers, Principal Architects, and cross-functional teams across Mobile, Files, and AI initiatives
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Technical Screening Call
Initial 30-minute conversation with a recruiter to understand your background in search engineering, distributed systems experience, and career goals at Xero
- 02
Search Systems Technical Interview
60-minute technical discussion with a senior search engineer covering distributed systems concepts, search architecture fundamentals, system design thinking, and your approach to solving operational challenges
- 03
Infrastructure and Production Readiness Assessment
Technical round focused on your operational experience, debugging production issues, monitoring and observability expertise, and understanding of SLAs and reliability engineering
- 04
Behavioral and Team Fit Interview
Conversation with the Search team lead and/or Product Manager to assess collaboration skills, growth mindset, communication in distributed teams, and alignment with Xero's values
- 05
Senior Engineer/Architect Discussion
Optional final round with the Principal Architect to discuss larger platform modernization initiatives, architectural thinking, and long-term career development opportunities
Full posting
Original listing.
The role and impact
Join Xero's Search team as a Search Engineer and help maintain and evolve one of the largest search clusters in the Southern Hemisphere. You'll work on infrastructure that powers Xero for 200,000+ daily active users, handling 50+ million searchable documents and 400TB of data at 99.9% uptime.
In this role, you'll grow your search engineering skills while contributing to meaningful projects. You'll work on both search-specific and generalist engineering tasks, collaborate with experienced engineers through code reviews, and gradually take on larger responsibilities as you develop expertise.
The team and how they connect
You'll be part of a small, tight-knit distributed team across Melbourne, New South Wales, and New Zealand, now part of Xero's Catalyst platform division. The team works collaboratively with a Product Manager, a Principal Architect, and the broader Catalyst Platform team. This is a great environment to learn search engineering at scale whilst working alongside senior engineers and technical leaders.
What the team is currently working on
Horizon 2 platform rebuild - Contribute to a four-year search platform modernisation project
Cluster maintenance and evolution - Help maintain our search infrastructure at 99.9% uptime across massive scale
Operational Data Layer (ODL) integration - Work on ingestion pipeline integration with the new platform
Exploring new partnerships - Collaborate on integrations with Mobile, Files, and AI-adjacent search capabilities
Where and how you can work
Work remotely within Australia or New Zealand or hybrid from one of our offices. The team gathers in Melbourne approximately every six months for in-person collaboration, and there are optional "boost days" for office work when you'd like to connect with colleagues face-to-face.
What we're looking for
Search engineering experience - You've built or maintained search systems and are keen to deepen your expertise in this domain
Solid software engineering fundamentals - You understand core software engineering principles and write clean, maintainable code
Growth mindset - You're eager to learn from experienced engineers and tackle increasingly complex problems
Collaboration skills - You work well with others across engineering, product, and infrastructure teams in a distributed environment
Initiative and ownership - You take on tasks with enthusiasm and aren't afraid to ask questions when you need support
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