# Senior Mobile Engineer - React Native
**Company:** [Xero](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/xero)
Senior Mobile Engineer at Xero responsible for architecting and shipping production React Native experiences for the Xero Accounting App, serving millions of small businesses globally. This hands-on senior role combines individual technical contribution with mentorship responsibilities, focusing on evolving mobile architecture, optimizing performance at scale, and embedding AI into engineering workflows. Requires proven expertise in production React Native development, end-to-end feature ownership, and the ability to influence across mobile-backend boundaries while raising engineering standards through technical leadership.
**Role:** Senior Mobile Engineer
**Seniority:** Senior
**Locations:** AU: Melbourne: (260 Burwood Rd)
**Salary:** 150000–200000 AUD
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/xero/a82f5457-4bef-4467-a64d-65d8b19e5d69)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/xero/senior-mobile-engineer-react-native
---
## Responsibilities

- Develop and Ship Production React Native Features: Own complex mobile features end-to-end across critical customer workflows including banking, invoicing, payments, notifications, tasks and file management. Take features from technical design through implementation, release, measurement and production operation, ensuring reliability and performance at scale.
- Evolve Mobile Architecture and Patterns: Contribute to architectural decisions for the React Native platform, establish scalable patterns and simplify technical complexity. Help build a modern, maintainable codebase that enables teams to ship faster without compromising quality or engineering standards.
- Operate Production Systems at Scale: Take responsibility for production software reliability, performance, security and scalability. Participate in incident response and post-mortems, identify recurring failure patterns, automate manual operational processes, and ensure system observability across the mobile ecosystem.
- Cross-Functional Technical Leadership: Partner closely with Product, Design, backend, platform and web teams to influence API design, data flows and technical architecture. Work across the mobile-backend boundary to shape systems that enable exceptional customer experiences while maintaining technical health.
- Engineer Mentorship and Technical Coaching: Raise engineering standards through mentoring, thoughtful code reviews and technical guidance. Help develop the capability of engineers around you, providing strong engineering judgment and ensuring sustainable technical practices across the mobile engineering organization.
- Improve Engineering Efficiency and Tooling: Continuously identify opportunities to improve how the team builds and delivers software. Remove friction from development workflows, simplify technical systems, adopt AI-assisted development tools and automation to shorten feedback loops and accelerate delivery velocity.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Formal educational foundation in computer science, software engineering or equivalent discipline. Alternatively, demonstrable equivalent experience through professional development and self-directed learning in software engineering fundamentals."}

### technical

- {"name":"Production React Native Development","description":"Strong, demonstrable experience building and shipping production mobile applications using React Native. Deep understanding of React Native architecture, native modules, performance optimization and the unique challenges of cross-platform mobile development."}
- {"name":"Mobile Performance and Reliability Engineering","description":"Proven expertise in mobile software at scale, including performance profiling, memory management, battery optimization, release management, crash analytics and production observability. Understanding of how technical decisions impact system performance under load."}
- {"name":"End-to-End Feature Ownership","description":"Track record of owning complex mobile features from technical design through implementation, testing, deployment and post-release operation. Ability to navigate ambiguity, make pragmatic engineering decisions and measure real-world impact of shipped features."}
- {"name":"Mobile-Backend Integration and API Design","description":"Comfortable working across the mobile-backend boundary with experience designing and consuming APIs. Familiarity with Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) patterns, GraphQL, REST architecture and optimization of data flows for mobile clients."}
- {"name":"Large-Scale System Thinking","description":"Experience shipping software to large, active user bases with understanding of how architectural and technical decisions change as systems scale. Ability to balance delivery speed, customer impact, system health and long-term maintainability in design decisions."}

### experience

- {"name":"Senior-Level Mobile Engineering","description":"Minimum 5-7 years of professional mobile development experience with at least 2-3 years in a senior or senior-equivalent role. Demonstrated progression from individual contributor through mentorship and technical leadership responsibilities."}
- {"name":"Production Operations and Incident Response","description":"Experience operating production systems, participating in incident response and post-mortems. Understanding of on-call responsibilities, observability, monitoring and the operational reality of maintaining reliable systems serving large customer bases."}
- {"name":"Cross-Functional Collaboration","description":"Proven ability to work effectively in high-velocity, cross-functional environments. Experience influencing architectural decisions across multiple teams and stakeholders while maintaining focus on customer impact and technical excellence."}
- {"name":"Engineering Mentorship","description":"Track record of mentoring and developing other engineers with tangible outcomes. Experience raising team engineering standards through code reviews, technical guidance and establishing sustainable engineering practices."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"React Native","description":"Production-level expertise building cross-platform mobile applications with React Native, including component architecture, state management, native module integration and performance optimization for iOS and Android."}
- {"name":"JavaScript and TypeScript","description":"Strong proficiency in JavaScript with modern ES6+ features and TypeScript for type-safe React Native development. Ability to write maintainable, well-structured code with proper error handling and testing practices."}
- {"name":"iOS and Android Development Fundamentals","description":"Understanding of iOS and Android platform capabilities, constraints and best practices. Knowledge of native APIs, platform-specific considerations, debugging tools and how to optimize for different device capabilities and OS versions."}
- {"name":"State Management and Architecture Patterns","description":"Expertise with state management solutions (Redux, Context API, MobX or equivalent), architectural patterns and ability to design scalable, maintainable code structures that scale across multiple features and teams."}
- {"name":"Mobile Performance Optimization","description":"Demonstrated ability to profile, identify and optimize mobile application performance including memory management, render optimization, network request efficiency and battery consumption optimization."}
- {"name":"REST APIs and Backend Integration","description":"Strong understanding of REST API design, HTTP protocols, authentication, data serialization and best practices for efficient mobile-backend communication including caching and offline capabilities."}
- {"name":"Testing and Quality Assurance","description":"Proficiency with mobile testing strategies including unit testing, integration testing, UI automation and device testing. Familiarity with testing frameworks like Jest, Detox or equivalent tools for React Native applications."}
- {"name":"Version Control and Collaboration Tools","description":"Expert-level Git proficiency, code review practices, pull request workflows and experience with collaborative development in distributed teams. Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment processes."}

### preferred

- {"name":"AI-Assisted Development and Copilot Tools","description":"Active use of modern AI-assisted development tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT or equivalent to improve productivity and code quality. Ability to leverage generative AI for accelerating development workflows and improving engineering efficiency."}
- {"name":"Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) Architecture","description":"Hands-on experience designing or consuming Backend-for-Frontend services that optimize data and API contracts specifically for mobile client requirements. Understanding of how BFF patterns improve performance and reduce mobile development complexity."}
- {"name":"GraphQL","description":"Experience with GraphQL query language for efficient data fetching from backend services. Understanding of how GraphQL reduces over-fetching and under-fetching compared to REST APIs and improves mobile application efficiency."}
- {"name":"Observability and Analytics Platforms","description":"Familiarity with mobile observability tools, crash analytics platforms and performance monitoring solutions. Experience instrumenting applications for production monitoring, user session tracking and data-driven performance optimization."}
- {"name":"Build Tools and Native Development","description":"Experience with mobile build systems, package management, app signing, distribution systems and native code debugging. Understanding of Gradle, Xcode build processes or equivalent tools for shipping production mobile applications."}
- {"name":"Financial Domain Knowledge","description":"Experience building applications in fintech, financial services or accounting domains. Understanding of compliance requirements, security standards, data sensitivity and user needs in financial software."}
- {"name":"Agile Development and CI/CD Practices","description":"Experience working in agile environments with continuous integration and continuous deployment practices. Familiarity with rapid iteration cycles, automated testing pipelines and deployment frequency optimization."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"Xcode","description":"Integrated development environment for iOS development, native debugging, performance profiling and app signing for iOS deployment through App Store."}
- {"name":"Android Studio","description":"Integrated development environment for Android development, emulator support, debugging tools, performance profiling and app signing for Android deployment through Google Play."}
- {"name":"Metro Bundler","description":"JavaScript bundler for React Native applications, handling module resolution, code transformation and hot module reloading for rapid development iteration."}
- {"name":"Git and GitHub","description":"Version control system and collaborative development platform for code management, pull requests, code review and collaborative engineering workflows."}
- {"name":"CI/CD Platforms (GitHub Actions, Fastlane or equivalent)","description":"Continuous integration and deployment automation tools for automated testing, building, signing and deploying React Native applications to app stores."}
- {"name":"Mobile Observability and Crash Analytics","description":"Production monitoring and analytics platforms for tracking application performance, crashes, user sessions and identifying performance regressions in production environments."}
- {"name":"AI-Assisted Development Tools (GitHub Copilot or equivalent)","description":"Modern AI-powered development assistants for accelerating code generation, refactoring and problem-solving within the development workflow."}

### others

- {"name":"Figma or Design Handoff Collaboration","description":"Design collaboration and handoff tools for implementing pixel-perfect UI designs from product and design teams, ensuring alignment between design specifications and implementation."}
- {"name":"REST API and HTTP Protocols","description":"Web service architecture and communication protocols for mobile-backend integration, covering authentication, error handling and efficient data transfer over mobile networks."}
- {"name":"Agile Methodology","description":"Software development methodology for rapid iteration, continuous delivery and cross-functional collaboration with Product, Design and backend engineering teams."}

### databases

- {"name":"SQLite or Realm","description":"Client-side database options for React Native applications, enabling local data persistence, offline capabilities and efficient querying of structured data on mobile devices."}
- {"name":"Remote REST APIs","description":"Backend API integration for fetching and synchronizing data between mobile client and cloud backend services, handling authentication and real-time data updates."}

### languages

- {"name":"JavaScript","description":"Primary programming language for React Native development, used for all application logic, business logic and cross-platform functionality across iOS and Android platforms."}
- {"name":"TypeScript","description":"Superset of JavaScript providing static type checking and improved developer experience for large-scale React Native applications, enabling safer refactoring and better IDE support."}
- {"name":"Objective-C or Swift","description":"Native iOS development languages for building native modules, integrating platform-specific APIs and extending React Native capabilities with native performance-critical functionality."}
- {"name":"Java or Kotlin","description":"Native Android development languages for building native modules, leveraging Android-specific APIs and integrating platform capabilities that require native implementation for optimal performance."}

### frameworks

- {"name":"React Native","description":"Core cross-platform mobile development framework for building native iOS and Android applications from a single JavaScript codebase, enabling code sharing and faster development cycles."}
- {"name":"React","description":"JavaScript UI library underlying React Native, providing component-based architecture, hooks, state management and the declarative programming model for building mobile interfaces."}
- {"name":"Redux or Equivalent State Management","description":"Predictable state management library for React Native applications, handling complex application state, enabling time-travel debugging and improving testability of business logic."}
- {"name":"React Navigation","description":"Standard navigation library for React Native applications, providing routing, deep linking, navigation state management and native navigation performance for iOS and Android."}

## Benefits

### benefits

- {"name":"Hybrid Work Flexibility","description":"Flexible hybrid work arrangement based in Melbourne or Sydney with regular collaboration boost days bringing teams together. Balance between focused individual work and in-person team collaboration."}
- {"name":"Mentorship and Professional Development","description":"Opportunity to mentor and develop other engineers, raise engineering standards across the organization and invest in the growth of your technical team."}
- {"name":"Impact at Scale","description":"Work on mission-critical software serving millions of small business users globally. See direct real-world impact of your technical decisions on customer experiences and business outcomes."}
- {"name":"AI and Modern Tooling Partnership","description":"Partnership with Anthropic to embed AI into engineering workflows, using cutting-edge AI-assisted development tools to accelerate delivery and improve code quality."}
- {"name":"Cross-Functional Collaboration","description":"Work alongside world-class Product, Design, backend and platform teams in a high-velocity, collaborative environment. Influence architecture and technical direction across multiple teams."}
- {"name":"Ownership and Autonomy","description":"Meaningful ownership of complex features and technical initiatives with decision-making autonomy. Own features end-to-end from design through production operation."}

## Compensation

- **max:** 200000
- **min:** 150000
- **currency:** AUD
- **stockOptions:** true

## Interview process

### steps

## Full description
## **The role and its impact**

We’re looking for a Senior Mobile Engineer to help shape and build the **Xero Accounting App - our flagship mobile experience used by small businesses around the world to manage their finances wherever work takes them.**

You’ll be a key contributor as we continue to evolve our mobile architecture and accelerate our investment in **React Native**, helping us deliver high-quality customer experiences faster while maintaining a strong focus on reliability, performance and engineering excellence.

This is a hands-on senior engineering role with meaningful ownership. You’ll take complex mobile features from idea to production and beyond, contributing to technical design, navigating ambiguity, making pragmatic engineering decisions and seeing the real-world impact of what you ship.

Working across our React Native and broader mobile ecosystem, you’ll partner closely with Product, Design, backend and platform teams to solve challenging problems at scale. You’ll also have an impact beyond your own code, raising the engineering bar through mentoring, thoughtful code reviews and investment in the engineers around you.

Through our partnership with Anthropic, you’ll help reimagine how we build software - embedding AI into everyday engineering workflows to accelerate delivery, improve quality and create more space for engineers to focus on the highest-impact problems.

## **The team and how they connect**

We’re the engineering team behind the **Xero Accounting mobile app**, building experiences that help millions of small businesses manage critical financial workflows from their phones.

We work in a high-velocity, cross-functional environment, partnering closely with Product and Design to create intuitive, beautiful and reliable mobile experiences.

Our mobile engineers also collaborate deeply with backend, platform, web and domain teams across Xero. That means you’ll have the opportunity to influence not only what happens inside the app, but also the APIs, data flows and technical architecture that make great mobile experiences possible.

## **The team is currently working on**

* **Ship meaningful customer value:** Build and evolve React Native experiences across some of Xero’s most important customer workflows, including banking, invoicing, payments, notifications, tasks and file management. You’ll own complex features end to end, contribute to technical design and work across the mobile/backend boundary to shape APIs and data flows that enable great customer experiences.
* **Evolve our React Native architecture:** Help us build a modern, scalable mobile platform that enables teams to ship faster without compromising quality. You’ll contribute to architectural decisions, simplify complexity and help establish patterns that make React Native development more effective across the codebase.
* **Operate at scale:** Take responsibility for the software you ship in production. You’ll help ensure availability, performance, accuracy, security and scalability, automate manual processes, identify recurring failure patterns and participate in incident response and post-mortems. With a large active customer base, your engineering decisions have real impact.
* **Improve engineering efficiency:** Find ways to continuously improve how the team builds and delivers software. You’ll remove friction, simplify technical systems and use automation and AI-assisted development to shorten feedback loops and help the team move faster.
* **Raise the engineering bar:** Make the engineers around you better. Through mentoring, technical guidance, thoughtful code reviews and strong engineering judgement, you’ll help improve both the quality of our software and the capability of the team. At this level, coaching and technical influence are as important as the code you ship.

## **Where and how you can work**

This hybrid role is based in **Melbourne or Sydney**, with flexibility in how you work.

Our mobile engineering teams are distributed across both locations, with regular collaboration and dedicated boost days that bring teams together to solve problems, share knowledge and strengthen connections.

## **Here are some of the things we’re looking for**

* You have **strong, demonstrable experience building and shipping production mobile applications using React Native**.
* You understand the realities of building mobile software at scale - including performance, reliability, release management, observability and what happens when something goes wrong in production.
* You have owned **complex mobile features end to end**, from technical design and implementation through to release, measurement and ongoing operation.
* You’re comfortable working across the mobile/backend boundary. Experience with mobile backend systems, APIs or **Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) patterns** is highly valuable.
* You’ve shipped software to **large, active user bases** and understand how architectural and technical decisions change as systems and customer usage scale.
* You make pragmatic technical decisions, balancing delivery speed, customer impact, system health and long-term maintainability.
* You mentor and support other engineers with tangible outcomes, raising engineering standards through the way you collaborate, review code and approach technical problems.
* You actively use **AI-assisted development, automation and modern engineering tooling** to improve your effectiveness and help teams deliver value faster.

Please apply even if your experience isn’t a perfect match. At Xero, we hire for capability, potential and the unique perspective you can bring to our teams and customers.