# Senior Site Reliability Engineer
**Company:** [Xero](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/xero)
Join Xero's central Observability team as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer, where you'll architect standardized observability systems and telemetry frameworks that empower product teams to adopt agentic-first development practices. This senior-level position focuses on implementing OpenTelemetry standards, designing intelligent alerting systems, and optimizing platform reliability across distributed cloud infrastructure serving millions of small businesses globally. You'll collaborate across Australia and New Zealand with high autonomy while influencing how the entire engineering organization operates reliably under scale.
**Role:** Site Reliability Engineer
**Seniority:** Senior
**Locations:** AU: New South Wales Remote Worker
**Remote:** yes
**Salary:** 150000–200000 AUD
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/xero/21751d35-7851-4c2d-a2ab-1ac68cfcdcec)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/xero/senior-site-reliability-engineer
---
## Responsibilities

- Architect Standardized Observability Systems: Design and implement vendor-agnostic telemetry frameworks and data pipelines that enable standardized observability across Xero's distributed applications. Establish consistent logging, metrics, and distributed tracing standards that support intelligent operational workflows and agentic development practices.
- Drive OpenTelemetry Implementation: Lead the adoption and implementation of OpenTelemetry standards across distributed systems, ensuring consistent instrumentation practices that reduce vendor lock-in and enable seamless data portability across observability platforms.
- Optimize Platform Efficiency and Cost: Analyze and optimize cloud infrastructure costs and system performance across large-scale environments. Monitor resource utilization, identify inefficiencies, and implement cost-reduction strategies while maintaining or improving system reliability and performance metrics.
- Design Automated Alerting and Reliability Scorecards: Build intelligent alerting systems and reliability scorecards that streamline incident investigation, reduce mean-time-to-resolution, and provide clear visibility into system health across product teams. Implement automation that minimizes alert fatigue while maintaining critical incident visibility.
- Support Cross-Functional Product Teams: Collaborate with product engineering squads to establish shared reliability benchmarks, provide platform standards guidance, and lift observability maturity across the organization. Mentor engineers on best practices for instrumenting applications and interpreting telemetry data.
- Set Technical Direction for Reliability Infrastructure: Contribute to architectural decisions that shape how reliability and observability capabilities are delivered across Xero's product landscape. Influence engineering culture toward proactive, data-driven reliability practices and automated incident response workflows.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent professional experience. Foundational knowledge in computer systems, networking, and data structures."}

### technical

- {"name":"Distributed Tracing, Metrics, and Log Aggregation","description":"Proven experience managing distributed tracing systems (Jaeger, Zipkin), metrics collection and storage (Prometheus, Grafana), and centralized log aggregation platforms (ELK Stack, Loki, Splunk) within large-scale cloud environments handling high volume observability data."}
- {"name":"OpenTelemetry Standards and Instrumentation","description":"Practical hands-on familiarity with OpenTelemetry SDKs, APIs, and collector components. Experience instrumenting applications in multiple languages and implementing vendor-agnostic telemetry practices that prevent observability platform lock-in."}
- {"name":"Distributed Systems Architecture","description":"Deep understanding of distributed systems design patterns, microservices architecture, and system behavior under high load. Ability to diagnose complex reliability issues across networked services, including latency propagation, cascading failures, and resource contention."}
- {"name":"Cloud Platform Operations","description":"Extensive hands-on experience with major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) including infrastructure-as-code, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), service meshes, and cloud-native observability tools. Understanding of cloud cost optimization and resource management."}
- {"name":"Data Pipeline and Telemetry Architecture","description":"Experience designing and implementing scalable data pipelines for processing telemetry data at scale. Knowledge of stream processing frameworks, event routing, data normalization, and telemetry storage optimization."}

### experience

- {"name":"Senior-Level Platform or SRE Experience","description":"Minimum 7+ years of software engineering experience with at least 3+ years in site reliability engineering, platform engineering, or observability-focused roles. Demonstrated progression to senior level with evidence of technical leadership and mentoring capabilities."}
- {"name":"Large-Scale Distributed System Operations","description":"Proven track record operating and scaling observability systems in large distributed environments. Experience managing multi-region deployments, high-throughput data systems, and the operational challenges of production-grade reliability infrastructure."}
- {"name":"Cross-Functional Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing","description":"Demonstrated ability to work effectively across multiple engineering teams, establish shared standards and practices, and elevate platform engineering maturity organization-wide. Strong communication skills and experience mentoring or training engineers on reliability practices."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"Kubernetes and Container Orchestration","description":"Advanced proficiency with Kubernetes deployment, scaling, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Understanding of container runtime behavior, resource limits, and how application instrumentation integrates with orchestration layers."}
- {"name":"Prometheus and Time-Series Monitoring","description":"Expert-level experience with Prometheus metrics collection, querying with PromQL, and designing effective instrumentation strategies. Familiarity with alerting rules, recording rules, and long-term metrics storage solutions."}
- {"name":"Logging Infrastructure and ELK/Loki Stack","description":"Hands-on expertise with centralized logging platforms including Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana (ELK) or Grafana Loki. Ability to design scalable log aggregation pipelines and create efficient dashboards for operational visibility."}
- {"name":"Linux Systems Administration","description":"Strong proficiency with Linux systems, shell scripting, networking fundamentals, performance profiling tools, and system-level troubleshooting. Comfortable working at all layers of the stack from infrastructure to application observability."}
- {"name":"Infrastructure as Code","description":"Practical experience with IaC tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or Pulumi. Ability to version control, test, and deploy infrastructure changes through CI/CD pipelines following GitOps principles."}
- {"name":"Incident Response and Postmortem Culture","description":"Experience leading incident response procedures, conducting blameless postmortems, and implementing lasting remediation measures. Understanding of SLO/SLI/SLA definitions and using data to drive reliability improvements."}

### preferred

- {"name":"AI and Machine Learning Observability","description":"Interest or hands-on experience with AI-powered alerting, anomaly detection in telemetry data, intelligent incident correlation, and agentic systems monitoring. Familiarity with how intelligent systems consume observability data for autonomous incident response."}
- {"name":"Service Mesh Technologies","description":"Experience with service mesh platforms (Istio, Linkerd, Envoy) and understanding how service meshes provide native observability capabilities for distributed systems, including automatic trace instrumentation and network policies."}
- {"name":"Multi-Language Application Instrumentation","description":"Hands-on experience instrumenting applications across multiple programming languages (Go, Python, Java, Node.js, .NET) with observability SDKs and libraries. Understanding of language-specific performance profiling and tracing considerations."}
- {"name":"Cost Optimization and FinOps","description":"Experience with cloud cost optimization, chargeback models, and FinOps practices. Ability to identify cost anomalies through observability data and implement cost-reduction strategies without sacrificing reliability."}
- {"name":"Open Source Contributions","description":"Active contributions to observability-related open source projects such as OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, or similar. Demonstrated engagement with the cloud-native and SRE community."}
- {"name":"SaaS Product and API Observability","description":"Experience observing SaaS platforms with complex API ecosystems, multi-tenant architectures, and high customer-facing reliability requirements. Understanding of observability challenges unique to cloud-hosted accounting or business software platforms."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Container orchestration platform where applications run and where observability infrastructure is deployed. Essential for managing scalable reliability systems."}
- {"name":"Terraform","description":"Infrastructure-as-code tool for provisioning and managing cloud infrastructure, observability systems, and platform resources."}
- {"name":"Docker","description":"Container runtime technology for packaging applications and observability components. Critical for consistent deployment across environments."}
- {"name":"Git","description":"Version control system for code, infrastructure configurations, and GitOps-driven deployments."}
- {"name":"Jenkins/GitHub Actions","description":"CI/CD platforms for automating testing, building, and deploying observability systems and platform changes."}

### others

- {"name":"AWS or GCP","description":"Major cloud platforms where Xero's infrastructure likely runs. Deep familiarity with managed services like CloudWatch, Cloud Trace, or Cloud Logging."}
- {"name":"Service Meshes (Istio/Linkerd)","description":"Optional but valuable experience with service mesh platforms that provide native observability capabilities and network-level tracing."}
- {"name":"Data Streaming (Kafka, Pub/Sub)","description":"Message streaming platforms potentially used for routing high-volume telemetry data through data pipelines."}
- {"name":"Incident Management Platforms (PagerDuty, Opsgenie)","description":"Incident response and on-call management tools that integrate with observability systems for alert routing and escalation."}

### databases

- {"name":"Elasticsearch","description":"Distributed search and log analysis engine. Commonly used for storing and querying application logs and event data at scale."}
- {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Relational database potentially used for operational data storage, configuration management, or telemetry metadata in observability systems."}
- {"name":"InfluxDB","description":"Time-series database optimized for metrics storage and high-volume telemetry data collection."}

### languages

- {"name":"Go","description":"Primary language for observability infrastructure, collectors, and reliability tooling. Commonly used for high-performance systems work and cloud-native applications."}
- {"name":"Python","description":"Used for data pipeline scripting, telemetry analysis, automation, and integration work within observability systems."}
- {"name":"SQL","description":"Essential for querying observability databases, analyzing telemetry data trends, and reporting on system performance metrics."}

### frameworks

- {"name":"OpenTelemetry","description":"Vendor-neutral observability framework for collecting traces, metrics, and logs. Core to implementing standardized instrumentation across Xero's distributed applications."}
- {"name":"Prometheus","description":"Time-series metrics collection and monitoring framework. Primary tool for system performance monitoring, alerting, and building reliability dashboards."}
- {"name":"Grafana","description":"Visualization and dashboarding platform for observability data. Used for creating operational dashboards, health monitoring, and incident investigation interfaces."}
- {"name":"Jaeger","description":"Distributed tracing platform for monitoring and troubleshooting transactions across microservices architectures."}

## Benefits

### benefits

- {"name":"Flexible Remote Work Arrangements","description":"Fully flexible work-from-home options with access to modern office spaces in Sydney and Melbourne for those based in Eastern Australian time zones. Supporting your preferred working rhythm with regular team connection opportunities."}
- {"name":"Collaborative Global Culture","description":"Work with a transparent, open engineering culture built around collective problem-solving and technical experimentation. Operate with high autonomy while collaborating with dedicated reliability and platform engineering specialists across Australia and New Zealand."}
- {"name":"Technical Leadership and Mentoring Opportunities","description":"Shape technical direction across observability and reliability infrastructure. Mentor and support colleagues across the organization, directly influencing how engineering teams build and release software at scale."}
- {"name":"Impact at Scale","description":"Work on infrastructure serving millions of small businesses globally. Your observability systems directly influence how distributed applications operate reliably, making immediate organizational impact."}
- {"name":"Cutting-Edge Technology Stack","description":"Engage with modern cloud-native technologies including Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, distributed tracing, and agentic-first development practices. Work at the intersection of SRE innovation and AI-powered operational workflows."}
- {"name":"Professional Development","description":"Access to continuous learning opportunities focused on reliability engineering, observability best practices, and emerging technologies in cloud-native systems and AI-powered operations."}

## Compensation

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

## Interview process

### steps

- {"name":"Initial Screening Call","description":"Preliminary conversation with a recruiter to understand your background, experience with observability systems, and alignment with the role's technical focus and team culture."}
- {"name":"Technical Deep Dive Interview","description":"Detailed discussion with a senior engineer from the Observability team covering distributed systems architecture, observability implementation experience, troubleshooting approaches, and your experience with telemetry frameworks like OpenTelemetry or similar platforms."}
- {"name":"System Design or Technical Challenge","description":"Focused technical interview on designing scalable observability architectures, data pipeline implementations, or solving complex reliability challenges. You may discuss how you'd approach building telemetry systems for large distributed applications."}
- {"name":"Cross-Functional Team Collaboration Interview","description":"Conversation exploring your experience collaborating with product teams, mentoring engineers, establishing platform standards, and your approach to cross-organizational knowledge sharing and technical leadership."}
- {"name":"Engineering Manager or Director Interview","description":"Final-stage discussion with leadership covering career goals, strategic thinking around observability and reliability infrastructure, and long-term vision alignment with Xero's platform organization."}

## Full description
**The role / impact**

This senior engineering position plays a central role in transforming how software reliability and observability are delivered across our entire product landscape. You will help set technical direction and build standardised, intelligent observability systems that enable product teams to embrace automated, agentic-first development practices.

Beyond driving technical execution, you will help design robust data pipelines and telemetry frameworks while supporting colleagues across the organisation. Your efforts directly influence how systems operate reliably under load, standardising performance monitoring and accelerating how engineering teams build and release software.

**The team / how they connect**

You will join our central Observability team within the platform organisation, working alongside engineers dedicated to reliability, platform performance, and data architecture. Operating with high autonomy, the team collaborates remotely across Australia and New Zealand to establish shared reliability benchmarks and support product squads across the business. Communication is transparent, open, and built around collective problem-solving and technical experimentation.

**Initially, you will focus on**

* Building standardised data pipelines and telemetry layer architectures to enable intelligent, agentic development workflows.
* Implementing open telemetry standards and vendor-agnostic instrumentation across distributed applications.
* Driving platform efficiency, cost optimisation, and monitoring performance metrics across cloud systems.
* Designing automated alerting and reliability scorecards to streamline incident investigation and system health tracking.

**Where and how you can work**

This position offers flexible remote working arrangements for candidates based across Eastern time zones in Australia. Whether you choose to work entirely from home or access our modern office spaces in Sydney, Melbourne, our flexible setup supports your preferred rhythm alongside regular opportunities for team connection.

**Here are some of the things we are looking for**

* Experience managing distributed tracing, metrics, and log aggregation within large-scale cloud environments.
* Practical familiarity with OpenTelemetry standards and vendor-agnostic instrumentation techniques.
* Deep understanding of distributed systems architecture and diagnosing platform behavior under high load.
* A strong interest in artificial intelligence tooling, intelligent operational workflows, and data model automation.
* Demonstrated ability to collaborate across engineering teams, share knowledge, and lift platform standards.
* A proactive approach to problem-solving, taking ownership of complex reliability challenges from design to execution.

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.