# Senior Software Engineer, AI Enablement
**Company:** [Xero](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/xero)
Join Xero's AI Enablement team as a Senior Software Engineer to design and build internal platforms, tools, and best practices that empower engineers across the organization to work effectively with AI. Working with C#, .NET, AWS, and emerging AI technologies, you'll own projects end-to-end from experimentation through production, collaborate with industry partners like AWS and Microsoft on cutting-edge technology, and shape the technical direction of an internal skills marketplace serving hundreds of engineers. This role requires deep production discipline, strong communication skills, and curiosity about AI-native development—offering real influence over Xero's AI engineering strategy.
**Role:** Senior Software Engineer
**Seniority:** Senior
**Locations:** AU: Sydney (45 Clarence St)
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/xero/6bbae2b1-a91e-4582-a716-ee034fd09ca2)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/xero/senior-software-engineer-ai-enablement-6bbae2b1
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## Responsibilities

- End-to-End Platform Ownership: Own the complete lifecycle of AI enablement tools and platforms from early-stage experimentation through production deployment, including architecture decisions, implementation, and long-term maintenance. Take full responsibility for reliability and performance once the platform scales across the engineering organization.
- Internal Skills Marketplace Development: Design and build an internal marketplace that enables engineers to discover, share, and leverage AI-native agent skills and tools across Xero's product engineering teams. Establish discoverability, governance, and quality standards for shared AI components.
- Production Excellence & Operational Readiness: Establish production discipline by writing comprehensive runbooks, designing monitoring strategies, implementing alerting systems, and planning rollback procedures before any system reaches production. Ensure reliability and observability for critical internal infrastructure that hundreds of engineers depend on daily.
- AI Distribution Platform Engineering: Build and maintain a distribution platform that enables standardized deployment, versioning, and management of AI tools and frameworks across the engineering organization. Ensure seamless integration with development workflows and infrastructure.
- Strategic Vendor Collaboration: Work directly with AWS, Microsoft, and GitHub on early-access and pre-release technology not yet available to the public. Provide feedback, validate implementation approaches, and integrate emerging capabilities into Xero's AI strategy before general availability.
- Best Practice Development & Guidance: Create and maintain best practices documentation, guidance, and training materials for authoring agent skills, designing AI-native workflows, and implementing remediation tasks. Build organizational knowledge to accelerate AI adoption across engineering teams.
- Cross-Team Communication & Alignment: Communicate technical decisions clearly to stakeholders, present roadmap items to product managers and leadership, and bring teams along with proposed ideas. Drive consensus on technical direction through thoughtful engagement and stakeholder management.
- Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Provide technical guidance to team members on AI development patterns, architectural approaches, and engineering best practices. Help shape the team's growth and capability as Xero's AI engineering practice matures.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Formal education in computer science, software engineering, or related discipline providing strong foundational knowledge in algorithms, data structures, and system design. Not strictly required if substantial professional experience demonstrates equivalent expertise."}

### technical

- {"name":"C# & .NET Framework","description":"Hands-on production experience building and maintaining C# applications on the .NET framework, including async patterns, dependency injection, and performance optimization. This is Xero's primary development platform for core systems."}
- {"name":"AWS Cloud Services","description":"Practical experience with AWS services including Lambda, EC2, RDS, S3, CloudWatch, and API Gateway. Ability to design scalable, reliable cloud-native architectures and implement infrastructure-as-code patterns."}
- {"name":"AI & Large Language Models","description":"Practical understanding of large language models, prompt engineering, and AI-native development patterns. Experience working with APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar AI service providers, and understanding of agentic workflows."}
- {"name":"Python & TypeScript","description":"Functional programming competency in Python and TypeScript for AI tooling, scripting, and supporting infrastructure. While not primary stack, these languages are essential for modern AI tooling at Xero."}
- {"name":"Production Systems Design","description":"Expertise in designing and building reliable production systems with comprehensive monitoring, logging, alerting, and incident response capabilities. Deep understanding of runbook creation, chaos engineering principles, and disaster recovery planning."}
- {"name":"API & Platform Design","description":"Experience designing clean, well-documented APIs and developer platforms. Understanding of API versioning, backward compatibility, and building systems that scale to hundreds of internal users."}
- {"name":"Distributed Systems & Deployment","description":"Understanding of distributed system principles, containerization patterns, deployment automation, and CI/CD pipelines. Experience deploying and operating systems across multiple environments."}

### experience

- {"name":"7+ Years of Professional Software Engineering","description":"Demonstrated track record of building and shipping production software systems at scale. This role requires maturity in architectural thinking, technical decision-making, and operating systems in live environments."}
- {"name":"Internal Tools & Platform Development","description":"Direct experience building internal tools, developer platforms, or infrastructure that other engineers genuinely relied on for their daily work. Understanding of internal user needs, operational excellence, and adoption strategies for internal products."}
- {"name":"AI or Machine Learning Engineering Experience","description":"Prior experience integrating AI capabilities into production systems, working with machine learning models, or building AI-native tools. This could include prompt engineering, agents, or AI orchestration patterns in professional settings."}
- {"name":"Cloud-Native Development","description":"Proven experience building and operating cloud-native applications, particularly on AWS. Familiarity with serverless architectures, containerized deployments, and cloud infrastructure management."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"C# Development","description":"Strong proficiency in C# with production experience in async/await patterns, LINQ, dependency injection, and enterprise application architecture."}
- {"name":".NET Framework Architecture","description":"Deep understanding of .NET Framework or .NET Core architecture, including application design, performance tuning, and integration with cloud services."}
- {"name":"AWS Cloud Platform","description":"Hands-on expertise with AWS services, infrastructure design, and operational best practices. Ability to evaluate trade-offs between different AWS services for specific use cases."}
- {"name":"Large Language Model Integration","description":"Experience integrating LLMs into applications, including prompt design, response parsing, and handling model behavior at scale."}
- {"name":"Software Architecture & System Design","description":"Ability to design scalable, maintainable systems with clear abstractions, separation of concerns, and consideration for long-term operational requirements."}
- {"name":"Production Operations & Monitoring","description":"Expertise in observability, logging, distributed tracing, alerting configuration, and incident response. Strong operational mindset applied before code ships."}
- {"name":"Technical Communication","description":"Ability to articulate technical concepts to diverse audiences, document architectural decisions, and present complex ideas clearly to stakeholders and peers."}

### preferred

- {"name":"Python Programming","description":"Familiarity with Python for scripting, data processing, and AI tooling. This accelerates work with AI libraries and supporting infrastructure."}
- {"name":"TypeScript & Modern Frontend","description":"Experience with TypeScript and modern JavaScript frameworks for building developer tools, dashboards, or internal UIs that support platform adoption."}
- {"name":"Agent & Agentic Workflows","description":"Understanding of autonomous agent design patterns, multi-step reasoning, tool use, and agentic frameworks like LangChain or AutoGPT-style approaches."}
- {"name":"Infrastructure as Code","description":"Experience with IaC tools such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or CDK for repeatable infrastructure provisioning and environment management."}
- {"name":"API Gateway & Service Mesh","description":"Experience building or operating API gateways, service meshes, or similar distributed systems infrastructure for managing internal tool distribution."}
- {"name":"Developer Experience & DevTools","description":"Background in building tools explicitly designed for developer productivity, including SDKs, CLIs, frameworks, or internal developer platforms."}
- {"name":"Kubernetes & Container Orchestration","description":"Experience with Kubernetes deployments, container management, and orchestration patterns for scaling internal services."}
- {"name":"Git & Advanced Version Control","description":"Deep familiarity with Git workflows, branching strategies, and version control patterns for managing complex distributed development."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"AWS Console & CLI","description":"Tools for provisioning, managing, and monitoring AWS infrastructure. Essential for designing cloud-native systems and operating services in production."}
- {"name":"Git & GitHub","description":"Version control system and collaboration platform. GitHub is mentioned as a vendor partnership, indicating use of GitHub Enterprise or advanced GitHub features for the platform."}
- {"name":"CloudWatch","description":"AWS monitoring and observability service. Used for logging, metrics collection, alerting, and incident response across cloud infrastructure."}
- {"name":"DataDog or New Relic","description":"Application performance monitoring and observability platforms. Used for distributed tracing, performance profiling, and understanding system behavior in production."}
- {"name":"Terraform or AWS CDK","description":"Infrastructure as Code tools for provisioning and managing AWS resources programmatically. Enables repeatable, version-controlled infrastructure management."}
- {"name":"Docker & Container Registry","description":"Containerization technology for packaging applications and services. Enables consistent deployment across development, staging, and production environments."}
- {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Container orchestration platform for managing containerized applications at scale. Enables efficient resource utilization and high-availability deployments."}
- {"name":"CI/CD Pipeline Tools","description":"Tools such as GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or Jenkins for automating build, test, and deployment processes. Critical for reliable software delivery."}

### others

- {"name":"OpenAI API","description":"Primary large language model provider for many organizations. Experience with GPT models, embeddings, and fine-tuning approaches relevant for AI integration."}
- {"name":"Anthropic Claude API","description":"Alternative LLM provider with strong reasoning capabilities and long context windows. Relevant for complex agentic tasks and reasoning-heavy applications."}
- {"name":"Microsoft Copilot & GitHub Copilot","description":"Microsoft partnership with Xero involves cutting-edge AI tooling. Understanding of GitHub Copilot, Copilot for Business, and Microsoft's broader AI offerings."}
- {"name":"Prompt Engineering & Prompt Management","description":"Disciplines for designing effective prompts, testing variations, and managing prompt quality at scale. Critical for building reliable AI-powered systems."}
- {"name":"Observability & Tracing","description":"Advanced observability concepts including distributed tracing, custom metrics, and understanding system behavior in complex microservices environments."}
- {"name":"Incident Management & Runbook Development","description":"Practices and tooling for managing incidents, conducting post-mortems, and developing runbooks. Essential for maintaining production reliability."}

### databases

- {"name":"SQL Server","description":"Xero's primary relational database for transactional data, financial records, and operational systems. Strong consistency and ACID guarantees required for accounting applications."}
- {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Open-source relational database used for various internal systems and services. Good compatibility with cloud deployments and modern development practices."}
- {"name":"DynamoDB","description":"AWS NoSQL database for high-throughput, low-latency access patterns. Used for caching, session management, and time-series data in cloud-native applications."}
- {"name":"Redis","description":"In-memory data store used for caching, session management, rate limiting, and real-time features. Critical for performance optimization in high-scale systems."}

### languages

- {"name":"C#","description":"Primary development language for Xero's backend systems and the core technology for this role. Used extensively for business logic, API development, and enterprise application building."}
- {"name":"Python","description":"Used for AI tooling, scripting, data processing, and integration with AI models. Essential for working with LLM APIs and machine learning frameworks."}
- {"name":"TypeScript","description":"Used for AI-related tooling, developer dashboards, and internal UIs. Provides type safety for complex frontend logic supporting the internal platform."}

### frameworks

- {"name":".NET Framework / .NET Core","description":"The foundation of Xero's backend architecture. Used for building scalable APIs, distributed services, and enterprise applications with strong performance characteristics."}
- {"name":"ASP.NET Core","description":"Web application framework built on .NET used for API development, microservices, and building scalable web applications serving internal and external users."}
- {"name":"LangChain","description":"Framework for building applications with large language models, managing prompts, chains, and agent workflows. Relevant for AI tool development."}
- {"name":"FastAPI","description":"Modern Python framework for building high-performance APIs, particularly relevant for AI service backends and Python-based tooling."}
- {"name":"React or Vue.js","description":"Frontend frameworks for building developer dashboards and internal tools UI. Used to create intuitive interfaces for accessing the AI marketplace and platform tools."}

## Benefits

### benefits

## Interview process

### steps

## Full description
**Senior Software Engineer, AI Enablement**

**The role & impact**

You'll join a small team that builds the tools, platforms and best practices helping engineers across Xero work with AI. Rather than shipping something once and moving on, you'll own it end to end from early experimentation through to production, including the run books, monitoring and rollback thinking that keep it reliable once real engineers depend on it day to day.

This is a role with real influence. You'll help shape the technical direction of an internal skills marketplace and AI distribution platform used across the wider engineering organisation, work directly with vendors like AWS, Microsoft and GitHub on technology that isn't public yet, and help guide and challenge a team that's still early in its AI journey.

**The team & how they connect**

The AI Enablement team sits within Engineering Experience and focuses on helping product engineering teams work faster and better with AI through platforms, tooling and practical guidance rather than just standard tooling. It's a close-knit team, spread across Melbourne, Sydney and the Sunshine Coast, with a product manager based in Wellington, who stay connected through regular syncs and a genuinely collaborative way of working despite the distance.

**Initially, you will focus on**

* Our current stack is C#, .NET and AWS, with Python and TypeScript picked up along the way for AI tooling
* Building an internal skills marketplace and a distribution platform for AI tools used across Xero's engineering org
* Developing guidance and best practice for authoring agent skills, including agents for remediation tasks
* Collaborating directly with AWS, Microsoft and GitHub on early-access technology not yet available in market

**Where and how you can work**

You can be based anywhere in Australia, and we're also open to candidates based in New Zealand. The team works in a hybrid way and is used to connecting across time zones, with regular in person boost days to come together, plan and collaborate as a team.

**Here are some of the things we're looking for, for this role**

* You bring hands-on software engineering experience, ideally with C#, .NET and AWS — if your background is elsewhere, we're still keen to talk, as good engineers pick up new stacks quickly
* You've built internal tools or platforms that other engineers genuinely relied on
* Production discipline matters to you: You write runbooks, set up monitoring and think through rollback before anything goes live
* You communicate clearly and know how to bring people along with an idea, not just ship code quietly in the background
* You're curious about coding agents and AI-native tools, and you keep an eye on where AI engineering is heading
* You can challenge a decision directly and respectfully, and you learn new things in a structured, quality-focused way

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.