The Role

The role / impact

You will manage and mentor a group of engineers while driving the strategic evolution of Xero’s database domain. Your leadership will be pivotal in modernising our data layer, supporting the migration towards open-source technologies like Postgres and DynamoDB. You will foster a world-class engineering culture, ensuring the team delivers high-quality software predictably and sustainably.

The team & how they connect

You will lead the DRE - CaSH team, an experienced group of senior engineers based primarily across Melbourne and Auckland, NZ. This team acts as a crucial enablement and consulting partner to Xero’s product teams. They operate in a collaborative environment, providing both critical operational support (like query tuning and administration) and strategic architectural guidance on data stores and database ownership.

The team is currently working on

• Modernisation Drive: Strategically moving Xero towards modern, open-source database technologies (Postgres, DynamoDB).

• Delivery Optimisation: Applying Lean-Agile techniques to plan work and ensure the delivery pipeline flows at a predictable, sustainable pace.

• Operational Health: Managing the support roster, setting clear customer SLAs, and ensuring post-incident learnings are consistently actioned.

• Technical Standards: Advocating and coaching the team to adhere to Xero’s Engineering Standards to foster sustainably excellent engineering.

Where and how you can work

This is a Team Lead position for candidates based in Australia. We use a hybrid model that balances the flexibility of remote work with the strength of in-person collaboration for key team activities and building team health.

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

• You will bring proven experience managing software delivery teams using Lean-Agile techniques.

  You can demonstrate expert understanding of the interface between applications and databases for building performant, stable data stores.

• You're an experienced people leader, with the ability to lead a large team and have authentic conversations around wellbeing and growth.

• You possess strong communication skills to translate complex technical insights into actionable items for product teams.

• You are comfortable with database technologies, preferably including two or more of SQL Server, Postgres, or DynamoDB.

• You embrace a growth mindset, modelling resilience and a love of learning to support your team's development.

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.