ENGINEERING MANAGER - SRE

Xero; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work arrangement

Job summary

Xero is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team in Australia. You will lead reliability efforts across APAC and EMEA, drive HA/DR testing, and manage incident response, partnering with platform teams and observability specialists to reduce customer incidents.

You will mentor engineers, shape the engineering culture, and expand the SRE team from two to four engineers while maintaining strong incident response standards and a reliability-first mindset.

Qualifications

• proven SRE or infrastructure leadership experience, ideally managing incident command at scale, with a demonstrable track record of building or maturing HA/DR programmes.
• strong software engineering skills and are comfortable diving into code to solve reliability problems, not just process; fluency with AI-assisted tooling is a core capability, not a nice-to-have.
• agency and curiosity; proactive problem-solving and ownership across the business.
• excellent stakeholder management; influence peer teams across regions, platforms, and functions.

Responsibilities

• Building and maturing a continuous HA/DR testing cadence, moving from ad hoc to reliable weekly execution.
• Establishing and optimising incident command protocols across APAC and EMEA regions, with a focus on time-to-mitigation against clear targets.
• Closing cross-team reliability gaps identified between Observability, Tooling, and product engineering through structured collaboration.
• Growing the team from two to four engineers whilst maintaining high incident response standards and driving a reliability-first mindset.
• Mentoring engineers and shaping the team’s culture with structured onboarding and regular 1:1s.

Skills

SRE Leadership

Incident Command

HA/DR Programs

Software Engineering

Stakeholder Management

Cross-Regional Collaboration

Distributed Teams

AI-assisted tooling

Tools

AI-assisted tooling

Job description

The role and its impact

We are seeking an Engineering Manager for our Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team. In this leadership role, you will own and drive our reliability programme, focusing on high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR) testing and incident management across our Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions.

The role and its impact

We are seeking an Engineering Manager for our Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team. In this leadership role, you will own and drive our reliability programme, focusing on high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR) testing and incident management across our Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions.

You will lead a growing team through a critical period of expansion, building a culture where reliability is woven into the DNA of the business, not treated as an afterthought.

Your work will have significant impact on Xero's customer experience and operational resilience. By partnering with platform teams, observability specialists, and cross-functional stakeholders, you will close systemic reliability gaps and help reduce customer-detected incidents by 70–80%. You will also shape how our engineering culture evolves, mentoring engineers and fostering an environment where thoughtful problem-solving and ownership are valued.

The Team And How They Connect

The Australia-based SRE team currently comprises two skilled engineers and is growing to at least four by year-end. The team operates collaboratively with Cloud Engineering, Observability, Database Reliability Engineering, and Shared Services to elevate Xero's reliability posture across our platform. You will report to the Head of Engineering for Reliability and partner closely with a US-based Engineering Manager who owns incident management for the EMEA/US time zone, ensuring seamless global coverage. Together, you will run Xero's reliability programme, working in lockstep to deliver measurable improvements in how the business detects, responds to, and prevents incidents.

The team is currently working on

• Building and maturing a continuous HA/DR testing cadence, moving from ad hoc to reliable weekly execution
• Establishing and optimising incident command protocols across APAC and EMEA regions, with a focus on time-to-mitigation against clear targets
• Closing cross-team reliability gaps identified between Observability, Tooling, and product engineering through structured collaboration
• Growing the team from two to four engineers whilst maintaining high incident response standards and driving a reliability-first mindset

Where And How You Can Work

We have no standing office attendance requirement; we expect you to join us in person approximately once per quarter. We offer the flexibility to work in a way that suits your rhythm and your team's needs, whilst maintaining the collaboration and connection that makes us stronger together.

Here are some of the things we are looking for

• You bring proven SRE or infrastructure leadership experience, ideally managing incident command at scale, with a demonstrable track record of building or maturing HA/DR programmes.
• You possess strong software engineering skills and are comfortable diving into code to solve reliability problems, not just process; fluency with AI-assisted tooling is a core capability, not a nice-to-have.
• Your agency and curiosity shine through—you think and act beyond the job description, bias toward independent problem-solving over waiting for direction, and bring a genuine enthusiasm for lifting reliability across the business.
• You excel at stakeholder management and can influence peer teams without formal authority, forging durable relationships across regions, platforms, and functions with both conviction and empathy.
• You are comfortable operating across time zones and managing distributed teams with ease, bringing calm and clarity to high-pressure incident response moments.
• You care about growing and developing engineers. You will shape the team's culture through structured onboarding, regular one-to-ones, and mentorship that helps people thrive and stay.

At Xero, we hire based on your skills, passion, and the unique perspective you can bring to enhance our culture and team.