Senior ML Engineer — AI Production Systems

Xero; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Xero is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer to lead the design and implementation of large-scale, production-grade distributed systems that power AI features for millions of daily users. You will own the architecture decisions, champion engineering excellence, and mentor junior engineers while collaborating across Xero to productionize models with Applied Scientists.

You will work in the AI Products group within Data & Science, contributing to platforms like automated bank reconciliation,

Qualifications

• 5+ years building and operating production Python services at scale.
• Own services or pipelines in production, including on-call responsibility, incident response, and managing technical debt over time.
• Deep understanding of distributed processing principles (Spark, Dask, or similar) alongside strong SQL capabilities.
• Demonstrated experience integrating ML models or LLM-based features into production systems.
• Familiarity with ML tooling such as MLFlow, TensorFlow, or PyTorch, and data orchestration tools like Airflow or Prefect; production depth matters more than research exposure.
• Nice to have: prior experience applying or fine-tuning LLMs in a product context.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of large-scale, production-grade distributed systems powering AI features for millions of daily users.
• Own architecture decisions that keep systems flexible, cost-effective, and robust; direct strategy for distributed systems and manage technical debt across the AI Products estate.
• Mentor junior engineers and uplift the overall data usability within the AI Products team.
• Collaborate across Xero to apply modern AI research, transitioning models from research to production alongside Applied Scientists.
• Contribute to end-to-end AI product experiences and ensure reliable, scalable product integrations.

Skills

Production Python

System design

On-call / incident response

Distributed processing

SQL

ML models in production

LLMs in production

ML tooling

Tools

MLFlow

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Airflow

Prefect

Spark

Dask

Job description

Xero is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer to lead the design and implementation of large-scale, production-grade distributed systems that power AI features for millions of daily users. You will own the architecture decisions, champion engineering excellence, and mentor junior engineers while collaborating across Xero to productionize models with Applied Scientists.

You will work in the AI Products group within Data & Science, contributing to platforms like automated bank reconciliation,