Senior Site Reliability Engineer

Xero; Sydney, Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Xero in Australia is seeking a senior engineer to transform software reliability and observability across our product landscape. You will set technical direction and build standardized, intelligent observability systems that enable product teams to embrace automated, agentic-first development.

You will design robust data pipelines, telemetry frameworks, and automated alerting, with a focus on platform efficiency, cost, and reliable performance under load.

Qualifications

• Experience with distributed tracing in large-scale cloud environments.
• Familiarity with OpenTelemetry and instrumentation techniques.
• Strong collaboration across engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Build standardised data pipelines and telemetry layer architectures for intelligent development workflows.
• Implement OpenTelemetry standards and vendor-agnostic instrumentation across distributed applications.
• Drive platform efficiency, cost optimisation, and monitoring performance metrics across cloud systems.
• Design automated alerting and reliability scorecards to streamline incident investigation and health tracking.

Skills

Distributed tracing

Metrics

Log aggregation

OpenTelemetry

Distributed systems

AI tooling

Cross-team collaboration

Proactive problem-solving

Job 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.