Senior Platform Architect & API Leader

Xero; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Xero is seeking a Senior Principal Engineer to lead technical strategy across Product Platforms. You will shape long‑term direction, guide architectural initiatives, and collaborate with senior leaders to empower product teams with scalable, API-driven platforms.

In this hybrid role, you will modernize legacy systems, establish governance for AI-native development, and drive high‑impact architectural decisions that ensure reliability and data integrity across global products.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in strategic tech leadership across large engineering orgs (1,000+ engineers).
• Experience turning legacy systems into modern microservices and API layers (GraphQL/REST).
• Ability to align C-suite and VP leaders around architectural bets with clear vision.
• Passion for APIs, shared libraries, platform capabilities, data integrity.
• Experience preparing platform architecture for AI-native engineering and automated delivery.

Responsibilities

• Modernize core architecture and decouple the accounting monolith into a unified API layer.
• Improve throughput, reliability, and scalability while protecting data integrity.
• Drive architectural strategy across invoicing, Bank Feeds, PP&S, and data flows.
• Establish foundations and guardrails for safe agentic and AI-native workflows.
• Define company-wide engineering practices and high-speed feedback loops.

Skills

Technical leadership

Platform architecture

Stakeholder alignment

API design & libraries

AI-native engineering

Job description

Xero is seeking a Senior Principal Engineer to lead technical strategy across Product Platforms. You will shape long‑term direction, guide architectural initiatives, and collaborate with senior leaders to empower product teams with scalable, API-driven platforms.

In this hybrid role, you will modernize legacy systems, establish governance for AI-native development, and drive high‑impact architectural decisions that ensure reliability and data integrity across global products.