Senior Software Engineer - Payments Platform

Xero; Vancouver; Hybrid; CAD 155,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

Xero is seeking a Senior Engineer for the Vancouver Payments Platform to shape a growing, global payments capability. You’ll own end-to-end initiatives from design through production, balancing customer simplicity with financial control and reliability.

You’ll stay hands-on in production code, evaluate architectural trade-offs, and collaborate with product and engineering partners to deliver secure, scalable payment experiences. The Vancouver team embraces a hybrid work model.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of delivering highly available, distributed systems and high-throughput services on cloud-native platforms such as AWS, Azure or GCP.
• End-to-end ownership of significant work from design through to rollout and production validation, including the technical decisions that come with it.
• You think carefully about architecture and trade-offs, from API design to choosing the right data store, balancing speed, quality and maintainability.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end initiatives from design to production in the Payments Platform.
• Stay hands-on in production code and evaluate trade-offs for simplicity, reliability and scale.
• Help shape engineering practices and quality standards within the Vancouver Payments Platform team.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Go

Python

Ruby

C++

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

The role and its impact

Payments Platform is one of Xero’s biggest areas of investment and growth - directly affecting how small businesses pay their people, buy supplies and take on their next opportunity. Here, we build the foundations for collecting and paying money through Xero, helping make payments simple, accurate and secure for customers while supporting multiple products, payment methods, providers and regions. You’ll help evolve a growing platform by building reusable, provider‑agnostic capabilities across areas such as payment orchestration, provider integrations, onboarding, risk and compliance, reconciliation and bill payments.

As a Senior Engineer, you’ll own significant end-to-end initiatives from technical design through to production, helping decide how payment capabilities are designed, integrated and operated as the platform scales. You’ll stay hands‑on in production code, work through trade‑offs where customer simplicity, financial control, reliability and scalability matter, and collaborate closely with product and engineering partners to deliver payment experiences that are secure, trusted and easy to use. You’ll also help shape engineering practices and quality standards as the Vancouver Payments Platform team continues to grow.

Technical Challenges:

• A shared payments platform: Own a capability within the platform, such as orchestration, risk and fraud, or multi‑provider support, and deliver it end-to-end. You'll be helping teams launch new payment products faster without rebuilding the same foundations.




• Global bill payments: Make a complex financial process feel simple for small businesses while keeping it accurate, secure and connected to the accounting record.




• High throughput at scale: Design and deliver reliable, secure distributed services that remain dependable under real‑world production constraints, with the monitoring and operational readiness to support them.




• Customer impact alongside architectural progress: Improve existing systems in steps, delivering customer value quickly while contributing to a coherent long‑term architecture.




• AI capabilities customers can trust: Apply AI to challenging product problems while protecting customer trust, and help evaluate those capabilities with the same discipline as the rest of your work.

Here are some of the things we are looking for

• Proven track record of delivering highly available, distributed systems and high‑throughput services on cloud‑native platforms such as AWS, Azure or GCP.




• Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of significant work, from design through to rollout and production validation, including the technical decisions that come with it.




• You think carefully about architecture and trade‑offs, from API design to choosing the right data store, and you balance speed, quality and long‑term maintainability.




• Proficiency in a modern backend stack, such as Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, Ruby or C++, and you are keen to learn C# and .NET, where existing experience is a bonus.




• Passion for staying hands‑on, contributing to production code and technical deep dives, and using AI tools with good judgement to move faster and raise the quality bar.




• A commitment to Go Together by mentoring peers, sharing technical knowledge and helping teammates grow through code reviews, pairing and documentation.

Where and how you can work

This role is based in our Vancouver office, where we embrace a hybrid working model. You will have the flexibility to work from home while joining the team in the office for \"boost days\" (1-2 days a week) to collaborate, socialize, and solve complex problems in person.

Our Hiring Process

1. TX phone screen: a conversation with your Talent Specialist about your background, motivations and the role.




2. Technical assessment: a coding assessment and systems design assessment, conducted virtually with real engineers, and based on real‑world scenarios.




3. Technical deep dive: walk through a past project you owned end-to-end, covering how you thought about it, executed it and led through its complexity.




4. Values / Future Proof Xero: how you show up day to day, aligned with Xero's values and capabilities such as adaptability, ownership, customer thinking and AI fluency.

Compensation & Total Rewards

At Xero, we value the impact and skills you bring to the team. We believe in a Total Package philosophy - ensuring your value is recognized through a holistic lens that includes base salary, performance incentives, and world‑class benefits.

The expected base salary range for this role is $155,000 - $205,000 CAD.

Individual pay is determined by various factors, including geography, level of experience, and the specific skills you bring to the role.

In addition to base pay, Xero’s roles are eligible for the following forms of variable compensation:

• Variable Pay: Permanent employees are eligible to participate in our annual bonus and equity (RSU) programs. You may also be eligible for performance‑based cash or equity (RSUs) incentives depending on your role level, and company performance.




• Comprehensive Benefits: World‑class health, wellness, and retirement programs. Xero Perks including Wellbeing days, generous leave, and dedicated professional development budgets.

This is a posting for an existing vacancy.

Xero uses AI to help screen applications based on job-related qualifications. These tools assist our recruiters but do not make automated hiring decisions. A human recruiter reviews all candidates before any hiring action is taken.