Engineering Manager - Multiple Roles (NZ)

Xero; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Xero is seeking an Engineering Manager in New Zealand to own the roadmap and strategy for your team from end-to-end. You will be a technical voice in architecture discussions, balancing delivery velocity with technical excellence while championing AI-native workflows.

You will lead platform or product-focused teams across Payments, Small Business Experience, and Inventory, partnering with Product and Design to co-own domain strategy and drive meaningful outcomes for millions of customers.

Qualifications

• Experience owning and delivering software roadmaps end-to-end in AGILE environments.
• Deep expertise in software architecture and system design with modernisation focus.
• Proven track record coaching engineers and building high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the roadmap and strategy for your team from end-to-end, setting direction and prioritising work.
• Lead system design discussions, architectural trade-offs, and technical decisions.
• Champion AI-native workflows and guide teams to improve technical foundations.
• Partner with Product and Design; influence strategy with technical insight.
• Foster an inclusive, high-performing culture and empower engineers to own outcomes.

Skills

AI-native practices

Roadmap ownership

Software architecture

Team leadership

Mentoring & coaching

Decentralised decision-making

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

The role & impact

As an Engineering Manager, you will own the roadmap and strategy for your team end-to-end, setting direction, making prioritisation calls, and driving the delivery of high-quality software through high-performing, inclusive teams.

You won't just manage the work; you will be a genuine technical voice in the room, leading system design discussions, navigating architectural trade-offs, and shaping how the team evolves its technical foundations. Your impact spans both delivery velocity and technical excellence. You will actively contribute to critical engineering decisions, from system architecture and platform design to build-vs-buy trade-offs, while championing AI-native workflows and guiding your team to hone their craft in ways that deliver meaningful business and customer outcomes.

The team

You will lead a coordinated platform or product-focused team where building trust through transparency and seeking diverse perspectives are core to how we work. As an equal partner with Product and Design, you will co-own the strategic direction of your domain - resolving dependencies early, influencing product thinking with technical insight, and creating a sustainable environment where engineers can do their best work.

We’re currently recruiting for three teams in NZ - Payments, Small Business Experience and Inventory.

The team is currently working on / Initially, you will focus on:

Payments

You'll be leading a high-performing 6-7 person engineering team based in Auckland that manages some of Xero's most critical products. Your team serves approximately 70% of Xero's global subscriber base, which means the systems you oversee directly impact millions of customers worldwide. This is a role for someone who thrives in a high-stakes environment and wants to modernise legacy systems while maintaining a relaxed, collaborative team culture.

Inventory

You'll lead a distributed 9-person engineering team across Auckland, Wellington, and remote NZ locations. Inventory is on a mission to help small and mid-sized product-based businesses keep their accounting accurate and simple. You'll own a team that's directly responsible for closing critical gaps in functionality and modernising core systems - with tangible feedback from customers proving the impact of your work.

This is a role for a technical leader with strong operational mindset and a track record of delivering and maintaining high-availability systems.

Where and how you can work

This role can be based in Auckland or Wellington in New Zealand, with some scope for remote NZ location for one of the engineering teams. We offer a hybrid working model that balances local team presence with a global scope of work. You will have the flexibility to work from home while connecting with your colleagues in our modern office spaces during designated boost days.

Here are some of the things we are looking for

• You champion AI-native practices in engineering (AI-assisted PR reviews, code generation, tooling, agentic workflows) and turn experimentation into durable practice.

• You bring a proven track record of owning and delivering software roadmaps end-to-end in agile environments, including managing complex dependencies and making strategic prioritisation decisions.

• You have deep experience in software architecture and system design, with the confidence to lead technical trade-off discussions and steer teams through significant modernisation efforts.

• You have a passion for providing high support through coaching, mentoring, and advocating for the career progression of your engineers.

• Your approach to leadership involves making fast, decentralised decisions and empowering your team to take ownership.

• You possess the ability to lead through influence, building strong partnerships across Product and Design; contributing technical perspectives to shape shared strategy, not just align to it.

• A bias for action is part of your DNA, allowing you to proactively redirect focus when work isn't moving the needle on business outcomes.