ML & AI Engineering Manager — Production, MLOps & Scale

Xero; Wellington; Hybrid; NZD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Xero is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Machine Learning & AI Team to lead a high-performing group of ML and platform engineers. You will convert research into scalable production infrastructure, focus on system health, and advance MLOps maturity while balancing delivery with reliability.

Partner with senior ICs to guide architecture and mentor engineers, driving AI-native workflows across the software lifecycle and ensuring the team can operate at Xero's scale.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of leading and developing engineers.
• Strong architectural and system design judgement.
• Experience translating business goals into executable engineering plans.
• Delivery of roadmaps in fast-paced environments.
• Hands-on contribution to production code when necessary.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the ML & AI team, aligning goals with production infrastructure.
• Shape technical architecture and cross-functional collaboration with data science and product teams.
• Drive MLOps maturity, observability and reliability of AI systems at scale.

Skills

People leadership

System design

Business-aligned planning

Roadmap delivery

Hands-on code for incidents

ML/AI familiarity

Job description

Xero is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Machine Learning & AI Team to lead a high-performing group of ML and platform engineers. You will convert research into scalable production infrastructure, focus on system health, and advance MLOps maturity while balancing delivery with reliability.

Partner with senior ICs to guide architecture and mentor engineers, driving AI-native workflows across the software lifecycle and ensuring the team can operate at Xero's scale.