Engineering Manager

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.

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

• Championing AI Engineering by encouraging the team to inject AI across the entire SDLC to drive efficiency gains.

• Driving high engineering throughput through strong architecture, code quality, and decoupling legacy systems.

• Elevating the Developer Experience by identifying and removing the “complexity tax,” such as toil and brittle environments.

• Scaling system health and visibility to ensure product status and technical debt are actionable and discoverable.

Where and how you can work

This role can be based in Auckland or Wellington, offering 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 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.

Apply even if your experience isn’t a perfect match! At Xero, we hire based on your skills, passion, and the unique perspective you can bring to enhance our culture and team.