Lead Engineer - Payments Platform

For a small business, getting paid isn't an abstract technical problem. It affects whether they can pay their people, buy supplies and take on their next opportunity. Payments is one of Xero's biggest areas of investment and growth. As a Lead Engineer on Payments Platform, you'll join early-stage initiatives and make foundational architectural decisions for capabilities that power money movement across Xero and enable new product lines globally. Your work can span shared platform capabilities and customer-facing payment products, including global bill payments. This role is open to hybrid candidates in Vancouver, British Columbia, or San Mateo, California. We also welcome applications from candidates across Canada interested in relocating to Vancouver, and from remote candidates in Seattle, Washington.

Responsibilities

Own the technical direction for your area of the payments platform, from design and proof of concept through production and on-call; Lead architecture, API design and technology decisions for that area, with end-to-end accountability for reliability, security and operational excellence; Work closely with engineering and cross-functional partners to make trade-offs explicit and turn direction into delivery; Build orchestration, risk and fraud, and multi-provider capabilities that work across products and markets; Make global bill payments simple for small businesses while keeping them accurate, secure and connected to the accounting record; Design reliable, secure distributed services that remain dependable under real-world production constraints; Selectively rebuild and enhance existing systems, delivering value quickly while moving toward a coherent long-term architecture; Apply AI to challenging product problems while protecting customer trust; Help shape engineering practices, quality standards and AI-assisted ways of working; Stay hands-on in production code and proofs of concept while setting technical direction for other engineers and teams

Requirements

A proven track record of delivering highly available distributed backend systems and high-throughput services under real-world production constraints, with strong operational practices; Experience building platforms or products from an early idea into production, then evolving them as adoption and complexity grow; Deep understanding of system architecture, API design, and relational and non-relational databases, including the trade-offs between different approaches; Proficiency in a modern backend stack, such as C#, Java, Go or C++, and experience with cloud-native platforms such as AWS; Strong technical leadership: setting direction, mentoring engineers, fostering an inclusive culture and breaking complex problems into clear, actionable plans that lead to delivery; A hands-on approach to production code, proofs of concept and technical deep dives, alongside advanced use of AI tools to improve development workflows, with appropriate judgment and validation

Nice to have

Experience in payments, fintech or money movement, such as payment orchestration, risk and fraud, or multi-provider integrations; Experience from adjacent domains with demanding reliability, security or correctness requirements; Experience selectively rebuilding or modernizing established systems while continuing to deliver value to customers; A strong track record of partnering with Product, Design and other cross-functional teams to turn complex business needs into resilient engineering solutions

Benefits

Variable pay: annual bonus and equity (RSU) programs for permanent employees; Performance-based cash or equity (RSU) incentives depending on role level and company performance; Medical, dental, vision; 401(k) match; 21 days PTO; 10 days of Wellbeing leave; 5 days of Xtra Leave; 1 volunteer day; 12 paid holidays; Paid parental leave