Principal Engineer - Payments Products & Platform

Xero is hiring a Principal Engineer for each of two connected engineering portfolios: Payments Products & Experiences and Payments Platform. The role provides domain-level influence over the next two to three years of the payments strategy, including shaping technical strategy across multiple teams and setting the technical example for 40 to 50 engineers. Tech stack includes microservices across web, API and data layers, built in languages such as C#, Java, Go or C++, running on AWS with SQL and NoSQL data stores. Based in Sydney or Melbourne with a hybrid working model; works across time zones with colleagues in Australia and the US.

Responsibilities

Shape technical strategy across multiple teams; partner with senior stakeholders to turn complex requirements into scalable, resilient systems; set the example for a portfolio of 40 to 50 engineers; stay close to technical detail; join a global community of Principal Engineers driving engineering standards, architecture and best practices; set long-term direction across payments products and platform; mentor Staff and Senior engineers; shape cross-team initiatives

Requirements

Deep experience designing and running large-scale distributed systems in production, balancing reliability, performance and cost; API-first thinking across web, API and data layers; fluency in at least one modern backend language; experience with SQL and NoSQL stores; experience with cloud-native platforms, ideally AWS; ability to make practical calls on whether to extend, migrate or build legacy-heavy systems; staying hands-on through pairing, spikes and code; strong interest in utilising AI tooling (essential); mentoring Staff and Senior engineers

Nice to have

Payments or fintech experience; growth hacking interest; experience designing and analysing A/B tests that drive product usage