General Manager, Data Science

Role overview

Xero is seeking a General Manager for Data Science to lead a strategic expansion of its data science, analytics, machine learning, and AI capabilities. This newly created role will oversee data science strategy and execution across Accounting & Bookkeeping, Small Business, and AI products, combining product vision with platform-level thinking to drive enterprise impact across Xero’s product teams.

Key responsibilities

Translate company-level objectives into strategic priorities across analytics, machine learning, AI products, and experimentation to enhance decision quality and data-driven impact.
Lead, mentor, and scale a team of data scientists, analytics engineers, machine learning engineers, and managers from approximately 12 to 30 people.
Design team structures and operating models that maintain high performance across multiple locations and time zones.
Operate as an AI-native leader, directing how artificial intelligence reshapes data science operations and value delivery across the organization.
Serve as the primary data partner to Product & Technology leadership, advising senior executives on data utilization, retention strategy, new data domains, and AI investment decisions.
Own AI governance, model risk, data quality, privacy posture, and experimentation integrity across the portfolio while ensuring company-wide compliance.
Drive technical, behavioral, and cultural standards across the function, improve global hiring practices, and coach senior leaders to elevate performance throughout Xero.

Requirements

Proven experience operating and shipping at scale within a fast-paced technology environment, with demonstrated ability to lead and mentor through significant organizational growth and transformation.
Strong track record leading data science, machine learning, or analytics functions, with substantial experience managing people leaders across multi-team structures and building enterprise-scale data science operations.
Deep technical fluency in applied machine learning, analytics engineering, instrumentation, eventing, schema governance, and a strong engineering mindset for building scalable platforms.
Practical experience with frontier AI platforms such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google to build agentic workflows, chatbots, and AI-powered products, including transforming team operating models with AI.
Demonstrated ability to manage ambiguity, bring structure to complex cross-functional challenges, work across multi-timezone teams, and navigate teams through scale-ups and operating model transformations.
Expertise in AI governance, model risk frameworks, experimentation integrity, and data quality standards in enterprise environments, with experience in SaaS or small business segments.
Technical bachelor’s or master’s degree (PhDs welcome for applied, high-impact organizational challenges), supported by public thought leadership or open-source contributions in data or AI.

What makes this role worth considering

This is a strategic leadership opportunity to build and shape a rapidly expanding data science function at a company focused on empowering small businesses globally. You will work across an AI-native organization, partnering with leading AI research labs and influencing product direction at the executive level while managing the technical and organizational complexity of scaling a world-class data science team across multiple locations.