Senior ML/AI Systems Engineer (AI Products)

Role overview

This position leads the design and implementation of AI research and production infrastructure at Xero, a company serving millions of daily users. You will shape the technical architecture for machine learning and AI systems while building the capability of the entire AI Products team through mentorship and collaboration across the organization.

Key responsibilities

Design and implement AI research and production infrastructure at scale, maintaining flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and robustness across distributed systems.
Manage technical debt and direct strategies for distributed systems, with technical decisions that directly influence products serving millions of users.
Mentor junior engineers and champion engineering excellence across the AI Products team to lift overall technical capability.
Partner with Applied Scientists during the research phase to build interfaces and harnesses that safely transition models from research to production environments.
Collaborate across Xero to enhance data usability and solve complex technical challenges using appropriate methods and frameworks.
Contribute to production ML and AI engineering efforts, including platforms and practices supporting traditional ML models, generative AI, and agentic systems.

Requirements

Excellent system design and coding proficiency in Python or alternative languages suited for web-scale AI applications.
Deep understanding of distributed processing principles and strong SQL capabilities.
Exceptional communication skills to translate complex technical concepts for both business and technical audiences.
Natural coaching mindset with ability to establish engineering standards and mentor junior machine learning colleagues.
Eagerness to learn, master, and implement Large Language Model technologies into product features.
Experience utilizing frameworks such as MLFlow, TensorFlow, or PyTorch, combined with knowledge of data orchestration tools.

What makes this role worth considering

You will join a diverse, globally distributed AI Products team within the broader Data & Science division, collaborating with scientists, engineers, product managers, and analysts. The team is building cutting-edge systems including a conversational GenAI assistant, intelligent financial workflows, and an AI-powered platform for agentic experiences. Xero offers a flexible hybrid working model blending office collaboration with remote autonomy, with access to modern office spaces in Sydney.