Role overview

This senior engineering position shapes how software reliability and observability work across Xero’s product landscape. You will set technical direction, build standardised observability systems, and enable product teams to adopt automated, agentic-first development practices. Your work directly influences how systems operate reliably under load and accelerates how engineering teams build and release software.

Key responsibilities

Build standardised data pipelines and telemetry layer architectures to support intelligent, agentic development workflows.
Implement OpenTelemetry standards and vendor-agnostic instrumentation across distributed applications.
Drive platform efficiency, cost optimisation, and monitor performance metrics across cloud systems.
Design automated alerting systems and reliability scorecards to streamline incident investigation and track system health.
Support colleagues across the organisation by designing robust data pipelines and telemetry frameworks.
Collaborate with product teams to establish shared reliability benchmarks and standardise performance monitoring practices.

Requirements

Experience managing distributed tracing, metrics, and log aggregation within large-scale cloud environments.
Practical familiarity with OpenTelemetry standards and vendor-agnostic instrumentation techniques.
Deep understanding of distributed systems architecture and the ability to diagnose platform behaviour under high load.
Strong interest in artificial intelligence tooling, intelligent operational workflows, and data model automation.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate across engineering teams, share knowledge, and lift platform standards.
Proactive problem-solving approach with ownership of complex reliability challenges from design through execution.

What makes this role worth considering

You will join a central Observability team within the platform organisation, working alongside engineers focused on reliability, platform performance, and data architecture. The team operates with high autonomy and communicates transparently across Australia and New Zealand, built around collective problem-solving and technical experimentation. This remote position offers flexible working arrangements for candidates in Eastern Australian time zones, with the option to access modern office spaces in Sydney and Melbourne alongside working from home.