Engineering Manager - Data

Posted Oct 10

Xero is a beautiful, easy-to-use platform that helps small businesses and their accounting and bookkeeping advisors grow and thrive.

At Xero, our purpose is to make life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world. This purpose sits at the centre of everything we do. We support our people to do the best work of their lives so that they can help small businesses succeed through better tools, information and connections. Because when they succeed they make a difference, and when millions of small businesses are making a difference, the world is a more beautiful place.

The role of the Engineering Manager is to lead, grow and manage leaders of engineering teams who build data products for internal and external customers of Xero.

How you’ll make an impact

As an Engineering Manager you’ll be responsible for building great engineering teams by:
Attracting, recruiting and retaining capable individuals, building on and complementing the diversity of our teams.
Championing and driving processes and practices that make it possible for engineers to get great work done, while promoting a safe environment for people to experiment and learn.
Role-modelling exemplary leadership, supporting and growing the next generation of engineering leaders at Xero.

What you’ll do

Hands on coding including troubleshooting, proofs of concept, and core project contributions
As a leader of leaders (People/Team Leads), you will be a coach and advisor to your direct reports and act as an escalation point for them .
You will cultivate a high performance team by providing input, guidance and corrective actions as necessary.
You will continuously align your team with Xero’s objectives and deliverables e.g. The Quarterly Roadmap.
Have authentic conversations around your peoples’ wellbeing, capabilities and engagement.
Empower your direct reports and teams to make decisions when fast, decentralized decision-making is appropriate to reduce delays, make improvements, enable faster feedback and more innovative solutions.
Foster and support the growth of a culture of continuous empathy towards our stakeholders among your team.
Remain up to date with relevant technology changes and trends and continually grow a knowledge of how they may benefit Xero
Grow the talent in the team by identifying skill gaps and ensure there is a clear strategy to close those gaps (which might include upskilling, reassigning or hiring team members).
Own the hiring process for engineers within your product group and make improvements that ensure we attract and hire great technical talent.
Actively measure, monitor, and continuously improve the performance and reliability of data products you are responsible for.
Ensure effective operational support for your products, consistently meeting SLOs and complying with engineering and security standards.
Coach the team on Agile software engineering practices, ensuring your team's technical practices are continuously improved to deliver high-quality data products that are fit for purpose, robust and scalable.
Actively contribute to the product’s architectural best practices and vision and ensure the team's work is in line with this vision.
Ensure your team aligns to Xero Data Product and Xero Engineering Standards eg: compliance and security requirements in the Path to Production Standard, modelling and data movement best practices, etc.
Ensure cross-team dependencies are effectively coordinated and managed.
Work closely with colleagues from other disciplines to continually deliver quality data products that solve real customer problems.

Success looks like

Engineering teams are able to deliver better quality data products, faster.
Your team demonstrates continuous improvement in iterative deployments and having changes implemented/tested/delivered.
Team deliverables are delivered on time/as expected, making a measurable impact to the Initiatives which the work enables.
Engineering teams are unblocked, supported, and accelerated in their adoption of DataOps tools and practices, through pairing, mentoring, coaching, and collaboration.
Your team culture is positive, there's strong collaboration, sharing of knowledge and regular cadences of constructive feedback.
Your team deeply understands the data products they own and take responsibility for their operational health.
Your reports:Are aware of opportunities to work with wider Xero communities and groups to foster consistent practice, breakdown silos and share local learning globally.
Actively participate and contribute to Communities of Practice, sharing learnings, advocating for participation with their team and model a culture of sharing, inclusion and continuous improvement.

What you’ll bring with you

Coach & mentor - able to offer the right knowledge, at the right time in the right way - understanding why and how people learn.
Growth mindset - Understand that competency is not fixed but is enhanced through dedication and hard work. Demonstrate a love of learning and resilience to adversity that is essential for great accomplishment.
Decentralisation - Able to devolve responsibility appropriately i.e. empower others to make decisions when fast, decentralised decision-making is appropriate.
High EQ - Self aware, self regulated, motivated and empathetic, with great interpersonal skills
Leadership - Creates space for innovation and learning to happen within the teams.
Demonstrates honesty and integrity. Provides objectives and goals with loose guidelines/directions. Clearly communicates expectations. Has an open mind and the flexibility to change opinions. Develops and supports others.
Leading/living the vision & values - Builds and fosters an inclusive and positive team culture. Keeps the team’s vision and values at the forefront of decision-making and actions. Communicates and helps others understand the importance of the vision and values. Translates the vision and values into day-to-day activities and behaviours.
People Leadership- Collaboratively works with direct reports to set meaningful performance objectives to identify the behaviours, knowledge and skills required to achieve goals Addresses performance issues.
Stakeholder Engagement - positively engages with stakeholders to establish an overall collaborative relationship and aligned vision.
Previous experience managing data specialist teams and proven track record at building and maintaining good team culture.
Excellent grasp of modern data product development practices and lifecycle.
Proven ability to balance the needs of the individual with the needs of the business.
Proven ability to navigate areas of conflict in an open, positive and proactive way.
Ability to coach and mentor more junior Engineering Managers.
Strong incident management experience and knowledge.

About Xero?

Diversity of people brings diversity of thought, and we like that. A collaborative and inclusive environment is important to us. Working at Xero will provide you with a diverse and inclusive environment alongside people who will respect, challenge and support you to have fun while you do the best work of your life. We are a place where personal development, innovation, and well-being are not just inspired but celebrated.

We value our people and offer a wide range of compelling benefits and perks, including Xero shares and great parental leave policies. Xero’s collaborative culture is underscored by our values - #Ownership, #Challenge, #Beautiful, #Human and #Team - which empower us to understand and serve customers, attract top talent and continuously innovate. From the moment you step through our doors, you’ll feel welcome and supported to do the best work of your life.