We’re looking for a Senior Android Engineer who builds and maintains Xero Me's mobile applications, part of our Payroll product used by small businesses, that help employees and employers manage critical payroll and workforce moments (pay, leave, timesheets, expenses, documents) with reliability and excellence. They drive high-velocity product delivery while ensuring system security, scalability and performance across native iOS/Android apps and supporting services. By combining hands-on engineering excellence with mentorship and technical leadership, they directly improve the employee experience at scale while elevating the entire team's engineering craft and capability.
This is a rare opportunity to own outcomes that matter — you're not just writing code, you're shaping how a million of employees and employers experience critical financial moments (pay, leave, expenses). You'll work at a genuine technical scale with the autonomy to design systems, lead API contracts, and drive architectural decisions that stick, not just execute someone else's vision.
Critically, you'll evolve as a cross-platform engineer — Xero is intentionally moving from platform-specific to cross-platform mobile engineering, and this role puts you at the center of that transformation. You'll deepen your expertise in your native platform (Android or iOS) while building real fluency in the other, gaining skills that are increasingly valuable and rare. You'll contribute to shaping shared engineering practices that work across both platforms, giving you architectural influence beyond a single ecosystem.
The team and how they connect
You'll work alongside engineers who care deeply about craft, mentorship and learning, and there's a real commitment to raising capability rather than just shipping. You get hands-on technical leadership: meaningful code review influence, direct mentoring of engineers who will grow under your guidance, and a voice in shaping engineering practices across mobile and backend.
The tech stack is modern — native mobile at scale, modern cloud platforms, thoughtful AI adoption for productivity. Plus, it's hybrid flexibility (Melbourne/Sydney), high-velocity delivery without burnout, and the chance to move from just being a strong engineer to being someone who shapes culture and capability. For someone who's built things they're proud of and wants the next level — ownership, impact, cross-platform mastery, mentorship, and scaling influence — this is compelling.
This hybrid role is based in Melbourne or Sydney, with flexibility.
Our mobile engineering teams are distributed across both locations, with regular collaboration and dedicated boost days that bring teams together to solve problems, share knowledge and strengthen connections.
Technical Foundation:
Android engineering excellence: deep mastery of performance optimization, accessibility, testing strategies, release management and platform conventions; a track record of building robust apps at scale
AI-native development mindset: practical experience using AI (copilots, code generation, debugging tools) to improve productivity while maintaining sound judgment about correctness, security, privacy and over-reliance; comfort integrating AI into your daily workflow
Cross-platform fluency: solid understanding of iOS conventions and the ability to collaborate meaningfully with iOS engineers on shared architectural decisions; valued ability to contribute to backend services, API design, and service integration
Hands-on API and service development: experience designing or evolving service endpoints, API contracts, and integrations (exposure to .NET, AWS, Kubernetes, CI/CD is valuable)
Leadership & Mindset:
Customer-first thinking: ability to connect technical decisions to employee, employer and business outcomes; clarity about why things matter
Growth mindset under ambiguity: comfort with change and shifting direction; you help the team find clarity and make pragmatic trade-offs without getting paralyzed
Bias for action: preference for incremental delivery and learning through execution over analysis paralysis; shipping wins trust
Communication discipline: translating business needs into technical solutions and explaining constraints/trade-offs with data-driven clarity
Mentorship and raising the bar: genuine commitment to helping others grow; thoughtful code reviews, knowledge sharing and constructive feedback that elevate team capability
Apply even if your experience isn't a perfect match! At Xero, we hire based on your skills, passion, curiosity and the unique perspective you can bring to enhance our culture and team.
Xero Sydney, New South Wales, AUS Office
Our office is in the heart of the Sydney CBD with views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We're just over by Wynyard Park so it's easy to get to.
