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.

Xero is continuing to grow and so are the opportunities to join us!

You can choose to perform this role:

In one of our #beautiful offices

Flexibly, through a hybrid of in office and remote working styles

Permanently Remote

As a permanent remote worker at Xero we want to ensure you are getting the same #beautiful employee experience as our in-office Xero’s. Permanent remote Xero’s will benefit from a virtual ergonomic work assessment and funding to assist with the improvement of your at home work setup. Xero will also fund up to 4 trips a year to your most relevant region Xero office. You are part of our #team and we want to see you thrive!

How you'll make an impact:

The Design Operations Lead will play a pivotal role in helping to establish and own the future direction of Design Operations at Xero. You will work closely with key members of the Design Leadership Team to identify, define, prioritise and drive initiatives that will bring efficiency and effectiveness to our fast scaling 165+ Product Design organization.  Our team includes product designers, researchers, service designers and accessibility analysts.

What you'll do:

• Work with the GM – Design and Research Operations and Design Operations Director to define initiatives which help to continually evolve and improve the Design Ops and Product Design Practices.
• Establish and maintain foundational tools and processes to deliver everyday efficiencies across the Design Team
• Measure, implement and/or drive changes to ensure the design team is working at optimum efficiency, enabling teams to effectively plan, track and manage capacity.
• Establish and drive a program that supports team members to engage external contractors where needed, including the vendor procurement and onboarding process between team members and Design panel participants.
• Work with design leadership and our People Experience business partner (PX) to maintain role capabilities, position descriptions and growth frameworks to empower and sustainably scale the design teamHelp to establish Communities of Practice (CoPs) to bridge overlapping areas of expertise across disciplines
• Build out processes and resources to support how we scale and deliver our design curriculum and self-serve resources to drive quality uplift
• Collect team feedback routinely and undertake internal research to understand the current or changing climate, culture and needs of our scaling team.
• Understand our growing teams tooling needs; evaluate and propose best-in-class tools for team adoption and work with IT to submit and roll out new tools and licenses
• Continue to build out & maintain design practices, methodologies, templates and resources that enable the Design team to consistently deliver quality customer experiences.
• Identify and implement suitable tools that support centralised file management; creating and maintaining structures, processes and standards to ensure its efficacy.




Relationship Management

Influence, help prioritise and focus efforts on the most impactful work.




• Build strong collaborative partnerships across the Product Design and Research org, Legal, Procurement, CX, Marketing and broader Ops teams to align on and embed consistent quality of practice.
• Interface with legal, security, and procurement teams to onboard and pay vendors, including by facilitating statements of work and negotiating business terms and budget
• Provide Design Leaders and stakeholders with visibility and updates of current initiatives, resource use and team performance
• Promote the value of design and collaborative practice across spheres of influence and participation

What you'll bring:

• Expert in establishing best practices for Design Operations and managing tools
• Successful track record in managing cross functional initiatives with many stakeholders within design and outside, across different disciplines and business units
• Experience in procurement & change processes including negotiating budget, scope & terms of business.
• Systems thinker with excellence in process analysis and track record of improving processes as a team scales, resulting in greater operational efficiency and team productivity
• Extremely organized and detailed self-starter. 
• Ability to work across multiple requests in a fast-paced environment.
• Comfortable with some ambiguity and the foresight to create a plan B before it’s needed. 
• Strategic acumen and the foresight to anticipate complex, cross functional problems
• Active listening and systems-thinking; heading off issues as we scale.
• Passion for effective and timely internal and external communication. 
• Great people skills
• An optimistic get-stuff-done mindset
• Top notch writing skills

Why Xero?

At Xero we support many types of flexible working arrangements that allow you to balance your work, your life and your passions. We offer a great remuneration package including shares plus a range of leave options to suit your well-being. Our work environment encourages continuous improvement and career development and you’ll get to work with the latest technology.

Our collaborative and inclusive culture is one we’re immensely proud of. We know that a diverse workforce is a strength that enables businesses, including ours, to better understand and serve customers, attract top talent and innovate successfully. We are a member of Pride in Diversity, in recognition of our inclusive workplace. So, from the moment you step through our doors, you’ll feel welcome and supported to do the best work of your life.