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.
How you'll make an impact
Working as part of the Technology leadership team, the Executive GM - Product Engineering will lead the transformation of Xero's engineering team helping it achieve Xero's technology vision of being "one of the most sustainably engineering companies in the world" .
In this role you will:
• Lead the recruitment of high-quality engineers at scale, optimising the recruiting and onboarding processes, championing diversity and inclusion and ensuring we can source talent globally.
• Ensure that Xero is a great place for engineers to work focusing on career development, training and continuous improvement.
• Improve our engineering practices and software delivery processes so that we are predictably and efficiently delivering valuable product
• Work with your peers on the Technology Leadership team to develop our operational processes to ensure our products are secure, highly-available and reliable
• Build trusted, open relationships with key stakeholders across the business, especially with the Product leadership team
• Develop and grow a high-performing leadership team
• Actively champion and "be a strong voice" for technology and engineering concerns within Xero's extended leadership team
• Actively manage, co-ordinate, communicate delivery expectations ensuring that software delivery is predictable and well understood by all stakeholders
The scale of Xero's engineering team means this role will lead part, not the entire engineering organisation.
What you'll do
Strategic Leadership - work closely with your team and the Technology leadership team to set a clear vision and strategy for your teams that aligns with the corporate strategy. Ensure we are clear-sighted about our Technology-wide strategic objectives and the progress we are making against these.
People Leadership - coach and lead a team of leaders to be a high performing and highly engaged cohesive senior leadership team. Role model exemplary leadership and ensure your direct reports have the opportunity to grow and develop.
Board Engagement - communicate with the Board on progress towards strategic goals and objectives.
Xero Evangelism - you will act as a senior ambassador, thought-leader and champion for Xero. Representing Xero in external events, in the media and through online publications.
Operational Excellence - ensure your leadership team and the broader Technology function delivers against financial, people and data integrity objectives.
Product and Service Delivery - Work closely with Technology leadership to ensure teams have what they need to deliver high-quality products and services; and great customer experiences.
Change Management - be a subject matter expert on change, and lead change in the way our teams work.
Portfolio Management - develop our ability to understand and make decisions at a portfolio level.
Lean Program and Project Management - lead and develop our lean project and programme management capability to ensure it is well-suited for our environment and aligns with our product-lead philosophy. Develop our ability to execute programs that cut-across product release trains.
Continuous Improvement - lead efforts to identify strategic impediments to the effective operation of the Technology function and the delivery of customer value. Work with the Technology leadership team to understand and overcome these impediments.
Learning and Curiosity - demonstrate curiosity and growth mindset by staying tuned in to the latest thinking. Drive experiments to evaluate these ideas when they show promise.
Success looks like
1. Your strategy is aligned to Xero's strategic plan and priorities and well understood by the broader Technology team and our stakeholders.
2. Significant improvement in our ability to operate our business and to monitor the execution of our strategic priorities
3. Our technology teams are delivering valuable, high-quality products for their customers quickly and consistently.
4. There is high transparency and predictability around delivery, operation and strategy execution, enabling stakeholders to see how we are progressing towards outcomes.
5. Your direct reports are effectively managed and supported. Their performance is reviewed regularly and feedback is continually provided in a timely manner.
6. A high level of engagement across your teams, with consistently high levels of feedback and action plans to address concerns.
7. Manage the financial measures in line with C level and Board requirements. It is clear how your team is contributing to Xero's financial objectives.
8. Managing staff recruitment, retention, resourcing and well being across the business unit.
9. The four golden metrics of high performing teams (cycle time, deployment frequency, mean time to recovery and change fail rate) are at the heart of how we deliver software and are performing top quartile of comparable software companies
10. Our engineering teams rate the quality of software development practices and process at Xero highly (as measured by the world-class engineering survey)
11. Our product roadmaps include the appropriate amount of investment in engineering concerns
What you'll bring with you
Experience
• Previous experience leading people leaders and forming high-performing teams
• Extensive experience managing large, distributed software development teams
• Excellent grasp of modern delivery principles and practices
• Experience in setting and executing on global strategy
• Budget and financial management
• Proven experience collaborating with a diverse stakeholder group to realise commercial outcomes
Critical competencies
• Expert level understanding of modern delivery practices, including lean, agile, continuous delivery, devops, and product thinking
• Strong skills managing strategy, business delivery, financial planning and building high performing diverse teams
• Successfully builds trust and credibility with stakeholders and working relationships across all levels of the business
• Strong people leadership and management skills at a global level
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to contribute meaningful and accurate advice
• Takes #ownership of problems and executes a pragmatic and collaborative approach to their resolve
• Deep understanding of effective operation of business processes, like budgeting, headcount management etc.
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.
Please note that we currently require all employees and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to work from a Xero office, or engage in any face-to-face Xero business. Xero will work with anyone who is not vaccinated, or prefers not to disclose their vaccination status, to determine if any reasonable accommodations can be provided to ensure their role can be performed safely whilst the restriction is in place.