Principal Engineer (API Platform)

Job description

THE ROLE AND ITS IMPACT This is a senior individual contributor and technical leadership role at the heart of one of Xero’s most strategically important initiatives. As Principal Engineer for Platform API, you will define and drive the long-term technical vision for how Xero exposes its accounting capabilities to external partners (building on our platform) and to internal product teams who depend on a stable, well-designed API layer to move fast. The decisions you make here will shape how millions of small businesses and their advisors experience Xero, not just through our own products, but through the ecosystem of applications and agents built around them. Beyond the external surface, this role sits at the intersection of platform engineering and AI. The APIs you design and steward will serve as the trusted foundation for AI- and agent-driven automation across Xero’s accounting workflows; meaning you will be thinking not just about today’s developer experience, but about what it means for an LLM or autonomous agent to safely read, write, and orchestrate complex financial workflows. It is a rare opportunity to do genuinely consequential technical work at scale. THE TEAM AND HOW THEY CONNECT The Product Platform team is responsible for the core capabilities that other Xero teams build on; the APIs, SDKs, and platform services that connect Xero’s accounting engine to the world. We work across domain and organisational boundaries, partnering closely with product management, AI/ML teams, developer relations, and engineering squads across the company to ensure our platform is coherent, reliable, and a genuine accelerator for everyone who builds on it. As Principal Engineer, you will be a key voice in shaping technical direction not just within the team, but across Xero’s broader engineering community. THE TEAM IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON - Our current technical stack includes an open source graph technologies powered by gRPC, and backend services built in modern languages like C#, Go, or Java. - We are standing up a developer platform to provide a seamless path from domain models to running APIs integrated with CI/CD and production runtimes. - You will help deliver across core accounting domains using the Supergraph model to consolidate our technical stack and developer experience. - The team is beginning a legacy burndown to replace or front expensive back-channel endpoints with coherent, strongly-typed interfaces and stable contracts. WHERE AND HOW YOU CAN WORK This role is based in our Vancouver office. We embrace a hybrid working model that balances the flexibility of remote work with purposeful in-person collaboration. HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE ARE LOOKING FOR - A deep background in backend or platform engineering at scale; ideally in multi-tenant SaaS or distributed systems environments, with strong proficiency in a modern language such as C#, Go, or Java - Proven experience designing and evolving external-facing APIs and SDKs, including lifecycle practices such as versioning, deprecation, and backward compatibility, with a genuine interest in developer experience - Familiarity with event-driven architecture (webhooks, message queues, pub/sub patterns, and idempotent consumers) and the ability to design for failure and recovery in these systems - A track record of leading complex, cross-team technical initiatives: shaping technical strategy, facilitating design reviews and RFCs, and aligning multiple stakeholders without losing momentum - Exposure to LLM- or ML-powered products, agentic architectures, or AI safety and governance concerns, and an understanding of how API and event design decisions affect model quality, safety, and reliability - A genuine approach to mentoring and growing engineering capability in others; from coaching individual engineers through to building communities of practice around platform and API thinking Apply even if your experience isn’t a perfect match! At Xero, we hire based on your skills, passion, and the unique perspective you can bring to enhance our culture and team. Compensation & Total Rewards At Xero, we value the impact and skills you bring to the team. We believe in a Total Package philosophy - ensuring your value is recognized through a holistic lens that includes base salary, performance incentives, and world-class benefits. The expected base salary range for this role is $227,600 - $284,600 CAD. Individual pay is determined by various factors, including geography, level of experience, and the specific skills you bring to the role. In addition to base pay, Xero’s roles are eligible for the following forms of variable compensation: - Variable Pay: Permanent employees are eligible to participate in our annual bonus and equity (RSU) programs. You may also be eligible for performance-based cash or equity (RSUs) incentives depending on your role level, and company performance. - Comprehensive Benefits: World-class health, wellness, and retirement programs. Xero Perks https://careers.xero.com/inside-xero/benefits-wellbeing/ including Wellbeing days, generous leave, and dedicated professional development budgets. This is a posting for an existing vacancy. Xero uses AI to help screen applications based on job-related qualifications. These tools assist our recruiters but do not make automated hiring decisions. A human recruiter reviews all candidates before any hiring action is taken.