Principal Backend Engineer- Payments Platform

The role / impact

Xero reimagined accounting software, and now we are reimagining the flow of money itself. In this role, you will shape the technical vision and architecture for how millions of small businesses move money globally. You will be responsible for the engine that powers payments across Xero’s ecosystem, setting the direction for building scalable, reliable, and resilient systems while remaining hands-on to elevate engineering quality across teams.

The team / how they connect

This role sits within the Payments Platform organization, a team driving a critical, multi-year investment for Xero. The team values excellence, collaboration, and innovation, focusing on tackling some of fintech’s most complex challenges including global rails, compliance, fraud, and ledger design. They work closely with senior product and business leaders to ensure technical decisions align with customer outcomes.

The team are currently working on:

• Defining and driving the long-term architecture for the Payments Platform, balancing strategic vision with incremental delivery

• Building scalable, reliable, and performant systems using modern backend stacks (e.g., C#, Java, Golang, C++) and cloud-native platforms (AWS)

• Designing data models at scale using advanced SQL and NoSQL database strategies

• Evaluating existing systems to decide when to reuse versus rebuild, designing smooth migration paths that modernize the platform

• Championing operational excellence, including observability, incident response, and performance monitoring

Where and how you can work
This role is based in San Mateo, CA, with a hybrid setup as the preferred arrangement. However, we are also open to considering West Coast remote or elsewhere in the US candidates. We support flexible working to let you balance your work and life, and our offices are designed to support collaboration with snacks, break areas, and a human-first culture.

Here are some of the things we are looking for in this role

• 12+ years of engineering experience with a proven track record as a Principal/Architect-level leader in large-scale distributed systems

• Domain expertise in payments, fintech, or highly regulated, compliance-heavy industries is required

• The ability to stay hands-on with code and complex designs while leading high-level technical strategy

• A passion for mentorship, capable of elevating engineering capabilities and guiding Staff and Senior engineers

• Strong proficiency in cloud-native platforms (AWS strongly preferred) and operational excellence practices

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.