Lead Engineer- UK Tax
WFA Digital Insight
Xero’s Lead Engineer- UK Tax sits at the intersection of deep technical ownership and cross‑team influence. Unlike many senior engineering openings that focus purely on feature delivery, this role expects you to refactor monolithic tax‑related code into a secure, distributed architecture while shaping long‑term engineering standards. The team’s current emphasis on test‑driven development and automated pipelines means you’ll be hands‑on with both code quality and deployment strategy. Coaching is baked into the job: you’ll actively lift the technical capability of peers, not just write code. If you thrive on solving complex, data‑driven problems and enjoy a remote‑first culture that still values periodic in‑person collaboration, this posting aligns well with those ambitions.
Job Description
THE ROLE You will collaborate with peers across Xero to create and deliver software to our customers. By modelling engineering excellence, you will support your team to grow their technical capability, improve development practices, and tackle open-ended architectural challenges. Your work will directly shape the technical direction of the product group, breaking down silos and driving multi-year product or platform goals. Through data-driven decisions and smart simplification of complex systems, you will help solve customer problems effectively and release value early. THE TEAM This cross-functional engineering team focuses on building and managing software that solves complex problems at scale. Working in a collaborative and safe environment, team members coordinate closely to align technical designs with broader architectural standards. Together, they foster a culture of ownership, experimentation, and feedback to deliver high-quality outcomes. THE TEAM IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON - Refactoring complex, monolithic systems into secure, scalable distributed architectures - Optimising quality engineering practices, test-driven development (TDD), and deployment pipelines - Evolving engineering standards and frameworks to ensure long-term system reliability WHERE AND HOW YOU CAN WORK This role offers a remote working environment designed to support collaboration and balance. If you prefer you can work hybrid from one of our modern office spaces, designated in-office boost days to connect with other teams in person. HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE ARE LOOKING FOR - You bring expertise in designing secure, scalable distributed systems and managing software at scale with proficiency in our core tech stack, including C#, React, AWS.
- A background in coaching and mentoring engineers, helping them grow their technical capabilities, is essential.
- You possess strong communication skills, with the ability to navigate complex technical ideas and build alignment.
- Your growth mindset drives a passion for continuous learning, experimentation, and sharing technical knowledge.
- An ability to lead incident responses, resolve failure patterns, and guide quality testing strategies will be highly valued.
- You offer a collaborative approach to problem-solving, welcoming diverse perspectives and encouraging a healthy team culture.
How to Stand Out
- Highlight any large‑scale system design projects you’ve led, especially those involving C# or AWS, in your resume and cover letter.
- Prepare a short case study showing how you refactored a monolithic service into micro‑services; be ready to discuss trade‑offs.
- Demonstrate your mentorship style by sharing concrete examples of how you helped junior engineers improve.
- Bring a live or recorded demo of a complex Excel data‑processing script you built, emphasizing automation and accuracy.
- Research Xero’s tax product suite beforehand so you can speak intelligently about potential challenges during the interview.
- Ask about the team’s current incident‑response workflow to show proactive interest in reliability.
- When discussing compensation, reference the typical equity and remote‑work allowances common in senior engineering roles at SaaS firms.
This is a remote position listed on WFA Digital, the platform for professionals who work from anywhere. Browse more remote jobs across all categories.