Xero Is Building Something in Vancouver (and They'd Like You to Help)
Xero, the company that has spent twenty years making accounting a little less painful, is building a brand-new tech hub in Vancouver, and it's looking for engineers, AI specialists, and leaders who want to help shape it from day one.
If you've ever run a small business, freelanced, or watched a friend lose a weekend to receipts, you've probably met Xero. It's the cloud accounting software small businesses use to keep their books, invoices, and taxes in order, so their owners can get back to the part of the job they actually like.
Founded in New Zealand in 2006, Xero has spent two decades making accounting slightly less painful for millions of people. Now it's doing something new: building a tech hub in Vancouver, more or less from scratch.
How from scratch? One of its recent senior leadership postings describes the job as a founding role, building a brand-new engineering and product hub from the ground up. In tech, that's the interesting part. The team is new, the habits aren't set, and the people who join early get to shape what everyone else inherits.
So, who are they hiring?
Short answer: a lot of technical people. The longer answer falls into a few pretty clear groups.
Software engineers, at nearly every level. Postings run from junior roles to senior and lead positions, working on the products small businesses rely on every day: accounting, tax, bills, and the systems that keep logins secure. One posting puts it plainly: the new Vancouver team will build the features that matter most to Xero's success in Canada. No pressure.
Engineering leaders. Xero is hiring engineering managers, and the expectations are pretty ambitious. Managers will bring AI into the development process and help untangle older systems. There's also a VP role leading a rebuild of Xero's reporting platform with AI at its core. If you've ever wanted to fix the legacy code instead of just complaining about it, here's your chance.
AI, machine learning, and data science. ML engineers and applied scientists are building products that use AI to take tedious work off customers' plates and surface useful insights at the right moment. The skills they ask for are the usual suspects: Python, SQL, distributed data processing, and a genuine curiosity about large language models.
Product. The new reporting teams sit right where complex data engineering meets customer-focused design. That usually means product managers and designers won't be far behind.
And yes, they pay real money. Recent Vancouver postings list engineers at roughly CAD 155k to 205k and engineering managers at CAD 188k to 236k, plus equity, with a hybrid setup in the Vancouver office.
The line we liked most
Buried in Xero's job postings is a sentence we wish more companies would include. It notes that women and people from underrepresented groups often don't apply unless they meet every requirement, and encourages people to apply anyway if they're excited about the role.
We'll say it louder: if you meet most of the list and the job makes you a little nervous in a good way, apply. The perfect candidate is a myth. The person who applies is not.
Meet them in person
Job postings only tell you so much. If you want to know what it's really like to work on Xero's Vancouver team, ask the people building it.
Xero will be at OutGeek Women in Tech Vancouver on Thursday, October 15, hosted by CGI. Expect short keynotes, real conversations with hiring teams, and a room full of 130+ women in tech who get it. Bring your questions, your curiosity, and maybe a business card or two.
👉 Explore Xero's open roles and save your spot at outgeek.org.
See you on the 15th.