Senior Architect

What you’ll do

• Deliver visualised clarity - Translate longer-term team strategy into clear, fit-for-purpose visual representations. Proactively communicate with a wide range of stakeholders using known tools and templates in a consistent manner. Provide advice to peers on patterns and practices for capturing visualised architecture.
• Frame the future - Progressively identify & make architecturally significant decisions that define the future direction of a system. Champion an evolutionary architecture that supports guided, incremental change across multiple domains.
• Ensure systemic cohesion - Proactive in connecting the dots across teams to ensure consistency , avoiding the pitfalls of silo architecture.  Foster the sharing of information of all types between teams in the belief that a generative environment is best suited for success.
• Provide goldilocks governance - Ensure the architectural vision matches the strategy, identifying the full realm of functional and non-functional considerations. Contribute to the evolution of the system of decision making at Xero.
• Demystify complexity - Focus on the critical few details that really matter when providing clarity to complexity. Employ foundational or application-level patterns and practices to help solve complex problems.
• Bridge between worlds - Provide proactive architectural leadership to drive technical outcomes aligned to strategy. Merge realities with vision, spanning different domains and interests to create an outcome that will satisfy stakeholders.

How you’ll do it

• Problem solving - Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions. Looks beyond the obvious and doesn’t stop at the first answers.
• Interpersonal savvy - Relates well to all kinds of people—up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization. Builds constructive and effective relationships using diplomacy and tact. Can defuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Business acumen - Knowledgeable in current and possible future policies, practices, trends, technology, and information affecting the Xero organization. Is aware of how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace.
• Organisational agility - Knowledgeable about how Xero works and uses that to help get things done both through formal channels and the informal network. Understands the origin and reasoning behind key policies, practices, and procedures.
• Technical acumen - Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills to do the job at a high level of accomplishment. Is personally committed to and actively works to continuously learn new technologies and technical concepts. Understands that different situations and levels may call for different technical knowledge.
• Communication skills - Is able to write clearly and succinctly in a variety of communication settings and styles. Can get messages across that have the desired effect. Encourages direct and tough debate but isn’t afraid to end it and move on.
• Dealing with ambiguity - Can effectively cope with change and make decisions without having the total picture. Is comfortable when things are up in the air handling any associated risk and uncertainty.

What you’ll bring with you

• Demonstrated experience conceptualising and implementing or integrating large-scale web based services.
• Hands-on experience with  domain-driven design, synchronous and asynchronous integration of complex data driven systems.
• In-depth knowledge of cloud providers, ideally AWS but also GCP or Azure.
• Working knowledge of agile software development methodologies.
• Familiarity with information security vulnerabilities and risk management.
• Familiarity with data privacy and compliance requirements.