Staff Applied Scientist

Our Purpose 

At Xero, we’re here to help you supercharge your business. We do this by automating routine tasks, surfacing actionable insights and connecting businesses with the right data, advisors and apps. When that happens, we’re not only making life better for small business, we’ll be building a stronger economy that can change the world.

How you’ll make an impact

Xero views the application of intelligent, data-driven products and services at scale as a key competitive advantage for our business, now and into the future.

As a Staff Applied Scientist you will work closely with colleagues from across the business to refine tough problems that can be solved with the application of scientific thinking, algorithms, and analytical data processing. You will also assist in breaking problems down into more tractable sub-problems for teams.

As a champion of Xero’s values, you will build our culture of collaboration, mutual respect, healthy skepticism, and embracing a growth mindset. You will shape teams while mentoring and coaching individuals, cultivating the scientific competencies of your team and Xero more broadly.

Playing a leadership role in cross functional teams including engineers, designers, and product owners, you will guide and contribute to building and operating beautiful, intelligent products and services that delight our customers everyday.

In your role you will contribute to the Science, Evaluation, and Measurement leadership team, helping to shape Xero’s approach to deriving value from quantitative sciences. You will also contribute to strategic research themes aligned with realising Xero’s vision of being the most insightful and trusted small business platform

What you’ll do

• Science

• Collaborate with Principal Scientists to develop the applied science roadmap at Xero

• Work with colleagues to identify opportunities to improve our ability to extract value from data 

• Identify cross-cutting opportunities to improve the quality of our data and its coverage of our core products/services

• Contribute to defining and implementing best practices for applied research in your domain as it relates to delivering high quality data-intensive applications at Xero

• Distil the latest developments in your field into new opportunities for Xero

• Act as an educator and evangelist to raise literacy around  data and  your domain of applied science, mentoring and developing members of the team and wider Xero

• Lead one or more applied research programs that underpin development of new products and features within Xero, driving the rigorous application of scientific methods at every stage of the development process

Engineering

• Contribute to and drive our coding standards, collaborating with engineers to balance the tension between reusable, modular codebases and research velocity while maintaining testability and correctness

• Identify opportunities to improve research tooling and lead the scoping and implementation of improvements

• Together with Engineering/Architecture shape the end-to-end pipelines that support data-intensive applications at Xero

Problem Definition

• Lead the refinement and translation of business problems into scientific programs that realise strategic outcomes for Xero

• Provide leadership to teams in ensuring that our research programs are ethically sound, aligned with our customers’ best interests, and Xero’s strategic priorities

Influence

• Contribute to, communicate, and model how Xero’s values can be represented in our work and interactions across Xero

• Influence Xero’s thinking around data and your domain of applied science, shaping how product, engineering, design and operations view our work

• Contribute to and participate in our recruitment processes, helping Xero grow diverse and world-class talent in Applied Science 

• Represent Xero externally by speaking at public forums (Meetups, lectures, etc) to raise awareness of the work we do and build our hiring brand

• Cultivate Xero as a great place to work, embracing a growth mindset, intellectual rigour, humility, curiosity, and mutual respect

Success looks like

• We are creating #beautiful data products and delivering real value through thoughtful user experiences

• Our products use the appropriate machine learning methods to solve customer problems — simple where it works, complex where it’s needed

• Our standards and practices are consistent with delivering high quality work while minimising unnecessary friction

• Our teams are known for engaging respectfully, collaborating effectively, delivering high quality work, and teaching patiently

• Our teams live Xero’s values, and are committed to continually growing their skills and take pride in delivering high quality work with integrity

• Across the business, Xeros are growing in their ability to identify problems that can be solved through quantitative sciences, and where appropriate are collaborating with the Data team to evaluate and refine these ideas

• Xero is growing its track record and reputation for delivering data products and executing on applied research projects

• We are building momentum across the data lifecycle, as teams across the business are committed to improving data quality and Xero is realising the value from that data

• We are a great place to work, and scientists are engaging cross-functionally and continuously deepening their understanding of their field and appreciation for other disciplines

• Xero is a destination of choice for scientists seeking interesting, impactful, and meaningful applied research work in the technology sector

What you’ll bring with you

• Critical competencies

• A track record in translating strategic business objectives into research programs, and leading teams to deliver outcomes

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal and the ability to translate between business and technical audiences

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to articulate and advocate the Data Team's vision and motivate a cross-functional team.

• Ability to exercise effective judgement, sensitivity and creativity to changing needs and situations within the business

• Can successfully build trust and credibility with stakeholders and working relationships across all levels of the business

• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to contribute meaningful and accurate advice

Experience

• Expert-level hands-on skills in a domain of applied science (defined in the technical addendum)

• Track record in delivering real-world impact through applied science, taking research and development from theory to deployment

• Have led cross-functional teams to research, develop, and deliver a system that solves a problem

• Track record in developing both technical and non-technical skills of teams and mentees

Why Xero?

Diversity of people brings diversity of thought, and we like that. Our human-first culture of respect, fairness, and inclusion is what helps Xeros thrive and work and beyond, and that includes our candidates. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single competency or experience, but you could be just the right person for this role. If you are excited about working at Xero, but your past experience doesn't align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Offering very generous paid leave to use however you’d like (plus statutory holidays!), dedicated paid leave to care for your physical and mental wellbeing as well as an Employee Assistance Program to access mental health care for you and your family, health insurance and dental reimbursement with vision allowances, a  healthcare spending account, fertility and family forming financial support, wellbeing and sports programmes, employee resource groups, 26 weeks of parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices with shared meals, flexible working, career development, and many other benefits that reflect our human value, you’ll do the best work of your life at Xero.