Engineering Manager - Database Reliability

Description

We're looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to lead our Database Reliability Engineering teams and drive a critical modernisation agenda at scale. You'll oversee two specialised teams working across Australia and New Zealand, managing the infrastructure that powers millions of customer transactions daily. Your primary focus will be delivering our AI DBA platform to break the reactive firefighting cycle, whilst coaching engineers to shift towards strategic consulting and enabling product teams to own their own databases more effectively.

This is a role where your decisions have downstream impact across the entire organisation. You'll work with experienced engineers on complex infrastructure challenges, guide their development towards modern technologies like Aurora Postgres, and help reshape how the team approaches problem-solving in a high-scale environment.

The team & how they connect

The Database Engineering team owns all databases at Xero, including our core infrastructure supporting millions of customers and hundreds of engineers across dozens of product teams. We provide tools, observability, and expertise to help product teams manage their own data whilst reducing dependency on our direct support. The team is split across two specialist groups: the first team providing frontline support, incident response, and strategic consulting whilst the second team leads our migration to cloud-managed services.

The team is currently working on or initially, you will focus on

Delivering our AI database administrator platform to embed team knowledge into an agentic tool that handles incident response and automates routine support

Completing global database migrations to RDS (XeroDB migration complete; moving other critical databases in coordination with product teams)

Modernising our database technology from Microsoft SQL Server to Aurora Postgres through ongoing experimentation and partnership with AWS

Building the operational and cultural foundations for teams to shift from reactive incident response to proactive strategic consulting on database architecture and performance

Where and how you can work

This is role can be based either in Australia (Melbourne or Sydney) and New Zealand (Auckland or Wellington), reflecting where our database engineering teams are distributed. We support flexible working arrangements, with the expectation that you'll collaborate regularly with your direct reports and partner teams.

Here are some of the things we're looking for

You bring a deep understanding of database architecture and relational database systems, with familiarity across different database technologies (relational, non-relational, cloud-managed services) and a genuine interest in learning new approaches

Your track record shows you've managed large-scale infrastructure projects or led engineers through significant technical transformations, with the delivery mindset to break down complex work into executable steps

You're someone who thrives on coaching and mentoring experienced engineers, identifying their strengths and helping them grow, especially when pushing them to adopt new technologies or ways of working

You've built strong relationships across technical and non-technical teams, comfortable navigating stakeholder complexity and bringing people on the journey when change is needed

You go bold by embracing modern technology directions and Go Further by thinking strategically about how your team evolves alongside organisational needs

Postgres experience is preferable, but what matters more is your ability to learn alongside your team and facilitate their growth in emerging technologies

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.

Responsibilities

• We're looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to lead our Database Reliability Engineering teams and drive a critical modernisation agenda at scale. You'll oversee two specialised teams working across Australia and New Zealand, managing the infrastructure that powers millions of customer transactions daily. Your primary focus will be delivering our AI DBA platform to break the reactive firefighting cycle, whilst coaching engineers to shift towards strategic consulting and enabling product teams to own their own databases more effectively.
• This is a role where your decisions have downstream impact across the entire organisation. You'll work with experienced engineers on complex infrastructure challenges, guide their development towards modern technologies like Aurora Postgres, and help reshape how the team approaches problem-solving in a high-scale environment.
• The team & how they connect
• The Database Engineering team owns all databases at Xero, including our core infrastructure supporting millions of customers and hundreds of engineers across dozens of product teams. We provide tools, observability, and expertise to help product teams manage their own data whilst reducing dependency on our direct support. The team is split across two specialist groups: the first team providing frontline support, incident response, and strategic consulting whilst the second team leads our migration to cloud-managed services.
• The team is currently working on or initially, you will focus on
• Delivering our AI database administrator platform to embed team knowledge into an agentic tool that handles incident response and automates routine support
• Completing global database migrations to RDS (XeroDB migration complete; moving other critical databases in coordination with product teams)
• Modernising our database technology from Microsoft SQL Server to Aurora Postgres through ongoing experimentation and partnership with AWS
• Building the operational and cultural foundations for teams to shift from reactive incident response to proactive strategic consulting on database architecture and performance
• Where and how you can work
• This is role can be based either in Australia (Melbourne or Sydney) and New Zealand (Auckland or Wellington), reflecting where our database engineering teams are distributed. We support flexible working arrangements, with the expectation that you'll collaborate regularly with your direct reports and partner teams.
• Here are some of the things we're looking for
• You bring a deep understanding of database architecture and relational database systems, with familiarity across different database technologies (relational, non-relational, cloud-managed services) and a genuine interest in learning new approaches
• Your track record shows you've managed large-scale infrastructure projects or led engineers through significant technical transformations, with the delivery mindset to break down complex work into executable steps
• You're someone who thrives on coaching and mentoring experienced engineers, identifying their strengths and helping them grow, especially when pushing them to adopt new technologies or ways of working
• You've built strong relationships across technical and non-technical teams, comfortable navigating stakeholder complexity and bringing people on the journey when change is needed
• You go bold by embracing modern technology directions and Go Further by thinking strategically about how your team evolves alongside organisational needs
• Postgres experience is preferable, but what matters more is your ability to learn alongside your team and facilitate their growth in emerging technologies
• 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.