Development Manager Jobs

Xero is a beautiful, easy-to-use cloud based platform that helps small businesses and their accounting and bookkeeping advisors grow and thrive.

Diversity of people brings diversity of thought, and that is core to driving Xero’s mission. Supporting a culture of inclusion is something we’re immensely proud of. We know that a diverse workforce is a strength that enables businesses, including ours, to better understand and serve customers, attract top talent and innovate successfully. A part of that is to support many types of flexible working arrangements that allow you to balance your work, your life and your passions. So, from the moment you begin your journey with Xero, we will constantly strive to ensure you’ll feel welcome and supported to do the best work of your life.

As a TaxCycle Development Manager , you will manage a large team of engineers. You will be responsible for supporting and developing your direct reports, empowering them to deliver high-quality software to customers and fostering the growth of a world-class engineering culture:

- attracting, recruiting and retaining capable individuals, building on and complementing the diversity of our teams;

- working with your team to champion and drive processes and practices that make it possible for engineers to get great work done, - while promoting a safe environment for people to experiment and learn;

- driving a culture of professional development, high performance and open communication;

- role-modeling exemplary leadership, supporting and growing the next generation of engineering leaders at TaxCycle.

You will work collaboratively with the TaxCycle software architects to ensure your team aligns their work with business and engineering priorities.

You will apply your knowledge of modern software engineering and product delivery practices to support your team in achieving their goals and those of the business.

Your hands-on coding experience will allow you to occasionally pitch-in during busy times, participate in design and engineering discussions and support the questions from your reports.

What you’ll do:

• Make sure the team understands how they help our customers and our business achieve great outcomes. Ensure cross-team dependencies are effectively coordinated and managed through your great relationships with other stakeholders.
• Ensure the team’s work is in line with the wider architectural vision, and deviations from architectural guidelines are well thought out and understood.
• Own the hiring process for engineers within your team, and make improvements that ensure we attract and hire great technical talent, building on and complementing the diversity of our teams.
• Create a culture of psychological safety and inclusion. Ensure the health of your team is monitored, that all members of your team are empowered to raise ideas and concerns, and that everyone contributes to improvements in how the team works together.
• Attend and facilitate team events to support delivery from a relationship and collaboration perspective.
• Set a clear direction and connect the work your team does to the technology and strategic objectives.
• Inspire self-reflection and honest feedback to help drive a culture of continuous improvement.
• As required, lead, develop and grow a high performing team through coaching, mentoring and support.
• Empower your direct reports to make decisions when fast, decentralized decision-making is appropriate to reduce delays, make improvements, enable faster feedback and more innovative solutions.
• Support each member of your team to identify, grow and develop engineering capabilities and overall personal development and work with them to understand career growth opportunities.
• Coach your team on the improvement of software development practices: The technical practices of your teams are continuously evaluated and improved on to ensure we are always delivering high-quality software that is secure, robust and scalable at a consistent cadence.

Success looks like:

• Realizes the product and architectural vision.
• Your team:
• Leave, expenses, and relevant processes are completed in a timely manner.
• Your reports:
• All engineers are motivated and engaged: Staff morale and staff retention is high.
• Drive incremental improvement of TaxCycle’s products.
• You understand when your people are most engaged and are able to remove barriers to support them to do the best work of their lives.
• Meets the delivery deadlines they have committed to.
• Clearly understand how the work they perform contributes to the overall success of the technology team, TaxCycle and Xero.
• Delivers valuable high-quality software quickly and consistently to our customers.
• Good performance is recognized and celebrated. Poor performance is managed promptly and effectively.
• Are able to participate in communities and model a culture of sharing, inclusion and continuous improvement.
• Are empowered and challenged to do their best work and their skills are continuously being developed through new learnings and experiences.
• Collaborates effectively with other cross functional teams.
• Clearly understand their areas of development and their personal growth opportunities. Their performance is reviewed regularly and feedback is continually provided in a timely manner.

What you’ll bring with you:

• Coach and mentor - Offer the right knowledge, at the right time in the right way, understanding why and how people learn.
• Experience with coaching and mentoring junior staff members
• People Leadership - Demonstrate honesty and integrity. Provide objectives and goals with loose guidelines/directions. Clearly communicate expectations. Have an open mind and the flexibility to change opinions. Develop and support others.
• Demonstrated experience building trust and credibility with stakeholders and working relationships across all levels of the business
• Critical competencies
• High EQ - Self aware, self regulated, motivated and empathetic, with great interpersonal skills.
• Azure Services
• Experience
• Your team works with the following technology on a day-to-day basis. Awareness or experience with these and similar technologies will help you succeed:
• Leading/living the vision & values - Build and foster an inclusive and positive team culture. Keep the team’s vision and values at the forefront of decision-making and actions. Communicate and help others understand the importance of the vision and values. Translate the vision and values into day-to-day activities and behaviors.
• Azure DevOps
• C#
• Proven ability to balance the needs of the individual with the needs of the business
• Teamwork - Work with peers and stakeholders to establish an overall collaborative relationship.
• Technology
• ASP.NET
• Experience of managing software development and/or other teams using Lean/Agile techniques
• XAML
• Excellent grasp of modern software development practices and lifecycle
• Line management - Works collaboratively with direct reports to set meaningful performance objectives; to identify the behaviors, knowledge and skills required to achieve goals; and ensures opportunities for professional development are available. Collaboratively establishes professional development plans. Addresses performance declines or increases quickly and appropriately.
• Growth mindset - Understand that competency is not fixed but is enhanced through dedication and hard work. Demonstrate a love of learning and resilience to adversity that is essential for great accomplishment.
• Outstanding communication and time management skills
• Recent hands-on experience coding and developing software

At Xero we embrace diversity and inclusion and value a #challenge mindset. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single competency or experience . If you are excited about this role, but your past experience doesn't align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be just the right person for a role at Xero. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at time of application and throughout the interview process.