Director Product - Platform & Identity

Our Purpose

At Xero, we’re here to supercharge small businesses. By making small business more efficient every day, connecting them with big business technology and empowering a community behind them, their potential is limitless. When that happens, we’re not only helping small business, we’ll be building a stronger economy that can change the world.

How you’ll make an impact

As a Director of Product you will lead multiple product teams and, where required, step in to solve complex and protracted product problems. You will support and enable your team to do the best work of their lives through practising the great people leader framework. Your impact will be measured by your achievement of key commercial and customer success metrics through your management of people and teams.

You will lead a product area with high levels of complexity, ambiguity, dependencies and/or stakeholder management.

As the Director of Product, Identity and Platform, you will lead the strategy and execution of several products that underpin almost every product component at Xero. The role is highly strategic and will have significant executive and customer visibility.

You will set the vision and ambition for Xero’s growth into larger medium sized businesses. This role requires you to strategically identify the platform improvements required to service a larger business with higher complexity, design innovative solutions to scale Xero to a new standard, and collaborate with teams to execute the vision. You will be a forward-thinking product leader who can also grapple with how AI is going to change customer needs and product solutions to futureproof Xero. You’ll play a critical role in re-defining the direction of product management in the age of AI.

You’ll work cross-functionally with design, engineering, GTM, compliance teams amongst others. You’ll also work horizontally across product areas and establish the standard for horizontal product work and you’ll lead a team of 6 product managers initially, with room to grow scope significantly for a strong performer.

In this role, you’ll drive innovation and execution across identity, authentication/authorisation, fraud detection and platform reliability and stability. You’ll work across a range of areas including granular user permissions, login (including MFA, SSO, passkeys), customer due diligence platform, AI agent identity, authentication/authorisation and back-end organisational and user platforms

What you’ll do

Product

Be accountable for all the equivalent product management responsibilities, at a product area level, including:

• Network across Xero to ensure the products within the portfolio connect to Xero’s strategy, objectives and future

• Develop trusting relationships with senior level stakeholders, where conversions lead to actionable outcomes

• Articulate a narrative to a diverse set of senior stakeholders to influence outcomes

• Be accountable for all the equivalent product management responsibilities, at portfolio /sub-portfolio(s) level, including:

• Understand the Xero context, map out the Xero landscape and identify related value streams that might create collaboration opportunities or dependencies

• Define customer vision, bring to life the long-term future state - the difference you're going to make in your customers' lives

• Define scope and approach, define our approach to realising the vision, identifying the big bets we're going to make and the significant value drops to customers over time, including the outcomes we hope to achieve

• Developing a support strategy and plan, create low-fidelity solution concepts to explore the solution space and determine the right direction. De-risk assumptions of value, usability, feasibility and viability, in ongoing #testlearnrefine loops, increasing investment in solution only as confidence grows. Create high-level concepts to demonstrate the ideal future experience and set a north-star aspiration to guide future decision making

• Launch & monitor, align with Customer teams on launch timing, approach and specifics based on the agreed Customer Value Proposition. Lock in external messaging and other outward-facing assets. Run through a checklist of all the things that need to be considered when launching a new product or feature.

• Nurture iterative product improvements,

• Take responsibility for managing risks (in line with Xero Risk Management Standard) arising from non-functional concerns including security, privacy, regulatory change and compliance, accuracy, responsible data use and availability: consulting with stakeholders and leading trade-off decisions

• Nurture lifecycle management & sunsetting, and product improvements. Continuously monitor the performance of the product against key success measures and maintain an ongoing dialogue with customers to surface and prioritise new opportunities to optimise the product, while optimising existing features

• Standardise and improve product practice. Leaders actively support practitioners to develop their skills and succeed in their contributions to XPF Activities; they work with them to identify growth opportunities, and share their knowledge and experience in service of that growth

• Deliberately plan the work you are involved in, forecast key milestones and deliveries and track progress against the plan.

People Leadership

You will enable your team to do the best work of their lives.

• Provide team leadership, shaping the team vision, culture, product team scope and ways of working

• Enable and empower people to work autonomously where appropriate, providing guidance, coaching and mentorship.

• Actively engage with your team members about their careers, manage performance and support their growth and development

• Recruit new Xero's as required, ensuring team members are high quality, fit Xero's culture, and are on-boarded effectively

• Manage team compliance with Xero policies, processes and requirements

• Role model exemplary leadership by developing leadership capabilities and upholding our Xero values

• Support the growth and development of your direct reports, ensuring they have what they need to perform their roles and feel empowered and engaged

• Foster a safe environment for people to experiment and learn

• You drive performance and results in your team
  

Success looks like

• You're responsible for the establishment of OKRs and your team's work is contributing to achieve OKRs

• You deeply understand our customers and their problems

• You have strong relationships with your stakeholders who are engaged and have a thorough understanding of your vision, strategy and roadmap

• You have an accessible, transparent, prioritised and well executed roadmap across a portfolio / sub-portfolio which focuses on value to Xero and the customer

• You champion product initiatives, narratives and vision, driving alignment across teams and the organisation

• Significant people leadership experience, with the ability to successfully motivate individuals and teams and develop individuals capabilities.

• Your team members are able to see the big picture and connect their work and their team’s to strategy

• You are an effective coach, asking the important questions, listening and having the real (if difficult) conversions

• Your roadmap is being executed according to plan and you and your team are focused on the most important initiatives

• Support your team to remove barriers

• You build inclusive, resilient and psychologically safe teams

• Collaborate internationally to create horizontal alignment across Xero

• You demonstrate and amplify Xero’s Values

What you’ll bring with you

Critical Capabilities

You will bring deep domain expertise in the following areas:

• Technical platform product experience;

• Demonstrated experience collaborating with diverse and senior stakeholder groups to realize customer / commercial outcomes, particularly engaging cross-functionally and horizontally across product teams; and

• AI fluency: cutting edge of using AI to improve workflows and the product development life cycle, with a hunger and curiosity to experiment and iterate.

Love customer problems:

• Leads others in the use of best practice user research approaches and methodologies to generate powerful insights

• Mentors others in problem definition and articulation techniques to expertly define customer problems

• Coaches others in techniques to create MVPs/MLPs, incremental solution decisions and solution definitions, to expertly solve customer problems

• Supports others to run complex or detailed experiments leading to validation of solution options

Look to the future:

• Runs education sessions for teams on a product/domain to increase depth of knowledge across Xero

• Mentors others to develop product strategies and roadmaps that are compelling and align both business and product interests

• Pilots new systems that support the development of innovative ideas across product

Work the Xero way:

• Leads a culture of courageous prioritization across teams and geographies to improve Xero’s product decision-making capability

• Refines and evolves Xero’s PM ways of working to continuously improve Xero’s approach to PM

• Designs innovative release strategies and processes to reduce release lead time and impacts

Demonstrate commercial acumen:

• Develops new internal approaches and tools to accurately identify and size markets / segments

• Interrogates and validates product-market fit to ensure products are commercially successful in the market

• Drives Xero’s approach to product decision-making, to ensure decisions align to Xero’s short-term and long-term strategic priorities

Do it together:

• Expertly facilitates improvised conversations on any Xero-related issue, with senior level stakeholders, leading to an actionable outcome

• Sets the standard in articulating a narrative to a diverse set of senior stakeholders to influence outcomes

• Establishes or improves cross-functional processes to enable connections that support exemplary product outcomes

Explore the data:

• Coaches others in new analytical approaches to generate insights and improve the effectiveness of product decisions

• Teaches others to meaningfully translate information and insights for different stakeholders and audiences

• Collaborates across functions to integrate information from a variety of sources and teams and generate meaningful insights

Great People Leadership:

• Clarity: See the big picture and connect the work our team does to strategy. Cascade the operating lan and enable communication and feedback

• Align & Engage: Be a good coach (ask good questions and listen to the answers). Have real, if difficult, conversations. Help your people remove barriers. Collaborates internationally to create horizontal alignment across Xero.

• Perform: Build inclusive, resilient and psychologically safe teams. Drives performance and results. Grow your people and careers.

Experience

• Technical platform product experience

• Demonstrated experience collaborating with diverse and senior stakeholder groups to realise customer / commercial outcomes, particularly engaging cross-functionally and horizontally across product teams

• AI fluency: cutting edge of using AI to improve workflows and the product development life cycle, with a hunger and curiosity to experiment and iterate

• Extensive experience in implementing new and improved approaches to product practice

• Proven ability to drive strategic priorities and help others relate to and align with them

• Strong track record of addressing customer needs through innovative use of technology

• Effectively influenced outcomes at all levels in a variety of contexts

• Extensive experience in defining product roadmaps and long term planning at a Portfolio / Sub-portfolio(s) level

• Extensive experience within industry sectors relevant to Xero

• Previous experience at a Senior Manager level

• Proven people leadership and ability to successfully motivate individuals and teams

• Extensive experience managing a large and/or complex global portfolio / sub-portfolio(s) to deliver customer / business outcomes

• Relevant graduate degree (preferably in a technology or business related field) from a top-tier institution

• Experience leading and coaching other leaders

• Extensive experience in managing product teams, leading cross-functional teams and fostering an open, collaborative team environment

Compensation & Total Rewards

At Xero, we value the impact and skills you bring to the team. We don’t just hire for a role; we invest in people. We believe in a Total Package philosophy - which means your value isn't just a single number on a paycheck. While base salary is a core component, we look at your compensation through a holistic lens that includes equity, performance incentives, and world-class benefits.

The expected base salary range for this role in:

• California, New York and Washington: $195,400 - $244,300

• All other States: $195,400 - $244,300

Individual pay is determined by various factors, including geography, level of experience, and the specific skills you bring to the role.

In addition to base pay, Xero’s roles are eligible for the following forms of variable compensation:

• Variable Pay: Permanent employees are eligible to participate in our equity (RSU) programs. You may also be eligible for performance-based cash or equity (RSUs) incentives depending on your role level, and company performance.

• Comprehensive Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401(k) match, and 21 days PTO, 10 days of Wellbeing leave, 5 days of Xtra Leave, 1 volunteer day, 12 paid holidays, paid parental leave. Further information included on our Xero Perks page.

Xero uses AI to help screen applications based on job-related qualifications. These tools assist our recruiters but do not make automated hiring decisions. A human recruiter reviews all candidates before any hiring action is taken.