Government Relations Lead, US

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

At Xero, our purpose is to make life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world. This purpose sits at the centre of everything we do. We support our people to do the best work of their lives so that they can help small businesses succeed through better tools, information and connections. Because when they succeed they make a difference, and when millions of small businesses are making a difference, the world is a more beautiful place.

How you’ll make an impact 

You will materially contribute to Xero’s purpose of making life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world.

Your immediate contribution will include working with the Americas VP of Government Relations to build a diverse coalition of industry and government stakeholders across the US.

You will nurture the coalition in preparation of a future policy activation to positively affect the US regulatory environment for small businesses.

Leveraging Xero’s unique assets to champion innovation which unlocks productivity for small businesses will be your primary tools to build relationships. Assets include insights derived from a platform serving over 4 million small businesses globally, access to global small business regulatory environment expertise and globally centralized policy proposals.

Your impact will be based on your ability to create sustainable value for a diverse set of stakeholders.

Your ability to spot opportunities and threats following execution of engagements will inform Xero’s future business direction in the US.

Using technology to reinforce your intuition, you will work closely with the Americas VP of Government Relations and internal US-based business leaders to manage threats and opportunities.

You will also have the opportunity to learn from and share insights with the global Government Relations and Public Policy team. 

You will form part of a supportive, focused and ambitious global Government Relations and Public Policy team.

You will be challenged to contribute to and adopt best practice government relations procedures with the purpose of shaping a regulatory environment that supports Xero to make small businesses more productive.

Joining Xero when we are early in our government relations journey, you will be encouraged to dream big and make a material difference to the lives of small businesses.          

What you will bring: 

- Always first, second and third, you’ll be a kind, empathetic human being who cares about others, has a bias for action and is an outstanding communicator across all mediums.  

- You will bring an attitude which relishes the challenge of joining a high performing team which is early on its journey in the US, and isn’t afraid to do things differently.  

- You will be a combination of team player and individual contributor, following the broad direction of the Americas VP of Government Relations and collaborating to amplify your impact, while taking accountability for operation and execution. 

- You’ll be a stakeholder relations master who is keenly aware of the need for alignment and internal stakeholder involvement and collaboration as a critical component in policy formation in the modern corporate environment, both internally and externally to the organization. 

- You will have an understanding of public policy development and change processes. Ideally this will be through more than 5 years experience working in government or industry groups, or working on engagement campaigns or community influence projects.  

What you’ll do 

- You will support the Americas VP of Government Relations to execute engagement plans to quickly build Xero’s relationships with industry and government stakeholders in key markets across the USA, which will be required to influence small business policy in the future. 

- You will inform engagement plans by researching and engaging stakeholders across the USA, with a keen sense of Xero’s in-market value proposition and the concept of shared value. Stakeholder targets will include: technology industry peers; small business, technology, accounting and bookkeeping industry groups; and federal, state and municipal governments.   

- You will propose novel strategies to engage and rapidly build sustainable relationships with Xero’s highest priority stakeholders. Engagements may include tailored direct engagements, Xero hosted events leveraging Xero subject matter experts, or creating value at attending industry group events.

- You will pragmatically leverage internal assets to engage with stakeholders, including Xero Small Business Insights data, research materials and policy proposals.

- You will also be expected to utilize internal leaders and subject matter experts to build Xero’s reputation with stakeholders.   

- You will comprehensively organize and manage engagements and events. This will include internal stakeholder liaison, event strategy, briefing materials preparation, event management and logistics, to ensure the successful execution  of the event.    

- Leveraging internal assets available to you, you will engage with a wide variety of new and existing stakeholders to continue to grow Xero’s strong reputation in the small business ecosystem. 

- You will be responsible for utilizing technology to record your stakeholder interactions, communicate insights and create data. Effective communication of insights will inform important business decisions and amplify the value of our engagements.   

- You will be expected to contribute to developing an industry leading post-engagement stakeholder management process to best inform future engagements. Y

- You will work closely with the Americas VP of Government Relations to design future engagement plans. You will actively work with the Americas VP of Government Relations to inform a strategy to affect meaningful small business policy influence in the USA. 

- You will be an integral member of Xero’s USA team. You will be required to collaborate with a number of different teams to design the highest impact engagements, including Communications, Marketing and Partnerships. You will also be an integral member of Xero’s global Legal; Policy, Compliance and Legal Operations; and Government Relations & Public Policy teams.

- You will share information and insights to contribute to global best practice government relations delivery.   

Where you’ll fit in 

- You will be based in a city where Xero has an office: Denver, New York or San Francisco.

 - Your role will demand frequent domestic travel, with infrequent international travel

- You will work closely with the Americas VP of Government Relations and report to the GM of Government Relations and Public Policy. 

- You will form part of the Policy, Compliance and Legal Operations team, as part of the wider Legal team. Permanent, full time role. 

The behaviors you will embody 

- A positive values-based practitioner committed to adding to the unique Xero culture 

- A culture of continuous improvement in all that we do is in place and thriving 

- Trusted stakeholder status with government and industry stakeholders.

- Trusted by diverse stakeholders to be constructive, no matter what 

- Consultative to extract maximum value without ego

The skills you will bring

 - Highly effective communication and relational skills Strategic, proactive and creative stakeholder management and engagement Broad team collaboration and individual execution 

- An in-depth understanding of public policy influence from multiple perspectives Strategic delivery and commercial acumen. - A high ability to operate in a fast paced environment with constant change and ambiguity  

- A problem solving mentality 

- A mindset for change and new ways of working 

- The ability to develop trusted relationships with key stakeholders and to play a leadership role driving forward Xero’s agenda The ability to operate seamlessly between the hybrid virtual and non virtual world

 Competencies

- Experience managing engagement projects, ideally focused on public policy change or building coalitions to navigate complex policy processes. 

- Demonstrated stakeholder management, research and insight development. 

- A familiarity in the key policy areas, including small business policy, tax digitalization and open banking. 

- Ideally a degree in a relevant field, such as Politics, Law, Economics, Public Policy, Government/Public Administration, Social Sciences and Research Listed company experience preferable

- This position description is intended merely as a guideline of the responsibilities involved in the position.

- The employee is expected to perform any other duties as reasonably required by their Manager.

Please note:

We will be observing a holiday shutdown period, during which there may be delays in our recruitment process, including responses and updates. We’ll resume full operations in the week commencing 13th January. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

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. 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, employee resource groups, wellbeing programming and allowances, medical, dental, vision, and disability insurance, fertility and family forming financial support, 401k contribution matching, 26 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices with snacks and break areas, flexible working, career development and many other benefits that reflect our human value, you’ll do the best work of your life at Xero.