Lead Product Manager - Ecosystem

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.

About the team

With over 1000+ apps available, the Xero Ecosystem is a vibrant marketplace that connects over 3 million small businesses and accountants with a diverse range of third-party applications that integrate with Xero, enhancing the power of Xero's cloud accounting platform. The Ecosystem team fuels this dynamic marketplace through a robust API that empowers  developers to create innovative apps, and managing an App Store that allows businesses to discover, explore and adopt these solutions.

About the role

We are looking for a Lead PM to manage our Ecosystem Embed Platform that allows key partners to provide seamless experiences within Xero. This will be a senior IC role within the Ecosystem org and requires collaboration with engineering, design and marketing peers across Xero’s cross-section of product and partnerships teams.

In this role you will spearhead creation of a platform that allows partners to integrate with functionality within Xero’s products. This is a zero to 1 space. To be successful in this role, you need an entrepreneurial mindset with the resourcefulness to make things happen in a complex, matrixed organization. Experience navigating a matrixed organization and ability to collaborate with teams outside of your immediate spheres of influence is a significant part of the role. This is your chance to have a lasting impact on Xero and its ecosystem by creating a scalable API platform for creating deep product experiences within Xero. This is also a highly technical space so the ideal candidates will have deep experience managing and scaling a B2B API platform.

• Confidently execute core product management role responsibilities including identifying customer problems and definitions solutions to test, developing and managing product roadmaps or strategies, and developing product release strategies
• Lead the development of networks across Xero to frame how products fit into Xero's strategy, objectives and future
• Consistently review, monitor and interrogate the commercial & customer results of products, areas and teams to inform product strategy and practice
• Lead and manage a product or group of products across the end-to-end lifecycle (e.g. launch through to sunset) to ensure maintenance and support throughout the life of the product
• Drive decision-making across products and/or teams weighing up all inputs and information, and working as a tie-breaker where there isnʼt consensus
• Connect products and their teams in various phases of development to ensure continuity and cohesiveness, and alignment of products across Xero
• Train, coach and upskill product team members to build product practice and embed best practice across Xero
• Develop and document, in consultation with product leadership, a suite of product practices to standardize the best way to do product at Xero.
• You will collaborate and consult effectively with the broader Portfolio leadership team on product delivery and strategy: Engineering, Product Operations and Product Strategy, Product Marketing Management and Product Design.
• Identify and roll out improvements to product practice and operations
• Develop high-level strategy for the product management cra, shaping the execution of product management within Xero
• Support recruitment of new Xero's as required, ensuring team members are high quality, fit Xero's culture, and are onboarded effectively
• Works directly with 10-20 engineers and is responsible for signing off on an overall technical direction and architecture from the product perspective (ie, that tradeoffs are aligned with product direction).

• Extensive experience in enabling new and improved approaches to product practice
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with diverse and senior stakeholder groups to realise customer / commercial outcomes
• 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 product practice thought leadership, defining product roadmaps and long term planning at a Portfolio / Sub-portfolio(s) level
• Extensive experience in leading cross portfolio initiatives to deliver customer / business outcomes
• Extensive experience in mentoring, supporting and coaching
• Experience in a technical platform space or working on B2B API platforms

Why Xero? 

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, free medical insurance, wellbeing and sports programmes, employee resource groups, 26 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices, flexible working, career development, and many other benefits that reflect our human value, you’ll do the best work of your life at Xero.