Early careers at Xero
Start your career here
Joining the junior talent program at Xero means taking the first step into a fulfilling career. With support and hands-on career development, you’ll learn everything you need on the job.
Learn more about our programs
Kickstart your career with Xero and discover opportunities to learn, grow, and make an impact from day one. You’ll find a pathway that’s right for you.
Each program offers: hands-on experience, structured learning and development, support from your buddy and wider team, and clear career progression.
With programs available across engineering, security, and data disciplines, and locations including Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney, there’s no better time to start shaping your future with Xero.
Grad program
Our 12-month graduate program is designed to launch your career in either engineering, security, analysis, security engineering, or data science.
You’ll join us in one of our beautiful office locations – Auckland, Melbourne or Sydney – as a permanent, full-time employee from day one.
The program is built to give you varied experience, exposure to different teams, projects, and ways of working.
You’ll take part in structured learning and development. This includes GradLab power skills training to strengthen communication, collaboration, and leadership, as well as targeted technical skills training tailored to your discipline.
By the end of the program, you’ll transition into an associate role, ready to take the next step in your career with the confidence, experience, and technical expertise to thrive.
Summer internship: engineering
Our summer internship is a 3-month, full-time fixed-term contract designed for students in their penultimate year of study. You’ll join us as an engineering intern, gaining practical industry experience while still completing your degree.
Over the summer, you’ll work on real projects that make an impact. Alongside your day-to-day work, you’ll take part in technical skills training to grow your expertise. With continuous feedback and learning opportunities, you’ll have the chance to develop your skills, confidence, and professional network.
At the end of the internship, you’ll return to university to complete your studies, and if you excel, you could be invited to join Xero’s grad program after you graduate.
FAQs
Your questions answered
Although we ask you to submit a CV, we only use it to verify your eligibility. We don’t use CVs to screen applicants for either the grad or intern program. We regard all your experience as valuable, and you’ll have opportunities to show us your potential throughout the application process.
You’ll need to complete a HackerRank test. While it’s not all about the test results, this is a language-agnostic testing platform that helps us understand your level of technical knowledge.
The Xero grad program is for people who have less than a year’s professional work experience as it teaches skills and competencies from entry level. If you have part-time work experience, that’s awesome, but if you have a couple of years under your belt then you may be better suited to a junior or intermediate role, so keep an eye on our careers page.
The grad program is a year-long experience that varies depending on what type of role you’re applying for. The program is built to give you varied experience, exposure to different teams, projects, and ways of working. You’ll take part in structured learning and development. This includes GradLab power skills training to strengthen communication, collaboration, and leadership, as well as targeted technical skills training tailored to your discipline.
For more information, send us an email at [email protected] and we'll get back to you to run through anything you need when applications open.
Xero grads are permanent employees; interns are fixed-term contracts
You’re guaranteed a permanent position within the Xero family after you complete the grad program. The intern roles are fixed-term contracts.
When you join the grad program, we don’t expect you to know everything. The program is an opportunity for you to continue learning and developing. Throughout the grad year you’ll be given training to build your professional and technical skills and you’ll have access to a learning budget to use for external training and resources. You’ll have a lot of support in the form of your team lead, your buddy and your team.
The permanent role you move into at the end of the program is based on business priorities and team availability.
Grad roles are flexible but not fully remote.
We’ve found that the best way for us to support you, and for you to get the most from the grad program, is working and collaborating with your team in person. So while we don’t offer any fully remote graduate roles, we’re very open to considering flexible ways of working. A lot of grads find that they’re able to work from home a couple of days a week from home if that’s their preference.
Your first week at Xero is focused on making sure you have everything you need to start working. We’ll get you set up with the right tech, you’ll meet your team, your team lead, and the grad team responsible for running the program. It’s important that you have a really great start to your career, so we’ll cover all the ways we support your development. We focus on your technical development and your professional skills, including empowering you to set your own goals and choosing the learning opportunities available. We commit to giving continuous feedback throughout the year to make sure you know where you are in achieving your goals.
Our buildings are high-spec and fairly new. We have an open-plan layout with collaborative working spaces.
Our culture is built on our values: Go Bold by making magic happen, Go Fast because the future doesn’t wait, Go Further by aiming higher, and Go Together because we win as one.
We’re real people who treat each other with respect, and we work hard to deliver a product to delight our customers. We’re inclusive and friendly – our dress code is casual and you'll be welcome to take part in various social activities.
When you work at Xero, you get four weeks annual leave each year, plus 10 days of wellbeing leave and one day to volunteer in your community. You also get five days Xtra leave annually, three days holiday leave over the end of year close-down, and the option to purchase up to 10 days of lifestyle leave.
Xero has an employee share plan so you get to own a part of Xero, and full subsidised health, life, income protection and trauma insurance for all permanent employees. You’ll have opportunities to develop your career, growing and developing your skills on exciting and challenging projects using the latest tech, taking courses, and gaining knowledge from world class engineering leaders and peers. We have a great culture and a flexible working environment.
Check out all the employee benefits, discounts, and perks in one place either on our regional pages, or on our Wellbeing & Benefits page.
Xero is recognised as a top graduate employer in Australia and New Zealand. You can see the awards that Xero has received at our awards page.
You’ll move through the application process in stages
My experience as a graduate at Xero has been nothing short of amazing. I was really nervous about working with so many talented engineers and fitting in, but the culture of learning and helping each other excel technically and personally makes me feel like this is the perfect place to grow my skills.
I’m having an incredible learning and growth experience at Xero. What I love most is the freedom to explore different skills and areas of work, along with Xero’s strong investment in employee development and wellbeing.
The best part of my experience at Xero has been working with so many talented and supportive people. The culture here is truly collaborative and welcoming, which has made it an incredible place to grow and learn.
Interested in early careers at Xero?
Join our early careers community for updates.