Applied Scientist - Machine Learning Products

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.
Xero views the application of intelligent, data-driven products and services at scale as a key competitive advantage for our business, now and into the future. 
As an Applied Scientist you will work with colleagues in the Data team and subject matter experts from across the business to refine tough problems that can be solved with the application of scientific thinking, algorithms and analytical data processing. 
By actively living Xero’s values, you will contribute to our culture of collaboration, mutual respect, healthy skepticism, and embracing a growth mindset.

What you'll do

• Immerse yourself in Xero’s data, wrangling often complex and messy data and contribute to our shared understanding of the value contained in our data stores
• Continually provide feedback on how we can improve the quality of our data and its coverage of our core products/services
• Apply sound scientific methods (i.e. hypothesis generation, experimentation, analysis) to drive product development (e.g. model development, model evaluation, POC design)
• Work to achieve and maintain high personal coding standards, collaborating with engineers to produce robust and reproducible code aligned with delivering high-quality products
• Contribute to our research tooling and work with colleagues to scope and implement improvements
• Together with engineers, maintain and operate the end-to-end pipelines that support data-intensive applications at Xero
• Work with colleagues to understand the business domain basis of applied research tasks and how they deliver value to our customers
• Adopt a customer-focused mindset to link applied research to ethics and tangible real-world outcomes for our customers
• Represent Xero’s values through your work and interactions with collaborators across Xero, delivering high quality work with integrity
• Communicate your findings to a diverse set of stakeholders with varying technical backgroundsParticipate in building and maintaining our culture, making Xero a great place to work

What you'll bring:

• Comfortable creating useful structures to make progress within ambiguous environments
• Experience applying science from theory to application on a real-world problem
• Ability to break down large problems into smaller, more manageable tasks
• Ability to collaborate with other technical team members with different skill sets, coupled with a willingness to broaden skills 
• Strong time management skills, and a strong understanding of diminishing returns in applied research; in short, knowing when enough time has been invested to answer a question
• Experience working in cross-functional teams to deliver a system that solves a business problem

Why Xero?
At Xero we support many types of flexible working arrangements that allow you to balance your work, your life and your passions. We offer a great remuneration package including shares plus a range of leave options to suit your well-being. Our work environment encourages continuous improvement and career development and you’ll get to work with the latest technology.  
Our collaborative and inclusive culture is one 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. We are a member of Pride in Diversity, in recognition of our inclusive workplace. So, from the moment you step through our doors, you’ll feel welcome and supported to do the best work of your life.