This role is essential to ensuring that the products Xero builds comply with the local government regulations and therefore, plays an integral role in directly contributing to the Xero Vision to be the most insightful and trusted small business platform. Your extensive knowledge in this space positions you as Xero’s subject matter expert, advising both product teams and senior leadership.

What you'll do:

Define and execute the operating model and risk frameworks by which Xero reviews its product against current and proposed legislation in region, working closely with stakeholders from Product, Technology, GTM, Legal, Risk and other groups

Proactively understand and manage compliance and regulatory obligations for your areas of responsibility

Ensure Xero understands and meets its ongoing obligations to the relevant government agencies and professional bodies that enable us to operate in the compliance space (i.e. income tax, transactional tax, payroll and reporting) within your region of expertise.

Co-ordinate and consolidate the review of future product features and functionality (typically with a 1-3 year outlook), providing input during the planning phase, to ensure they align with current and proposed legislation and regulatory requirements

Work with product teams to help them understand relevant requirements and translate these into accurate technical specifications

Be a leader and mentor within the internal community of regulatory and product subject matter experts, supporting those in other regions performing a similar function and our in-region specialists

Support M&A teams on awareness of regulatory requirements that may impact their proposals

Assist the product team and extended business with day-to-day regulatory compliance queries

It is important the business has a clear understanding of:

The regulatory requirements that our customers, users and software products need to comply with, particularly in respect to accounting, tax calculations, payroll, cyber security, privacy principles, reporting and record keeping, and accessibility

The upcoming regulatory change and subsequent areas of our platform likely to be impacted, and the opportunities this change oﬀers Xero and small business

The regulatory risk map, related plans and timelines, and impacts to our key strategic priorities

Critical competencies:

Qualified accountant and current member of professional body (e.g., CPA, CA)

Recognised as the subject matter expert of regional regulatory requirements impacting product

Extensive specialist understanding of regional regulatory requirements that impact or drive data and returns flowing in/out of the tax authorities (broadly around income/corporation tax, sales tax, payroll and related cyber security and privacy requirements)

Extensive specialist knowledge of regional requirements around accounting and reporting obligations

Exceptional communication skills (written and verbal)

Ability to translate complex technical regulatory detail into natural english, providing in-depth evaluation and interpretation to advise key stakeholders such as product and technology leadership teams, business analysts and developers.

Confident and accurate decision making skills when working on significant and specialist, often poorly defined problems, that require significant expertise to define a solution

Thrive on managing your own time and approach to work, with a ruthless prioritization of time and projects, a strong results & delivery attitude and equally happy with independent vs team based work.

The ability to build strong networks, including remotely

Experience:

7+ years experience in public practice with focus on taxation, compliance or business services

5+ years working collaboratively in technology, software or with Revenue Agencies is advantageous

Extensive experience in writing technical advice addressing complex specialist issues, with in-depth analysis, evaluation and interpretation, often requiring the ability to gain acceptance or change of thinking

Experience advising a broad range of stakeholders including senior leadership, external customers, technical peers

Experience with risk assessments and product roadmaps is helpful

Xero is a global business, so while your focus is in-region, it will be necessary for you to regularly work with teams who are globally dispersed and may result in meetings and collaboration with colleagues in other time zones (and outside the “standard business hours” of your region). Inside Xero we have a thriving community of regulatory subject matter experts who can support and challenge each other, to build excellence in what we do, how we do it and the speed we can respond to market changes. You are seen as a leader in this space and are a mentor to the wider Xero community of subject matter experts.