Staff Software Engineer (Frontend) – Editing Collaboration

Job Description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.
Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte!
Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time-consuming, and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point.

Please note: This is not an early-career role and is intended for someone operating at Staff, one level above Senior. 

Where and how you can work
Our flagship campus is in Sydney. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. But you have a choice in where and how you work—we trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

What you’d be doing in this role
As Canva scales, change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that’s all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you’ll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.

At the moment, this role is focused on:
• Leading the technical direction for real-time collaboration features and commenting at scale
• Integrating AI into team collaboration flows to create seamless and smart experiences
• Building shared infrastructure and frameworks to enable faster collaboration tooling across Canva
• Writing code hands-on while influencing product direction alongside PMs and designers
• Making critical calls on latency, reliability, and data consistency in real-time systems
• Sharing knowledge and levelling up peers through mentoring and thought leadership
• Owning system health and reducing tech debt with a proactive, long-term mindset
• Driving cross-team collaboration and representing Editing Collaboration across Canva

You're probably a match if
• You’ve led large-scale engineering projects from concept to impact
• You’re hands-on with real-time technologies like WebSockets or WebRTC
• You have strong frontend skills—React, TypeScript, MobX, JavaScript—plus solid CS fundamentals
• You think strategically and connect architecture to Canva-wide goals
• You love mentoring and are driven by raising the engineering bar
• You’re comfortable influencing senior stakeholders with clarity and confidence
• You genuinely care about building tools that make teams work better together

About the team
The Editing Collaboration team focuses on empowering teams to collaborate effectively within Canva. We develop core features like commenting and real-time co-editing, and we’re exploring new ways AI can make teamwork in Canva even more intuitive. We sit within the Editing Experience subgroup, whose mission is to build delightful editing features that let everyone design anything with ease.

What’s in it for you?
Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard – and we do – but you’ll experience lots of moments of magic, connectivity and fun woven throughout life at Canva, too. We also offer a range of benefits to set you up for every success in and outside of work.

Here’s a taste of what’s on offer:
• Equity packages – we want our success to be yours too
• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents & carers
• An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support your wellbeing, social connection, office setup & more
• Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and supports you personally

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.

Other stuff to know
We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion, as well as how you can enhance Canva and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually