Engineering Manager (BE) - Core Media (ANZ Remote)

As an Engineering Manager for the Core Media team at Canva, you will lead and grow a high-performing team of 4-6 backend engineers. Your role involves balancing strategic platform initiatives with product feature requests, contributing to architectural decisions, and solving complex distributed systems challenges. You will partner with other teams, champion engineering excellence, and translate strategy into actionable milestones, advocating for the team's needs to scale the Media Platform for billions of users. Ideal candidates have led backend platform teams, possess deep expertise in backend or distributed systems, and thrive on strategic problem-solving in high-growth environments.

Must Have

• Lead and grow a high-performing team of backend engineers.
• Balance strategic platform initiatives with product feature requests.
• Contribute to architectural decisions for complex distributed systems.
• Partner with teams to align roadmaps and accelerate delivery.
• Champion engineering excellence and improve operational health at scale.
• Translate big-picture strategy into actionable milestones and metrics.
• Advocate for team needs and shape Media Platform scaling for billions of users.
• Experience leading backend platform teams and coaching engineers.
• Deep expertise in backend or distributed systems.
• Ability to build and scale systems effectively.
• Strategic problem-solving skills, navigating ambiguity and shifting priorities.
• Strong communication, balancing technical depth with business context.
• Experience in high-growth environments, managing competing demands.
• Energized by complexity and scaling systems and team velocity.

Perks & Benefits

• Equity packages
• Inclusive parental leave policy
• Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support wellbeing, social connection, office setup
• Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and supports you personally

Company 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.

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, Adelaide and Auckland. But you have 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.

Job Description

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.

This role will see you:

• Leading and growing a high-performing team of 4-6 backend engineers within the Media Platform group
• Balancing strategic platform initiatives with high-volume product feature requests across Canva
• Contributing to architectural decisions and solving complex distributed systems challenges
• Partnering with teams across Canva to align roadmaps and accelerate delivery
• Championing engineering excellence and improving operational health at scale
• Creating clarity by translating big-picture strategy into actionable milestones and metrics
• Advocating for the team’s needs and shaping how Media Platform scales for billions of users

You're probably a match if

• You’ve led backend platform teams and coached engineers at all levels, especially senior engineers
• You bring deep expertise in backend or distributed systems, and love building at scale
• You thrive on strategic problem-solving and know how to navigate ambiguity and shifting priorities
• You’re a strong communicator who can balance technical depth with business context
• You’ve worked in high-growth environments and managed competing demands effectively
• You’re energised by complexity and scaling — in both systems and team velocity

About the team

The Media Platform team provides the foundational infrastructure that powers every design at Canva. We build the cloud-based systems that manage petabytes of media, serving billions of assets to millions of users globally. From uploads to exports, we’re solving the distributed systems challenges that make Canva’s visual magic possible. This is a high-impact team with huge growth opportunities — come build the platform that will carry Canva to its next billion users.

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.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don’t feel like your skills quite match what’s listed above - we still want to hear from you!

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.