Principal/Staff Backend Engineer - Canva AI

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey, hello, hiya, 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 and Adelaide. But you have choice in where and how you work. That means if you want to do your thing in the office (if you're near one), at home or a bit of both, it's up to you.

About the Group/Team

We are the Canva AI Group, the face of Canva AI product. We own the end-to-end core product experiences and the conductor platform that powers Canva AI. Our vision is to deliver the most intuitive conversational experience, empowering users worldwide to effortlessly generate any content they need—whether designs, documents, images, or engaging in insightful Q&A and brainstorming. Our mission significantly impacts Canva's overarching success, aligning directly with Canva's strategic objective to be the world's leading visual communication platform.

About the Role/Specialty

As a Staff Backend Engineer, you'll evolve our Canva AI into a robust, scalable platform that supports seamless integrations and high performance at scale for Canva's 150 million global users. Your work will empower internal Canva teams and external partners alike, enabling them to seamlessly onboard and integrate their features, capabilities, and APIs into Canva AI. You will lead strategic decisions and drive the backend architecture, playing a critical role in shaping Canva AI into a universally accessible platform. This is a high-impact, technically challenging role positioned at the forefront of Canva's strategic vision.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• Be hands-on in implementing critical path code, driving complex projects from inception through to production.
• Collaborate proactively with teams across Canva to evolve Canva AI into a platform that easily integrates diverse capabilities.
• Mentor and guide backend engineers, introducing best practices to uphold engineering excellence, improve system reliability, and reduce technical debt.
• Act as a thought leader, guiding platform strategy by deeply understanding stakeholder pain points, proactively identifying issues, and minimizing friction.
• Put your PM hat on, work closely with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure Canva AI effectively addresses real user and developer needs, continuously evolving the product vision.

What we're looking for

We’re looking for an experienced engineer with a strong bias for action—someone willing to dive deep, take calculated risks, and drive projects hands-on. You embrace a product-minded engineering approach, actively influencing platform initiatives with strategic insight. Ownership is at your core, and you’re adept at guiding complex projects to completion. You're also proactive in staying ahead of rapidly evolving AI technologies, consistently identifying and adopting the most impactful innovations for our platform.

• Being hands-on, write a lot of code.
• Bias for action and willingness to take calculated risks.
• Strong ownership with the ability to execute independently on ambiguous scopes.
• Deep sense of ownership with a track record of delivering end-to-end.
• Forward-thinking, passionate about keeping pace with evolving AI industry trends and technologies.

What and how you will learn and develop at Canva

• Gain invaluable experience building revolutionary AI-powered products at scale, mastering interactions with large language models, fine-tuning techniques, and evaluation methodologies critical to AI product success.
• Acquire broad exposure to diverse technologies, APIs, and platforms, significantly expanding your technical expertise and breadth of knowledge.
• Play a pivotal role in shaping Canva's future, working cross-functionally and strategically across the company, deeply embedding yourself within Canva’s innovative and collaborative engineering culture.

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 stack 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 see AI as a powerful amplifier of creativity and technology at Canva.We’re evolving how we assess AI skills in our Technology hiring experience - you’ll tackle interactive, real-time challenges that reflect the kind of work we do. In some interviews, you may also be asked to solve a problem using an AI tool to show how you approach challenges with tech by your side. Your recruitment partner will walk you through what to expect.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!

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.