Staff Backend Engineer - Canva Ecosystem

2 Months ago • 8 Years + • Frontend Development

Job Summary

Job Description

Canva seeks a Staff Backend Engineer to contribute to their expanding ecosystem. This role involves hands-on development of complex, distributed applications using Java, focusing on the Canva Ecosystem's technical roadmap and architecture. The engineer will collaborate with designers and product managers to create a positive developer experience, define API strategies, facilitate knowledge sharing, and mentor other engineers. The primary responsibility is building and scaling the Canva API to support integrations with third-party tools, enterprise software, and SaaS applications. The role requires strong communication, collaboration skills, and a disciplined approach to coding and code reviews. Experience with AWS services is a plus.
Must have:
  • 8+ years Java development experience
  • Complex distributed application development
  • API development experience
  • Strong communication & collaboration
  • Disciplined coding practices
Good to have:
  • AWS experience (DynamoDB, SNS/SQS)
  • Backend web frameworks experience
Perks:
  • Equity packages
  • Inclusive parental leave
  • Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance
  • Flexible leave options

Job Details

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.

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, 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:

  • Working as a hands-on engineer – and collaborate closely with other leads, designers, and product managers to deliver a delightful experience for external developers.
  • Playing a leading role in defining the technical roadmap and architecture for the Canva Ecosystem, with an emphasis on ensuring external developers build secure and reliable apps and integrations on our developer platform.
  • Finding opportunities for cross-team collaboration across the Ecosystem, Platform and Security groups to work on new ideas and improvements that help achieve our goals
  • Facilitating knowledge sharing and optimally advocate for engineering needs to non-technical team members within the group.
  • Modelling initiative and ownership in achieving goals, improving processes and solutions
  • Mentoring engineers, sharing your knowledge and expertise in software development and privacy engineering practices.

You're probably a match if

  • 8-plus (8+) years of commercial experience developing complex, distributed applications writing services in Java.
  • Disciplined coding practices, and experience with code reviews and pull requests. You model best practices to your peers.
  • Strong communication and team collaboration skills, both written and verbal. A Canva engineer strives to understand the exact problem before jumping into writing code.
  • While not required, commercial experience with developing APIs with backend web frameworks
  • All of our services are built on AWS. While not required, commercial experience with AWS services like DynamoDB, and SNS/SQS is an advantage.


About the team

The Ecosystem group contributes to Canva’s growth towards 1 billion users by creating an abundant ecosystem that tailors to the diverse needs of our users across all demographics. As Canva continues to play a larger role in organisations with larger teams it is essential that we continue building an ecosystem that supports integrations with 3rd party tools/apps/services. We are introducing a public REST API for Canva to serve third-party developers and support integrations with enterprises and SaaS software!

The Ecosystem strategy involves three priorities:

  • Build and scale the Canva API to enable deep integrations into (and outside of) Canva’s editor product.
  • Create a truly delightful experience for our developers and their customers.
  • Building high-quality integrations with strategic partners to benefit Canva’s users.

Part of the Ecosystem Group strategy is to invest in:

  • Building integrations with enterprise tools and SaaS software so that our customers have seamless access to Canva within their day to day tools and workflows
  • Building apps on Canva so our users can access the tools they need to design from within Canva

Examples of these strategic apps and integrations include Google Drive, Slack, Microsoft Teams and many more…

The Integrations at Scale teams play a vital role in the Ecosystem strategy by working closely with internal and external stakeholders to build a suite of API capabilities and integrations using backend REST APIs (aka Connect API) that meet Canva’s engineering best practices. The team is also responsible for maintaining an existing suite of APIs that are widely used by Enterprise customers.

Some of the engineering challenges the team will face include:

  • Designing REST APIs for internal and external usage by enterprise partners that provide a consistent experience
  • Working with the Partner Apps and Integrations team to support the creation of 1P and 2P applications and integrations that use the Connect API
  • Working with Enterprise partners to refine existing and developer new Connect API capabilities

Additionally, the team will also be collaborating with cross-functional teams on roadmap goals and milestones and be working closely with our enterprise partners with their integrations.

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.

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