Staff Frontend Engineer - Apps API Platform

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. 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

The Apps API Platform Group is dedicated to making Canva the most pluggable design platform in the world. We empower developers by providing the tools and frameworks needed to integrate innovative apps and services seamlessly into Canva.

Our vision is to foster an expansive Ecosystem of apps and integrations that cater to the diverse needs of a billion users. Working alongside hundreds of developers, we aim to create a scalable, performant, and secure runtime for apps that enhances user experience and supports Canva’s long-term growth.

As one of the teams responsible for Apps SDK, the Productivity Capabilities team focuses on improving workflow and data-connector APIs that apps depend on. We have built a fundamental set of APIs and continue to add more to our repertoire to better integrate apps into the Canva product.

About the Role

As a Staff Frontend Engineer in one of the Apps API Platform teams, you will play a crucial role in developing and refining the Apps SDK, ensuring that external apps can integrate natively into Canva’s product ecosystem. You will be responsible for architecting new capabilities, shaping API designs, and collaborating with both internal teams and external developers to build a world-class app experience.

As a technical leader, you’ll drive large-scale projects from ideation to execution, making key architectural decisions that impact Canva’s developer community. You will also mentor other engineers, share best practices, and help define the future of frontend development within the Ecosystem Supergroup.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• Design and implement public APIs that balance extensibility, usability, and long-term maintainability.
• Improve app runtime performance to ensure seamless, high-quality integrations.
• Primarily working on web frontend with Typescript, but may need to work with other languages and environments
• Work cross-functionally with core Canva teams to expose internal features via external APIs while maintaining architectural integrity.
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring other engineers and driving best practices across the team.
• Advocate for developer needs, ensuring that Canva’s SDK and APIs align with the expectations of third-party developers.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and effectively advocate for engineering needs to non-technical stakeholders within the group
• Model initiative and ownership in achieving goals, improving processes and solutions

What we're looking for

• 8+ years of commercial experience in a software development environment, ideally with experience in building internal/external SDKs, APIs, libraries, and frameworks.
• You would ideally have worked as a (hands-on) technical lead previously, or Staff/Principal Engineer.
• Technical leadership experience on large scale projects, linking up multiple teams at once. 
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to break large projects down into smaller ones and deliver on them through others.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a proven ability to work with technical and non-technical stakeholders. 
• Our frontend stack consists of JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, TypeScript, MobX. Experience in some of these would be highly valuable.
• Firmly grounded computer science and engineering fundamentals including asynchronous programming, data structures, solution design, architecture, and design patterns.
• Understanding of browser rendering pipeline, event handling, WebWorkers, WebGL/WebGPU would be a bonus, but not required.
• Passion for performance debugging and benchmarking

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 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.