Staff Software Engineer Web Platform (Frontend)

Job Description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey, gday, mabuhay, kia ora,你好, hallo, vítejte!

Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and youre probably keen to find out whats on offer, so well 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 coworking 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 youre near one), at home or a bit of both, its up to you.

What you’d be doing in this role

As Canva scales change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think thats all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things youll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.

At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Driving product performance improvements by exploring emerging technologies and applying them across key product experiences.
• Leading architectural efforts around code bundling and delivery, evaluating and evolving our systems to support scale, reduce bottlenecks, and enable engineering velocity.
• Developing tooling and systems that empower engineers with visibility into performance regressions before they reach production – through automated detection and validation workflows.
• Collaborating across multiple teams to lead technically complex, largescale, ambiguous initiatives – bringing highlevel expertise, context sharing, and strategic clarity to drive scalable solutions.
• Shaping the future of Canva’s web platform, blending product impact with infrastructure evolution to support millions of users while enabling sustainable engineering growth.

• Youre probably a match if you have:

  • Deep experience with core web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, MobX or similar) and backend stacks (Node.js, Java), with a track record of delivering highquality solutions across the stack.
  • A strong grasp of build systems and performance tooling – from bundling and minification to web vitals – and the ability to architect for scale and speed.
  • A history of leading endtoend technical initiatives, influencing not just how features are built, but what gets built and why.
  • Proven ability to drive clarity in highambiguity spaces, tackling complex or undefined technical problems and aligning multiple teams toward a shared direction.
  • Experience operating in largescale environments – managing crossfunctional collaboration, influencing technical roadmaps, and aligning with stakeholders across the org.
  • A habit of initiating and scaling crossteam efforts, especially in hybrid productplatform spaces where coordination and strategic thinking are critical.
  • A mindset that balances longterm architectural thinking with handson execution, including mentoring others through design reviews, spikes, and implementation guidance.
  • Practical experience creating and advocating for performance observability systems, embedding performance goals into the developer workflow.
  • The ability to translate performance metrics into real user impact – not just what the numbers say, but what they mean for experience and product outcomes.
  • A drive to contribute to companywide goals, particularly in spaces with broad customer impact – such as improving the help experience for millions of users.

  • About the team

    At Web Platform, our mission is to drive Canva’s web product toward a scalable, highperformance architecture. We partner closely with product teams to build, innovate, and optimise core web capabilities—while also supporting their adoption at scale through education and strategic support.

    Right now, we’re focused on:

    • Boosting product performance by exploring emerging technologies—such as smarter data loading, serverside rendering, and advanced caching strategies.
    • Building systems that enable confident, highquality, and performanceaware code releases.
    • Optimising our bundling and delivery pipelines to ensure they scale seamlessly with Canva’s growing engineering organisation.

    • About the Role

      As a Staff Frontend Engineer, youll operate at the subgroup level, working across initiatives that span 3–4 platform teams, helping shape the direction of Canva’s web platform. You’ll have the opportunity to lead forwardlooking projects, including:

      • Designing and delivering JavaScriptbased RPC clients to power seamless communication between our frontend and backend systems.
      • Exploring the design and adoption of React Server Components, contributing to the evolution of Canva’s rendering architecture.
      • Shaping the future of our code bundling and delivery infrastructure, ensuring it scales with the needs of a growing product and engineering organisation.
      • Identifying the benefits and limitations of existing technologies, and guiding teams toward architectural decisions that unblock scale and improve developer experience.
      • Contributing highlevel technical expertise and strategic direction to the development of tools that detect performance regressions before they reach production.

      • Whats in it for you?

        Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard and we do but youll 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.

        Heres a taste of whats 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.