Engineering Manager - Design System Experience

Summary

Join Canva and lead a cross-functional team to enhance its design system, focusing on intuitiveness, efficiency, and empowerment for all builders. Define team goals and a technical roadmap, collaborating with stakeholders and considering consumer needs. Explore strategic opportunities to support new AI-powered workflows and ensure a happy, high-functioning team. Provide technical direction, mentorship, and feedback through regular 1:1s, setting priorities and developing growth plans for engineers. Refine team processes, review PRs and design docs, and potentially contribute code. The ideal candidate possesses people leadership experience, design system familiarity, curiosity about AI's role in workflows, a strong product mindset, and web application development experience.

Requirements

• People leadership experience providing constructive feedback to others and supporting other engineers to reach their goals
• Working with a design system or maintaining components other teams depend on, but an interest in the problem space goes a long way
• Curiosity about how AI can improve developer and design workflows
• A strong product mindset — ability to identify user problems and champion pragmatic, high-impact solutions
• Experience developing rich web applications, ideally Typescript/React/MobX
• Practical knowledge of data structures and algorithms

Responsibilities

• Leading a cross-functional team to make the design system more intuitive, empowering, and efficient for everyone who builds with it
• Defining the goals and technical roadmap for the team, informed by consumer needs and in collaboration with the team and stakeholders
• Driving thoughtful exploration of strategic opportunities — including ways the design system can support new AI-powered workflows
• Ensuring the team is happy and healthy, as well as high-functioning and impactful, to best deliver on goals
• Conducting regular 1:1s to provide technical direction, mentorship, actionable feedback
• Setting priorities for and supporting coachees with execution
• Developing growth plans for engineers on the team
• Refining team processes to ensure effective and sustainable delivery
• Reviewing PRs and design docs from the team, and may also contribute code towards delivery

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience successfully advocating for goals and driving significant technical changes through leading others and as an individual contributor
• Experience in stakeholder communication or internal advocacy
• Experience writing accessible code and reading detailed specifications (WCAG 2.2 AA)
• Cross-browser and cross-device development

Benefits

• 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