Staff Backend Engineer

Summary

Join Canva and play a leading role in defining the technical roadmap and architecture for internal platforms used in product decision-making. You will advocate for best practices, establish yourself as a platform development expert, and propose innovative solutions. This role involves designing and implementing intricate system aspects, guiding major projects, mentoring engineers, and facilitating cross-team initiatives. Canva offers flexible work arrangements, allowing you to work from the office, home, or a combination of both. The company is committed to fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.

Requirements

• Extensive experience developing distributed web applications on the JVM, with a deep understanding of Java (other JVM languages like Scala or Kotlin are a plus, though we primarily use Java 17)
• A track record of successfully planning and executing complex architectural changes, with a strong focus on creative problem-solving rather than reliance on specific frameworks or libraries
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to foster a positive working environment across stakeholders and engineers
• Proven experience mentoring and guiding engineering teams, unblocking technical challenges, and serving as a role model
• Mastery of computer science and engineering fundamentals such as concurrency, data structures, and distributed systems, along with a strong grasp of resiliency techniques like load balancing, throttling, back pressure, and circuit breaking
• Hands-on experience working in large distributed cloud environments (AWS preferred) and familiarity with cloud-native technologies such as Kubernetes and Terraform

Responsibilities

• Play a leading role in defining the technical roadmap and architecture for the services powering our internal platforms for product decisioning
• Advocate for best practices that enhance service performance, resilience, and adaptability
• Establish yourself as an expert in developing platforms that facilitate decision-making while being deeply integrated with the company's data ecosystem
• Propose innovative approaches and solutions to future-proof Canva's product decision platforms and deliver on business outcomes
• Engage with others to shape the improvements through writing design documents and running design meetings
• Design and implement the most intricate aspects of the system, showcasing your aptitude for tackling complex technical challenges effectively
• Guide the implementation of major projects, planning task breakdown and keeping engineers in sync using excellent verbal and written communication skills, including architectural diagrams
• Provide guidance and mentorship to other engineers, assisting them in their professional development and helping them navigate technical challenges
• Have a widespread impact across the organization by facilitating and orchestrating cross-team initiatives that set a higher standard for reliability, velocity, and security

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with interface design tooling
• Understanding the concept of AB testing and experimentation
• Experience in full-stack 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