Staff Software Engineer - Web Platform

Summary

Join Canva's Web Platform team and help redefine how the world experiences design. As a Staff Frontend Engineer, you will drive product performance improvements by exploring and applying emerging technologies, lead architectural efforts around code bundling and delivery, and develop tooling and systems to empower engineers. You will collaborate across multiple teams on complex initiatives, shape the future of Canva's web platform, and contribute to company-wide goals. The role offers flexibility in work location and style, with options to work from the office, home, or a combination of both. Canva provides a supportive and inclusive work environment with opportunities for professional growth and development.

Requirements

• 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 high-quality 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 end-to-end technical initiatives, influencing not just how features are built, but what gets built and why
• Proven ability to drive clarity in high-ambiguity spaces, tackling complex or undefined technical problems and aligning multiple teams toward a shared direction
• Experience operating in large-scale environments – managing cross-functional collaboration, influencing technical roadmaps, and aligning with stakeholders across the org
• A habit of initiating and scaling cross-team efforts, especially in hybrid product-platform spaces where coordination and strategic thinking are critical
• A mindset that balances long-term architectural thinking with hands-on 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 company-wide goals, particularly in spaces with broad customer impact – such as improving the help experience for millions of users

Responsibilities

• 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, large-scale, ambiguous initiatives – bringing high-level 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
• Designing and delivering JavaScript-based 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 high-level technical expertise and strategic direction to the development of tools that detect performance regressions before they reach production

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