Senior Software Engineer - Product & Features (Java)

Job Description

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 Sydney campus is uniquely Canva - an extension of our Surry Hills neighbourhood. It’s a thoughtfully designed space with plenty of room to collaborate, focus, and connect.

This role is based in Sydney, and we’re looking for someone who calls it home. Our hybrid way of working gives you the flexibility to work remotely, and to come together on campus for meaningful in-person collaboration and connection when it matters most. We trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

What you’d be doing in this role

Backend roles at Canva can vary significantly depending on the team—each focused on solving meaningful problems at scale. You might help build scalable APIs powering millions of user interactions, improve system performance and reliability at scale, or contribute to shared services and internal tools. With multiple teams hiring backend engineers, we’d love to learn what excites you most and find the right fit for your passions and strengths.

You’ll work closely with product managers, designers, and frontend engineers to deliver end-to-end experiences that have real user impact. Whether you're designing new systems or maintaining critical infrastructure, your work will play a key role in Canva’s mission to empower the world to design.

As Canva scales, change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve. As a general guide, here’s what a backend engineer at this level typically focuses on day to day:

• Leading the design and development of scalable, reliable backend services using modern frameworks and tools
• Driving collaboration with PMs, designers, and fellow engineers to scope, define, and deliver impactful product features
• Evolving and scaling Canva’s backend architecture through thoughtful service design, system decomposition, and shared tooling
• Championing reliability, performance, and engineering best practices across multiple service domains
• Writing robust, well-tested code and proactively identifying areas for technical improvement or refactor
• Guiding design and code reviews, mentoring peers, and raising the technical bar for your team
• Maintaining and improving service health, observability, and incident resilience in partnership with your team
• On-call might be required in the role, as we have a you build it, you own it philosophy 

You're probably a match if

• You are highly experienced building complex backend systems in production environments
• You have strong Java fundamentals and can confidently write production-grade code, applying backend concepts like multithreading, service design, and performance optimisation in real-world systems.
• You’re comfortable taking ownership of features end-to-end—from architecture to delivery—and thrive in environments where you drive the “how”
• You balance attention to detail with pragmatism, and consistently ship reliable, maintainable code at speed
• You’re a thoughtful collaborator who works well across disciplines and proactively brings others on the journey
• You understand the bigger picture—how your systems connect to product goals, reliability, and long-term scalability
• You enjoy mentoring others, offering constructive feedback, and lifting the technical bar for your team
• You have hands-on experience using AI in coding/programming to drive greater impact

Engineering at Canva

Join a vibrant engineering community solving complex problems for millions of users, world wide. Here, engineering is about more than writing great code. It’s about rapidly iterating to deliver real value for users - building a product that empowers the world to design.

We care deeply about craft and collaborate closely to achieve hugely ambitious goals. We mentor and support one another generously, grounded in a culture of ownership, purpose, and a shared commitment to excellence.

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 range 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. We see AI as a powerful amplifier of creativity and technology at Canva. We’re evolving how we assess AI skills in our Technology hiring experience - you’ll tackle interactive, real-time challenges that reflect the kind of work we do. In some interviews, you may also be asked to solve a problem using an AI tool to show how you approach challenges with tech by your side.

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.

Additional Information

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