Senior Manager, Data Science – CJKI

Job Description

About the team

This role sits within the International Data Team — a distributed group of Data Scientists who exist to deliver a high-quality understanding of our markets, products, and users. We turn data into clarity so Canva makes the right decisions at the right time.

CJKI represents one of Canva’s most strategically important and complex growth opportunities. The region spans diverse languages, regulatory environments, digital ecosystems, and user behaviours — requiring thoughtful regional strategy deeply connected to our global platform.

As a data lead for the region in International, you’ll be the senior analytics voice - shaping how we define success, unlocking structural growth opportunities, and ensuring regional insights meaningfully influence Canva’s global direction.

If you’re excited about operating at the intersection of regional nuance and global scale — and building systems that influence company-wide strategy — this is your opportunity.

What you’d be doing in this role

As Canva scales, change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that’s all part of the fun. This will give you a flavour of the types of things you’ll be working on when you start — though it will likely evolve over time.

At the moment, this role is focused on shaping how data science powers Canva’s growth across the CJKI region (China, Japan, South Korea, and India):

• Lead the CJKI Data Function: As part of the International Data Leadership team, lead the people, strategy, and direction of the CJKI Data team while contributing to the broader International Data vision and strategy. Partner closely with regional and global stakeholders to shape how data science supports Canva's most strategically important markets, balancing local market context with global priorities, standards, and ways of working.

• Act as a Strategic Partner to Regional & Global Leadership: Serve as the senior data science voice to CJKI country leaders, regional marketing leads, and global product stakeholders. Shape investment decisions, market expansion priorities, and localisation strategy — influencing direction at the leadership level, not just delivering analysis.

• Build and Develop a High-Performing Team: Coach and grow a team of Senior and Staff Data Scientists. Identify high performers early, create opportunities for them to step up, and hold a high bar for craft, rigour, and impact. Foster a culture of two-way feedback and continuous development.

• Set Team Goals and Drive Execution: Define clear, shared objectives for the team that connect to Canva's global strategy. Drive momentum on strategic initiatives, empower your team to own outcomes, and ensure delivery without being the bottleneck.

• Translate Regional Complexity into Global Influence: Ensure the voice of CJKI users is represented in Canva's global product and growth roadmap. Synthesize behavioural trends, monetisation dynamics, and experimentation learnings into inputs that influence decisions at the company level.

• Define Measurement & Experimentation Standards: Set best-in-class standards for experimentation, measurement, and data culture across the region and broader specialty. Guide the design and interpretation of complex multi-market experiments, ensuring speed, rigour, and long-term learning.

• Build Scalable Data Foundations: Oversee the evolution of trusted data products that provide visibility into user growth, retention, monetisation, and product adoption across CJKI and International.

• Drive Cross-functional Alignment: Manage the complexity of multiple stakeholders across product, marketing, and regional leadership. Resolve misalignments, navigate ambiguity, and bring teams together around shared goals.

You're probably a match if…

• You have 10+ years in data, growth, or product analytics — including experience leading and developing teams of senior individual contributors.

• You've operated as a trusted advisor to exec-level stakeholders, shaping strategy and influencing decisions at the leadership level.

• You think in systems — connecting product, marketing, monetisation, lifecycle, and market dynamics into coherent growth strategies.

• You lead through others: you empower your team to own outcomes, delegate effectively, and hold the bar without doing it all yourself.

• You build cultures of craft — sharing knowledge, setting quality standards, and making it easy for others to do their best work.

• You identify and resolve team misalignments early, address difficult conversations directly, and model the behaviours you want to see.

• You balance global scalability with local nuance — knowing when to standardise and when to localise.

• You communicate complex ideas with clarity and conviction to diverse audiences, and adapt your style across cultures and contexts.

• You bring depth in SQL and Python and are highly proficient in modern analytics stacks (e.g., Snowflake, Mode, NetSpring, Omni) and experimentation platforms.

Nice‑to‑Haves

• Experience working in or leading teams across one or more CJKI markets.

• Understanding of platform ecosystems, localisation strategy, and regulatory considerations in China, Japan, South Korea, or India.

• Experience supporting international product expansion or market entry.

• Multilingual capability relevant to CJKI markets.