Staff Software Engineer

Overview
Staff Software Engineer - Web Platform (Frontend). Join to apply for the Staff Software Engineer - Web Platform (Frontend) role at Canva.
What You'd Be Doing In This Role
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.
You're Probably a Match If You Have
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.
About The Team
At Web Platform, our mission is to drive Canva's web product toward a scalable, high-performance architecture. We partner closely with product teams to build, innovate, and optimise core web capabilities—while also supporting their adoption at scale through education and strategic support.
Right Now, We're Focused On
Boosting product performance by exploring emerging technologies—such as smarter data loading, server-side rendering, and advanced caching strategies.
Building systems that enable confident, high-quality, and performance-aware code releases.
Optimising our bundling and delivery pipelines to ensure they scale seamlessly with Canva's growing engineering organisation.
About The Role
As a Staff Frontend Engineer, you'll operate at the subgroup level, working across initiatives that span 3–4 platform teams, helping shape the direction of Canva's web platform. You'll have the opportunity to lead forward-looking projects, including:
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.
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 stack 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.
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