Senior Software Engineer

About the role

Canva is looking for experienced backend engineers to join our Sydney campus and help scale our global design platform. You will work across diverse teams to build reliable services, improve system architecture, and deliver features that impact millions of users.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead the design and development of scalable backend services.
• Partner with product managers and designers to define and ship new features.
• Evolve system architecture through service decomposition and shared tooling.
• Maintain high standards for service health, observability, and incident resilience.
• Write and test production-grade code while identifying opportunities for refactoring.
• Mentor team members and conduct technical design and code reviews.
• Participate in an on-call rotation as part of our build and own philosophy.

Requirements

• Extensive experience building complex backend systems in production.
• Strong Java proficiency with a deep understanding of multithreading and performance optimization.
• Ability to own features from initial architecture through to final delivery.
• Experience using AI tools in programming to increase development impact.
• Proven ability to mentor peers and improve team technical standards.
• Strong communication skills to collaborate effectively across disciplines.

Skills & tools

• Java
• Backend service design
• System architecture
• AI-assisted development tools

Practical notes

• This role is based in Sydney and requires local residency.
• We utilize a hybrid work model with a mix of remote work and in-person collaboration at our Surry Hills campus.
• Benefits include equity packages, inclusive parental leave, and an annual Vibe and Thrive allowance.
• The interview process includes interactive, real-time technical challenges, which may involve using AI tools to solve problems.
• All interviews are conducted virtually.