Senior Software Engineer - Product & Features (Java) - Open to remote across ANZ

Location: Team Engineering

Team: Country Christchurch / New Zealand

About the Role

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design. At Canva, our Engineering team in Christchurch, New Zealand (open to remote across ANZ) builds the backend systems powering creative magic for millions worldwide. As a Senior Software Engineer - Product & Features (Java), you'll lead the development of scalable services that bring innovative design tools to life, collaborating closely with product managers, designers, and frontend teams to deliver features with real user impact. You'll design robust Java-based backend architecture, optimise for performance at massive scale, and champion best practices across multiple domains. From evolving microservices to enhancing observability and leveraging AI tools for faster iteration, your work directly empowers Canva's mission to democratise design. Expect to mentor peers, guide code reviews, and thrive in our collaborative culture where ownership meets creativity. Canva's engineering environment is vibrant and fast-paced, focused on craft, rapid iteration, and shared excellence. With hybrid flexibility across ANZ, inclusive benefits like equity packages and vibe & thrive allowances, and a commitment to work-life harmony, you'll join a community solving complex problems while having fun. If you love building reliable systems that fuel creativity, apply now to help shape the future of design.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of scalable, reliable backend services using modern Java frameworks
• Drive collaboration with PMs, designers, and frontend engineers to deliver impactful product features
• Evolve Canva's backend architecture through service decomposition and shared tooling
• Champion reliability, performance, and engineering best practices across service domains
• Write robust, well-tested code and proactively identify technical improvements
• Guide design and code reviews while mentoring peers to raise the team’s technical bar
• Maintain and improve service health, observability, and incident resilience
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate development and solve complex problems efficiently
• Work closely with design teams to ensure backend systems power seamless creative experiences
• Contribute to Canva's mission by building systems that empower millions to design
• Participate in on-call rotations to ensure production system stability

Required Qualifications

• Highly experienced building complex backend systems in production environments at scale
• Strong Java fundamentals with ability to write production-grade code including multithreading, service design, and performance optimisation
• Proven track record taking ownership of features end-to-end from architecture to delivery
• Hands-on experience using AI tools in coding and programming to drive greater impact
• Demonstrated ability to mentor peers, conduct code reviews, and raise technical standards
• Experience maintaining service health, observability, and incident resilience in distributed systems
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience in backend development

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in design-focused or creative tech products
• Familiarity with scalable microservices architecture and system decomposition
• Background in high-traffic consumer applications serving millions of users
• Contributions to open-source projects or internal tooling at previous companies
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and container orchestration (Kubernetes)
• Knowledge of observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana) and CI/CD pipelines

Required Skills

• Expert Java development with Spring Boot or similar frameworks
• Microservices architecture and distributed systems design
• Multithreading, concurrency, and performance optimisation
• API design (REST/GraphQL) and data modelling
• Database systems (SQL/NoSQL) and caching strategies
• Cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP) and containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes)
• Observability (monitoring, logging, tracing) and incident management
• CI/CD pipelines and automated testing practices
• AI-assisted coding tools (Copilot, Cursor, etc.)
• Collaborative problem-solving across product, design, and engineering
• Code review and mentorship capabilities
• Pragmatic decision-making balancing speed and reliability
• Strong communication for technical and non-technical audiences
• Ownership mindset driving end-to-end feature delivery
• Experience with high-scale consumer applications

Benefits

• Equity packages to share in Canva's success
• Inclusive parental leave policy supporting all parents and carers
• Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance for wellbeing, social connection, and office setup
• Flexible leave options to recharge and support personal needs
• Hybrid work model open to remote across ANZ with campus options in major cities
• Vibrant engineering community with mentorship and collaborative culture
• Delightful benefits package including health, learning, and wellness support
• Regular team events fostering connectivity and fun
• Opportunity to work on products impacting millions worldwide

Canva is an equal opportunity employer.