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

Location: Team Engineering

Team: Country Brisbane / Australia

About the Role

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design at Canva. As a Senior Software Engineer - Product & Features (Java), you'll build scalable backend services that power innovative design tools for millions of users worldwide. Our Engineering team thrives in a collaborative, design-focused culture where backend work directly impacts user creativity—from crafting APIs that enable seamless features to optimising systems for global scale. Open to remote across ANZ with hybrid flexibility from our Sydney flagship, Melbourne campus, or co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide, you'll choose the balance that fuels your best work. In this role, you'll lead end-to-end feature delivery, partnering with product managers, designers, and frontend engineers to ship high-impact experiences. Expect to design reliable Java services, evolve our architecture with modern tooling, champion best practices, and leverage AI to amplify your coding impact. Day-to-day involves tackling complex challenges like multithreading at scale, performance tuning, and observability, all while mentoring peers and raising our technical bar in a fast-evolving environment. Canva's engineering culture emphasises ownership, purpose, and excellence, where you'll join a vibrant community iterating rapidly to empower everyone to design. We're passionate about craft, generous mentorship, and ambitious goals that blend technology with creativity. With equity, inclusive leave, wellbeing allowances, and flexible options, we set you up for success in and beyond work—check lifeatcanva.com for the full picture.

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 technical bar
• Maintain and improve service health, observability, and incident resilience
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate coding, debugging, and system optimisation
• Scope and deliver end-to-end experiences that power Canva's design mission
• Contribute to system performance at scale for millions of global users
• Balance pragmatism with attention to detail to ship features at speed

Required Qualifications

• Highly experienced building complex backend systems in production environments at scale
• Strong Java fundamentals with proven ability to write production-grade code
• Hands-on experience with backend concepts including multithreading, service design, and performance optimisation
• Demonstrated ownership of end-to-end features from architecture to delivery
• Experience mentoring peers and conducting design/code reviews
• Practical experience using AI tools in coding and programming workflows
• Track record of shipping reliable, maintainable code at high velocity
• Deep understanding of system reliability, observability, and incident resilience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in design-focused or creative technology products
• Background in scalable APIs powering millions of user interactions
• Familiarity with modern Java frameworks and cloud-native architectures
• Previous work on shared services or internal tooling at hyper-growth companies
• Contributions to open-source projects or technical blogging
• Experience collaborating cross-functionally with product managers and designers

Required Skills

• Expert Java development
• Backend service architecture
• Multithreading and concurrency
• Performance optimisation
• Scalable API design
• System reliability engineering
• Observability and monitoring
• AI-assisted coding workflows
• Code review and mentorship
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Pragmatic problem-solving
• Test-driven development
• Cloud-native technologies
• Incident response and resilience
• Technical leadership
• User-impact focus

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
• Choice in work location across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, or remote in ANZ
• Vibrant engineering community with mentorship and collaborative culture
• Hybrid work model empowering team goals and individual balance
• Access to lifeatcanva.com resources for full employee experience

Canva is an equal opportunity employer.