Staff Backend Software Engineer (User Platform)

Location: Team Engineering

Team: Country Sydney / Australia

About the Role

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design at Canva! We're looking for a Staff Backend Software Engineer to join our User Platform team in Sydney, Australia. In this hybrid role, you'll work on the essential backbone of Canva's microservice landscape, scaling systems to support 10x user growth while delivering exceptional experiences for our Enterprise and Education customers. You'll decompose legacy services, build innovative new ones from scratch, and optimise AWS resources for peak performance – all while shipping features that power user authentication, team management, SSO, roles, groups, and permissions. Our User Platform team thrives in Canva's collaborative, design-focused culture where engineering excellence meets creative impact. You'll partner closely with backend engineers, product teams, and stakeholders across Canva to design reusable building blocks that enhance organisational workflows for millions of daily users. Expect to tackle complex challenges like high-concurrency user management and advanced permission systems, constantly pushing the boundaries of scalable architecture while keeping user experience at the heart of every decision. What sets this role apart is your opportunity to shape Canva's future at staff level – influencing technical direction, mentoring peers, and driving cross-team initiatives in our innovative Sydney office. We're passionate about solid CS fundamentals, Java expertise, and a problem-solver mentality. Even if you don't match every requirement, we celebrate diverse skills and backgrounds – apply if you're excited to collaborate in our fun, inclusive environment where your work powers creativity for everyone.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate as part of a backend focussed team to extend and scale Canva's User Platform microservices
• Design, build, and maintain high-performance systems for user authentication, avatars, groups, and teams
• Envision, design, plan, and implement new reusable building blocks for the User Platform
• Communicate with stakeholder teams to evaluate requirements, align timelines, and optimise for customer value
• Improve user experience for Enterprise and Education customers with advanced organisational needs
• Decompose existing services and build new ones to prepare architecture for 10x user growth
• Optimise AWS resources for maximum performance and efficiency
• Ship new features enhancing User & Team Management, Single Sign On, Roles & Groups, and Permissions
• Constantly collaborate across Canva teams to connect systems and drive platform stability
• Focus on software design principles that impact user experience positively

Required Qualifications

• Firmly grounded computer science and engineering fundamentals, including concurrency, multithreading, data structures, solution design, architecture, and design patterns
• Strong background in designing, building and running high-performance Java backend systems
• Experience working collaboratively with teammates and communicating effectively
• SQL experience
• Problem solver mentality with good writing and verbal communication skills
• Experience scaling backend systems to support massive user growth
• Demonstrated ability to decompose existing services and build new ones from scratch

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Authentication and Permission systems
• DynamoDB experience
• AWS resource optimization and performance tuning
• Experience working on Enterprise and Education customer platforms
• Background in microservices architecture

Required Skills

• Java backend development
• High-performance system design
• Microservices architecture
• Concurrency and multithreading
• Data structures and algorithms
• SQL databases
• AWS infrastructure
• Authentication systems
• Permission and access control
• Solution architecture
• Design patterns
• Problem solving
• Cross-team collaboration
• Stakeholder communication
• Technical writing
• Performance optimisation
• Agile methodologies

Benefits

• Hybrid work model in vibrant Sydney, Australia
• Competitive salary and equity in a high-growth company
• Flexible working hours and generous parental leave
• Health and wellness benefits including gym memberships
• Learning and development stipend for professional growth
• Delicious daily team lunches and fully stocked kitchens
• Annual company retreats and team offsites
• Canva for Work subscription for personal and team use
• Inclusive culture celebrating diverse backgrounds and pronouns

Canva is an equal opportunity employer.