Creative Director - Southeast Asia

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte!

Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point.

Where and how you can work

Our flagship campuses are in Sydney and Melbourne, but this role is based in either Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, or the Philippines — depending on where you are located. We offer flexibility in how and where you work—whether that’s from home, a co-working space, or somewhere in between. We trust you to find the balance that empowers you and your team to thrive.

What you’d be doing in this role

As Canva scales change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.

This is one of the most exciting, and demanding, creative leadership roles in Southeast Asia right now.

Reporting to the Head of Marketing for SEA, you'll own the creative vision and output across four of Canva's priority markets, two of which are launching marketing activity for the first time. You'll be the custodian of the Canva brand across the region—balancing global brand consistency with authentic local expression—while simultaneously building the team, systems, and processes needed to deliver world-class work at pace.

This is not a role for someone who wants to sit at the top and delegate. You'll need to stretch in both directions: contributing to big brand campaigns and TVCs alongside agency partners, while also raising the creative bar on performance, social, and always-on work. The stakes are high, the budgets are real, and the opportunity to shape how Canva shows up across SEA is significant.

Recent work you'd be building on includes our Ramadan campaign, Gampang Di Canva in Indonesia, and Kween Yasmin in the Philippines.

Your focus areas:

• Setting the creative vision for SEA, ensuring work feels globally coherent and genuinely local in each market

• Leading and growing an in-market creative team—hiring, mentoring, and building the processes that let great work happen consistently

• Overseeing creative production across brand, performance, social, events, and partnerships—balancing in-house, agency, and freelance resources

• Partnering with Growth, Product Marketing, and Research to build a rigorous creative testing process, using data to sharpen output and validate new messaging hypotheses

• Supporting major brand campaigns and TVCs in close partnership with agencies, while maintaining a hands-on role in elevating day-to-day creative quality

• Working in deep alignment with Canva's Executive Creative Director and central creative group to ensure SEA work reflects the broader brand vision

What we’re looking for

Someone who has done this before—or most of it—and thrives under the kind of pressure that comes with high visibility, high ambiguity, and high expectations.

• You have 10+ years of creative experience across agencies and in-house, with genuine breadth spanning brand, performance, and social.

• You bring proven experience across multiple Southeast Asian markets, with the cultural fluency to create work that resonates locally—not just regionally.

• You’re comfortable operating at both ends of the spectrum: contributing to large-scale brand campaigns and TVCs, while also rolling up your sleeves on performance creative and social.

• You have experience building and leading creative teams, including hiring, structuring, and establishing ways of working from the ground up.

• You demonstrate strong creative judgment across craft—whether design or copy—and have the ability to brief, evaluate, and elevate work across both.

• You’re a decisive, solutions-oriented operator who can move fast, manage ambiguity, and make clear calls without waiting for perfect information.

• You stay resilient under pressure, with the self-awareness to know when to push and when to adapt.

• You’re a natural collaborator and cross-functional partner, able to build trust with marketers, stakeholders, and agency partners across the region.

About the team

Canva's SEA Marketing team drives market-specific growth across the region—spanning performance marketing, brand, social, events, partnerships, and community. Our mission is for Canva to become the most loved brand in the world, and in SEA, we're at an exciting inflection point: deepening our presence in established markets while launching in new ones for the first time.

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 range 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.

Other stuff to know

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion, as well as how you can enhance Canva and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don’t feel like your skills quite match what’s listed above - we still want to hear from you!

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.