Engineering Manager (BE) - Design School Technology - Martech

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 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 campus is in Sydney. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. But you have a choice in where and how you work—we trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

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 role will likely evolve too.

About the Group/Team

Marketing Technology Group

We are the Marketing Technology Experiences group, and our mission is: "To propel Canva’s global growth by delivering innovative, scalable solutions that empower marketers, engage customers, and amplify brand experiences." We’re a multidisciplinary team that designs and builds web, interactive, and scalable solutions that help drive discovery, education, and inspiration for millions of users globally. From impactful web pages to immersive campaign experiences, we partner closely with Marketing to power visibility and growth through digital. Our work directly contributes to Canva’s big ambitions – generating new MAUs, driving signups, and enhancing product discovery. Together, we build delightful experiences that make our users feel connected to Canva at every digital touchpoint.

About the Role/Specialty

At Canva, Engineering Managers play a crucial role in shaping the future of our platform and ensuring our engineering teams operate at their highest potential. By striking a fine balance between technical leadership, project delivery, and people management, they enable their teams to contribute significantly to Canva's vision and strategy. These leaders not only oversee the technical direction and roadmap but also ensure the alignment of their team's work with the broader company goals. Through fostering an environment of collaboration and growth, they help their team members excel and innovate, thus driving real business impact. Engineering Managers at Canva are instrumental in turning ambitious projects into reality, contributing to the company's success by delivering high-quality solutions that meet our users' needs and exceed their expectations.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

As the team engineering lead for the Design School Technology team, you will be responsible for leading motivated engineers who build and maintain Canva's educational platform that delivers training content to millions of users globally across web and mobile. You'll be responsible for ensuring your team is happy, healthy, high-performing, and delivering on the roadmap shaped with your Product Manager and Designer, as well as key Design School stakeholders across Marketing. You will lead your team to productise their work while developing tools and improving code structure in order to achieve efficient and effective engineering deliverables.

To achieve the team's goals, you will work in a cross-functional team with product designers, content designers, product managers, and engineers (including software, QA, and data analysts). You will lead your team by example and empower them to resolve technical conflicts efficiently and effectively as we collaborate across external teams in Canva.

What we're looking for

This position is ideal for an individual with strong technical leadership and coaching skills who is well along their journey in people leadership. You’re energised by collaborating with a full-stack team and tackling complex engineering challenges across multiple sub-specialties. You excel at building a strong, collaborative environment where diverse perspectives lead to innovative ideas and bring these ideas to life.

This is the role for you if you’re passionate about shaping the technical roadmap to support the team’s long-term vision. You think big, contribute meaningfully to roadmap development, and work cross-functionally with other teams and disciplines to deliver impactful outcomes.

Required Experience & Skills

• Experience of technical leadership, specifically in the full-stack team

• Know both Frontend and Backend, with a specialisation in one of them

• Strong knowledge of either JavaScript and web technologies (HTML/CSS) or Java

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and first principles; comfortable contributing to design documents and performing thorough code reviews

• Experience and knowledge of cross-browser and cross-device development

• Worked in high-performing and collaborative teams where everyone is able to share their best ideas and be their best selves

• People, leadership experience, and strong career growth of software engineers

• Ability to work cross-functionally across multiple internal teams, effectively partnering with individuals from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and professional perspectives, particularly with Product and Design.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to clearly articulate problems and solutions

• Be capable of leading by example - promoting Canva’s values, no-blame mentality, and engineering values.

Nice to have

• Experience in A/B testing and Experiment Driven Development

• Experience developing a Java backend

• Experience developing mobile Apps

What’s in it for you?

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard—but we do it with a lot of heart. Expect moments of magic, connection, and fun. We also offer benefits that support you both in and out of work:

• Equity packages—we want our success to be yours too

 • Inclusive parental leave policy for all parents and carers

 • Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance for wellbeing, home office setup, and more

 • Flexible leave options that support recharging and giving back.

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 — 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.