Senior Backend Engineer Experiments Team

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey gday mabuhay kia ora你好 hallo vítejte!

Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and youre probably keen to find out whats on offer so well get straight to the point. 

Where and how you can work
Our flagship Sydney campus is uniquely Canva - an extension of our Surry Hills neighbourhood. Its a thoughtfully designed space with plenty of room to collaborate focus and connect.

This role is based in Sydney and were looking for someone who calls it home. Our hybrid way of working gives you the flexibility to work remotely and to come together on campus for meaningful in-person collaboration and connection when it matters most. We trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

What youd be doing in this role

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

At the moment this role is focused on:

• Shape our technical direction deciding when we invest in bold greenfield builds versus paying down technical debt and improving system performance and latency
• Own critical parts of our architecture end to end including services like our analysis engine and metrics platform keeping them robust as they scale
• Flex your communication style across audiences translating complex technical tradeoffs for data scientists designers and Canvanauts alike so everyones aligned and confident in the direction
• Bring a strong engineering voice to the table speaking up when somethings not right and helping the team course-correct before small issues become big ones
• Lead cross-functional projects from kickoff to delivery coordinating across specialties and pathways to make sure the pieces actually land together
• Mentor and empower fellow engineers raising the bar for the teams craft and helping others grow into stronger more independent contributors
• Balance the long game with the day to day weighing strategic priorities against immediate needs so the team keeps moving forward without losing sight of where were headed

Youre probably a match if

• You bring strong backend engineering skills and deep SQL experience ideally with exposure to data warehousing platforms like Snowflake and youre comfortable working with large complex data models. Familiarity with NoSQL is a plus
• Youre a strong communicator who can explain complex ideas clearly to technical and non-technical audiences alike
• You think strategically but stay practical youre just as comfortable scoping an MVP that solves the real problem as you are designing the ideal long-term solution
• You have strong customer empathy youre driven by understanding what Canvanauts actually need not just whats technically elegant
• Youre naturally curious always digging into the why behind a problem rather than just the what
• Experience with data science is a bonus not a requirement but youll need genuine curiosity about the domain things like experiment dicing sample sizing and statistical significance and a real willingness to learn how they work

About The Team

The Experiments team is responsible for the analysis and reporting capabilities within Pilot Canvas A/B testing platform used by over two thousand Canvanauts across the business. Canva is actively investing in improving the experimentation experience making this a high-priority and fast-moving space with significant work ahead. Our goal is to empower every team running an experiment with rigorous analysis and actionable data using industry-standard A/B testing techniques to help them make better faster decisions and build a stronger culture of experimentation across Canva.

About the Role

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Experiments team youll lead projects end to end from design through to delivery working closely with data scientists analytics engineers product design product management and the Canvanauts who rely on Pilot to make decisions.

Youll independently drive complex high-impact technical problems to resolution refining scope and direction in partnership with stakeholders across teams.

Youll help safeguard Canvas user experience by giving teams the tools and insights they need to monitor experiments and make informed decisions about whether to roll them forward or back helping prevent poor experiences from reaching users at scale.

Youll help drive down query latency & increase the scalability across a system processing over 100000 queries a day and youll work extensively with SQL at scale.

This role suits someone with strong communication and strategic thinking who prefers to drive decisions.

Whats in it for you

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but youll experience lots of moments of magic connectivity and fun woven throughout life at Canva too. We also offer a stack of benefits to set you up for every success in and outside of work.

Heres a taste of whats 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 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. 

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually. 

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time