Staff Engineer (one level above Senior Backend) App Experiences, Ecosystem

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 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 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:

• Design and build the App Access Policy service the new backend that governs how organisations and brands control app access across Canva using a DynamoDB SpiceDB architecture to handle high-throughput policy evaluation at scale.

• Evolve the App Search and App Installation services our core discovery and installation infrastructure improving data models payload efficiency and reliability to support faster experimentation across all App surfaces in Canva.

• Drive the shift from a front-end-heavy architecture to a platform model: move ranking recommendations filtering and governance logic from the front-end into well-defined backend services that any surface team can consume with confidence.

• Contribute to semantic search and recommendations by working with ElasticSearch and vector databases (Qdrant) to deliver more personalised context-aware App discovery helping us move from fetching all apps and filtering them client-side to intelligent intent-aware recommendations.

• Partner with front-end engineers and product teams to design clean minimal data interfaces that reduce payload sizes improve load times and unblock teams building App surfaces across Canva including in the logged-out marketplace.

• Play a hands-on role in technical decision-making writing design docs running DACIs and setting the engineering direction for new services and migrations that will underpin App Experiences for years to come.

Youre probably a match if

• Youre a strong backend engineer with deep Java experience youre comfortable designing and operating high-throughput services in production and you care about reliability observability and getting things right at scale.

• You have hands-on experience with DynamoDB you understand access patterns know how to model data to avoid hot partitions and have shipped production systems that depend on it.

• Youve worked with access control systems or authorisation infrastructure ideally with SpiceDB Zanzibar-style models or similar policy evaluation systems and you understand the tradeoffs between relational and graph-based approaches to permission modelling.

• Youre fluent in search and data infrastructure youve worked with ElasticSearch in production and ideally have experience with vector databases (Qdrant Pinecone or similar) for semantic search or recommendations.

• You think in platforms not features you naturally gravitate toward building shared primitives clean service boundaries and data contracts that let other teams move faster rather than adding to the surface-level pile.

• You have a track record of reducing complexity youve migrated legacy systems cleaned up technical debt and made architectural improvements that compounded over time not just shipped new things.

• You enjoy working in a collaborative cross-functional team youre comfortable contributing to product and design conversations writing docs that build alignment and mentoring less experienced engineers along the way.

About the team

Were App Experiences the team responsible for how every Canva user discovers adopts and manages apps across the product. Our surfaces see millions visits every day and connect users with a huge catalogue of apps and integrations.

We sit within the Ecosystem Experiences group; our two squads App Marketplace and Auth & Admin Experiences work closely together: one focused on helping users find and adopt the right tools the other on giving organisations the control and confidence they need to roll Canva out at scale.

Right now were at a genuinely exciting inflection point. Were shifting from owning individual marketplace surfaces to building a Marketplace Platform the shared services and data layer that will power App discovery and governance across all of Canva. Its the kind of foundational high-leverage engineering work that doesnt come along often.

As a Staff Software Engineer on App Experiences youll help shape that platform from the ground up making technical decisions that compound reducing complexity and building infrastructure that other teams across Canva will rely on. Youll work in a close-knit collaborative team that moves quickly cares about doing things properly and has a clear sense of where its going.

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 range 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.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you dont feel like your skills quite match whats listed above - we still want to hear from you!

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time