Senior Technical Program Manager Releases

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.

As a Release Manager TPM you will orchestrate the smooth execution of our major releases ensuring that Canva Create and Droptober are delivered seamlessly with high-quality features reaching our users without disruption. You will oversee the entire release lifecycle from deployment through to go-live day and post-release activities.

At the moment this role is focused on

• Governance of the end-to-end release process including the activities steps and procedures involved in preparing executing and finalizing major releases such as Canva Create and Droptober.

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive release calendar outlining key milestones activities and procedures.

• Spearhead the evolution of release practices designing and implementing scalable release processes and tooling that support Canvas growth and increasing feature complexity. 

• Create and refine documentation to guide teams through the release process ensuring clarity and consistency.

• Coordinate and synchronize feature launches across multiple teams (product engineering marketing and user feedback) to ensure smooth and successful major events.

• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration between departments to address and resolve issues promptly.

• Monitor the performance of each release and ensure alignment with Canvas key strategies.

• Drive continuous improvement of release processes and tooling based on retrospectives and feedback from stakeholders.

• Manage the dynamic nature of coordinating major releases adapting to varying feature scopes and evolving requirements.

• Ensure a unified release process across teams groups and strategic goals.

• Coordinate with engineering teams to ensure adherence to release timelines and instructions.

• Align with the marketing team on release schedules and go-live activities including B2B brand and PMM initiatives.

• Navigate and manage scope changes to align with shifting business strategies.

Youre probably a match if

• A minimum of 5 years TPM or release management experience at an established and complex organization

• Domain experience working with release engineering deployment pipelines or platform infrastructure

• Deep understanding of release management processes CI/CD pipelines and deployment strategies

• Experience coordinating large-scale cross-functional releases involving product engineering and marketing teams

• Comfortable with ambiguity in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities

• A natural communicator who leads through influence not authority able to coordinate across diverse senior stakeholders without direct authority

• A love for navigating complexity and tackling ambiguous problems 

• Process-oriented but flexible in approach

• Experience building scalable and repeatable processes from the ground up

• Dedicated to personal growth and improving in your craft as a TPM 

• Leadership capability to ensure clarity alignment and accountability to achieve our Crazy Big Goals

• Ability to think strategically but also able to make crazy big goals happen. This role will be very hands-on!

About the Release Team

Major releases at Canva are executed by various teams and stakeholders across the organization but to ensure a successful release this is managed by a centralized release process. The core release coordinating team is mainly supported by the Reliability Platform and Developer Platform groups in the Infra supergroup. The release squad executes Canva-wide principles such as code freeze and experiment freeze improves tooling such as feature control and deployment pipelines and evolves incident management and capacity planning for major releases.

This role partners closely with teams across Platform Product and Marketing supergroups ensuring all aspects of the release are planned and coordinated across complex timelines and dependencies.

About Technical Program Managers

At Canva were all constantly striving towards our Crazy Big Goals! Since growing to a worldwide team of over 5000 we need to work effectively together and improve our delivery ability as we scale which is where our Technical Program Managers come in. 

As a Release Manager TPM it is your mission to work closely with engineering product and marketing teams to build a sustainable culture of positive urgency in release delivery. You will lead complex cross-organizational programs and be equally comfortable working with leadership to set strategic goals and clarify priorities as you are coordinating release timelines escalating issues and managing dependencies across the organization. This role requires strong interpersonal skills the ability to lead with context and experience managing diverse senior-level stakeholders. There is a clear growth path for this role to become a B4 Staff Technical Program Manager.

Additional Information :

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