Engineering Manager- Specialist Experience & Platform

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Canva is hiring an Engineering Manager for Specialist Experience & Platform to lead the SPXP team, delivering secure scalable tools that enable support and data governance. You’ll shape the team’s strategy, drive planning and collaboration with User Voice, and shepherd AI initiatives from MVPs to full integration on a shared data and policy foundation. What matters most: proven leadership at scale, deep backend experience, genuine interest in AI and LLM powered products, and translating platform work into business value while fostering learning and psychological safety. When applying, tailor your CV with measurable impact, highlight governance and security, and share cross‑team wins; Canva offers flexible work arrangements and a supportive culture.

Company Description

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 campus is in Sydney. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. But you have 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 will likely evolve.

Job Description

About the Group/Team
Specialist Systems and Platforms own the mission to provide secure, scalable and efficient tools for our specialists so they can focus on providing magical and differentiated support to our rapidly growing user base. Within this group the Specialist Platform and Experience (SPXP) team is responsible for the custom tooling that we use to deliver a magical support experience.

Come and join us if you enjoy:

• Helping people. People reach out to support when they have a problem and we are building tools that enable people to get back to making beautiful designs

• Empowering others. We build tools that enable teams to achieve results that they could not have managed otherwise

• Close partnerships. The users of our tools are Canvanauts on the same mission to deliver a magical, differentiated support experience. The best results come when engineering and support combine to help people.

• Solving root causes of problems. To create the best support experience you need to shift left and address the root of the problem, not just the problem that appears today.

• Continuous learning. We want people who enjoy sharing knowledge, conducting workshops, and encouraging exploration of new technologies and methodologies.

• A positive, supportive culture. Team members are keen to lean in, collaborate, and celebrate success together

About the Role/Specialty
You will be responsible for a team who are building custom software to make a magical support experience. In addition to enabling support, we are the custodians of our customers’ data so you will be responsible for security considerations.

The team is currently on a mission to enable AI systems to resolve customer problems; from quick, local workflows to automated solutions built by a team of engineers. Your team operates an MCP server that provides a consistent data and policy platform. You will partner closely with other teams and crafts to accelerate and standardise how AI is used to enable support. This is an opportunity to lead a team who will shape how AI is adopted by software teams and business teams.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• Coaching, mentoring and growing a team of engineers building platform capabilities, fostering psychological safety and a culture of innovation.

• Leading the teams technical strategy and roadmap in close collaboration with Program Managers, Enablement Teams and Engineering teams across User Voice and Canva.

• Driving planning and refinement of team goals — balancing platform robustness, high impact enablement and engineering practices.

• Facilitating cross-team collaborations from initial spikes and MVPs through to full integration, ensuring agents are built on a common foundation

• Championing engineering quality, AI governance, and contribution standards

• Aligning with User Voice leadership on prioritisation and resourcing to maximise the impact of the team.

What we're looking for

• You’re an experienced engineering manager with a proven track record of leading teams and delivering at scale

• You have strong technical depth in backend engineering and the ability to make sound architectural decisions.

• You have a genuine interest in AI and LLM-powered products — curious about where the technology is heading and how to apply it to real problems at scale.

• You balance platform thinking (reliability, scalability, governance) with product thinking (user outcomes, CSAT, activation and retention).

• You’re an excellent communicator who can translate foundational platform work into business value, building trust with cross-functional stakeholders across the business.