Senior Frontend Engineer - Developer Experience

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Canva is looking for a Senior Frontend Engineer in Developer Experience to design and ship tools that empower hundreds of frontend engineers, from build pipelines and dev environments to testing frameworks and code quality tooling. You’ll own core frontend infrastructure, drive build performance, and lead the adoption of new tooling standards across Canva’s web engineering community while translating developer feedback into scalable solutions. The ideal candidate has deep JavaScript and TypeScript tooling experience (Webpack, Vite, Babel/TS, ESLint, CLIs) plus leadership and collaboration at scale. Perks include hybrid options in Sydney or Melbourne, equity, parental leave, wellbeing allowances. To apply, highlight measurable impact, tailor your resume, and expect AI-assisted assessments.

Job 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. That means if you want to do your thing in the office (if you're near one), at home or a bit of both, it's up to you.

What you’d be doing in this role

At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Designing, building, and shipping improvements to the tools and systems that Canva's frontend engineers use every day - from build pipelines and dev environments to testing frameworks and code quality tooling.
• Owning and evolving key parts of our frontend infrastructure, driving meaningful improvements to frontend build performance so product teams can ship with confidence.
• Leading the adoption of new tooling standards and best practices across Canva's web engineering community, defining and rolling out new tools, processes and practices that affect multiple teams.
• Collaborating with product and platform teams to translate developer feedback into technical solutions that deliver measurable productivity gains.
• Troubleshooting complex build, bundling and tooling issues across the frontend stack, and helping others build the skills to do the same.
• Identifying technical knowledge gaps on the team and working with teammates to lift expertise through documentation, presentations, and pairing.
• Consulting collaboratively across teams when developing solutions, seeking diverse perspectives to address complex issues and influence technical direction.

You're probably a match if

• You have deep experience with JavaScript and TypeScript build and runtime tooling. For example:
  • bundlers (Webpack, Vite, Rspack)
  • transpilers (Babel, SWC, OXC)
  • static analysis tooling (ESLint plugin development, custom lint rules, codemods)
  • Node.js and experience building or maintaining CLIs, plugins, or developer tools
• You have experience working on developer experience or infrastructure tooling at scale - you know what it takes to keep hundreds of engineers productive
• You have a track record of solving complex technical problems and delivering projects across team boundaries
• You have strong communication skills - you adjust your style for different audiences and enjoy sharing knowledge through docs, presentations, or pairing sessions
• You have demonstrated technical leadership - influencing direction, mentoring others, and holding yourself and others accountable to goals and outcomes

Bonus if you've worked with:

• Large-scale monorepo tooling and migration strategies
• Frontend testing infrastructure (Jest, Playwright, Storybook, visual regression testing)
• CI/CD pipeline optimisation for frontend workflows
• Build systems like Bazel and understand the trade-offs of incremental, cached and remote builds
• Rust for building high-performance tooling (e.g. SWC, oxc, Rspack)

About the team

The Web Workflows team sits within Canva's DevX (Developer Experience) group. Our vision is a Canva where frontend product engineers experience seamless development from idea to deployment, supported by stable environments, powerful tools, and an engineering culture that champions developer needs.

Our mission is to empower web developers by providing fast, reliable, and scalable workflows - minimising friction, maximising happiness and productivity, and enabling product teams to focus on delivering value. We're responsible for a whole range of frontend tools across the SDLC: Webpack, Node.js, Bazel rules_js, TypeScript, ESLint, Prettier, Jest, Storybook, frontend build performance.

About the role

This is a high-impact role. The tools and systems we build won't just serve one product team - they'll shape the daily experience of over 800 frontend engineers at Canva, who build products for millions of customers worldwide. We collaborate closely with product and platform teams to understand pain points, translate developer feedback into technical solutions, and drive measurable productivity gains. If you care about making other engineers more productive and love working at the intersection of frontend and infrastructure, we'd love to hear from you.

What's in it for you?
Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but you'll 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.

Here's a taste of what's 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 lifeatcanva.com for more info.

Other stuff to know

We see AI as a powerful amplifier of creativity and technology at Canva. We’re evolving how we assess AI skills in our Technology hiring experience - you’ll tackle interactive, real-time challenges that reflect the kind of work we do. In some interviews, you may also be asked to solve a problem using an AI tool to show how you approach challenges with tech by your side. Your recruitment partner will walk you through what to expect. 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 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.