Staff Backend Software Engineer - User Platform
Canva · Melbourne, Australia ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Staff
- Category
- Backend
- Visa sponsorship
- Yes
- Company size
- 1000+
Canva · Melbourne, Australia ·
Build and own Canva’s authorization and access-control systems (SpiceDB-backed) that serve hundreds of millions of users, design patterns for product teams, and mentor engineers on IAM best practices.
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
Collingwood is home to our Melbourne campus - a vibrant, creative hub for connection and impactful work. While Sydney is home to our HQ, Melbourne brings its own unique vibe, with local artwork, lush greenery, and thoughtfully designed spaces to help you collaborate, focus, and feel part of a welcoming community.
This role is based in Melbourne, and we’re 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.
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.
At the moment, this role is focused on:
You're probably a match if you have experience
We're looking for a strong senior/staff backend engineer with hard-won experience in Identity & Access Management at scale, energised by hard platform problems at the intersection of security, reliability and developer experience. You combine deep hands-on technical ability with the knack for bringing other teams along — making complex authorization and access control concepts legible, and driving adoption, not just correctness. Most importantly, you want to work on problems that matter — systems that will help power the next billion Canva users.
Essential Technical Expertise
Nice to have
About the group
User Platform at Canva are a platform team, responsible for the AuthZ/N infrastructure that serves as a backbone to Canva Products. User Platform own the identity, authentication, authorisation, user profile, and account systems that connect hundreds of millions of users to the tools they love — and that every product team at Canva depends on to function. Our work directly enables Canva's ambition to become a secure, AI-native company at a billion-user scale: from enforcing bounded, auditable access for agentic AI workflows, to powering seamless product onboarding for acquisitions and new product lines.
About the role
As a Staff Backend Engineer in User Platform, you'll be a senior technical leader on Authorization at Canva — spanning both our centralised authorization platform (backed by SpiceDB) and the access control systems that govern who can do what across our products. You'll own significant parts of the design and delivery, set the patterns product teams adopt, and partner closely with Security, API Platform and product engineering to roll them out safely at Canva's scale. If you've solved hard Identity & Access Management problems at scale and want to apply that to one of the world's most-used platforms, this role is for you.
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 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.