Engineering Manager (BE & LLM's) - Canva AI

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.

As the Engineering Manager, you'll lead the Canva AI ‘Conductor’ team, initially managing a team of 6-7 engineers, (BEs and MLEs) with expectations to grow the team further. You'll independently craft and execute strategic product, platform, and technical roadmaps, driving key initiatives that leverage cutting-edge AI and LLM technologies. Your role involves deep collaboration with stakeholders across Canva, ensuring the Conductor platform continuously evolves to meet user and technical demands. This role is central to Canva AI’s future, offering high visibility and strategic impact across the company.



At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Lead and scale the Conductor engineering team, managing team growth and hiring to support ambitious project goals.

• Independently crafting and executing product, platform, and technical roadmaps in partnership with stakeholders across Canva.

• Driving innovative ideas from concept to launch in a highly collaborative, product-led environment.

• Providing hands-on technical leadership in backend engineering (Java) and large language model (LLM) integration (Python).

• Championing a culture of fast, effective execution with calculated risk-taking.

You're probably a match if:

• You have a proven track record in product-minded engineering leadership and independent roadmap ownership

• You bring deep technical expertise in backend development and AI/ML, particularly with Java and Python

• You operate with a strong bias for action and comfort with ambiguity

• You're a strong communicator with excellent stakeholder management skills

• You thrive in fast-moving environments and lead by example when it comes to innovation and delivery

About the team:

We are the Canva AI Group — the face of Canva AI. Our group owns the end-to-end AI product experiences and the Conductor platform powering prompt understanding and task execution. Our vision is to deliver the most intuitive conversational experience to empower anyone, anywhere to generate content — from designs and documents to images and Q&A.

The Conductor team is a critical, engineering-led platform team within this group. We provide the technical foundation and orchestration intelligence behind Canva AI, enabling our users to unlock Canva’s full potential through magical, AI-driven experiences.

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 range 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 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.