Principal Software Engineer

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.

What you’d be doing in this role
Mobile Platform owns how Canva runs on iOS and Android. Every product team at Canva builds on top of what this group ships. Hundreds of millions of users open Canva on a phone or tablet, and the architecture that powers that experience is one of the most important technical bets the company is making right now.

The aim is to build bespoke solution that utilises React, React Native and Bazel to enable “Build once, ship native” experiences across iOS, Android, and web. The supporting libraries (many of which will be written in a system language), the runtime, the observability, the capabilities every product team needs to deliver mobile experiences that feel native on every device a user might pick up.

There's a second reason this work matters now. This will be a role to lead a world class problem that not many have solved or even seen before. It's one of the more ambitious cross-platform engineering programs that requires strong leadership to navigate frontend, mobile, platform and infra challenges, and the decisions made in this role shape how Canva builds for the next decade.

At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Owning the technical direction for the hybrid stack: Build the architecture for a platform that can deploy to all runtimes and maximise reusability without compromising performance and user experience. This includes React, React Native, the supporting libraries, and integrations of bespoke editing and rendering systems.

• Shipping early and shipping real: This isn't a multi-year research project. The company is moving fast on this work. In your first six months you'll be shipping production code to real users, alongside the team.

• Building the mobile capabilities that the next decade needs: The fundamentals of how the application is assembled. The capabilities every product team will need to deliver native experiences. You'll define what's needed and own the path to building it.

• Leading with code, not whiteboards: Canva doesn't have an architecture function — Principal engineers stay hands-on, and this role leans more hands-on than most. You'll live in the code, ship to production, and push commits.

• Influencing the product groups that depend on this work: As the first phase ships, you'll partner with the product groups whose experiences integrate into the hybrid application. This is influence-driven work — bringing teams along, not handing them a mandate.

• Sparring with strong peers: You'll join a small group of Principal and Staff engineers shaping how Canva's frontend and mobile stack works.

• Influential Individual Contributor: While you’ll have no direct reports, you’ll be leading and mentoring Staff and Senior engineers and overseeing their architectural decisions.

• What success looks like: The hybrid stack ships to production and feels native on every device users open Canva on. The architecture holds up as the product grows and as more teams build on top of it. The patterns set by this role are adopted across the frontend, iOS and Android specialties as the default way to build for mobile.

You're probably a match if...
We'd love to hear from you if you fit one or more of these. You don't need to meet all of them, but the more the better and if you join the team, we're invested in helping you grow.

Experience

• Hybrid stack expertise: Built or significantly evolved a large-scale hybrid mobile architecture in production. React Native and React is the ideal, but a credible alternative with cross-platform mobile depth also works. The key signal is shipping a complex mobile experience that runs on iOS and Android from a shared codebase.

• Migration at scale: Led a meaningful migration of a mature mobile product onto a new architecture. The interesting signal is doing this on a live, growing product, not a clean-slate rebuild. Bonus if the work touched hundreds of engineers and shipped to a large user base.

• Principal leadership: You've operated where both the problem and the solution are unknown, and the work spans the whole company. You cut through the noise and bring a large number of leaders to consensus on a clear and compelling technical direction.

• Cross-platform fluency: Deep mobile fundamentals across iOS and Android, and an instinct for how the same patterns map across web. You understand what the platforms have in common and where they diverge.

• Active individual contribution: You’re still writing and committing code on a day-to-day basis.

• AI fluency: Used agentic orchestration in real work. Have a view on what changes for mobile engineering when AI is a daily part of the workflow.

Technical knowledge

• React Native: Production experience at scale, not just exposure

• Mobile runtime: Bundle delivery, native module boundaries, performance profiling on real device

• iOS and Android: Native fundamentals on both, not just the JS side of the bridge

• Cross-platform architecture: Build once, ship to multiple runtimes without losing native feel

• Mobile performance: Performance, reliability monitoring, and optimisation at scale

• Deep fundamentals: Engineering fundamentals from a CS background, including data structures, complexity, the hard parts

Nice to have

• Live migrations: Production experience evolving a mature mobile product onto a new architectur

• System languages: Rust or C for portable libraries that run across mobile platforms

• Open-source contributions: React Native, Expo, or the cross-platform mobile ecosystem

• Mobile CI/CD: Release trains and over-the-air updates at scale

About the team
You'll be joining our Client Platform group at Canva, where our mission is to ensure a delightful experience for every user on every device. Client Platform owns the foundations that every product team builds on, including Web Platform, Mobile Platform, and the user-facing surfaces of the product. Hundreds of millions of users sit on top of what this group ships. Every Canva product runs on it.

Mobile Platform is the group inside Client Platform responsible for how Canva runs on iOS and Android. We're the team for engineers who care deeply about mobile performance, who want to shape how cross-platform mobile gets built at scale, and who want to own the next decade of how Canva runs on a phone or tablet.

The work compounds in two directions at once. Every team at Canva benefits when the mobile platform gets faster and more capable. And the architectural decisions made here will outlast most of the systems built on top of them.

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 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.

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually. 

Qualifications

Additional Information