Staff Backend Software Engineer - User Platform

About the Role and Team

Join Canva's User Platform team, the backbone that supports identity, authentication, authorization, user profiles, and account systems serving hundreds of millions of users worldwide. This role focuses on evolving and operating Canva's authorization and access control systems to enable a secure, AI-native platform at scale.

Work Location and Culture

Based in Melbourne, the position embraces a hybrid work model allowing remote work with essential in-person collaboration at the Collingwood campus. The Melbourne office provides a vibrant creative environment with artistic local touches designed to foster connection and productivity.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain core components of Canva's centralized authorization and access control infrastructure, primarily built around the SpiceDB-backed platform.
• Support product teams in adopting authorization capabilities by creating effective design patterns, tooling, and seamless integrations tailored to Canva’s scale.
• Make informed technical decisions to ensure high availability and reliability of critical infrastructure that supports hundreds of millions of users.
• Collaborate closely with Security, API Platform, Admin Experience, and product engineering teams to align requirements and promote platform adoption.
• Guide the evolution of the platform’s architecture including subject/identity modeling, access control mechanisms, request context handling, and authorization workflows for agentic AI.
• Mentor engineers on system design principles and best practices in Identity and Access Management (IAM).

Candidate Profile and Requirements

• Extensive experience with Identity & Access Management systems at scale, including operational knowledge of RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC, or Zanzibar-style architectures like SpiceDB.
• Strong backend engineering skills building and maintaining high-performance, fault-tolerant services; familiarity with Java is advantageous.
• Exceptional system design expertise capable of breaking down complex, cross-domain problems into manageable and prioritized tasks.
• Proven ability to drive platform capability adoption across diverse engineering teams through clear communication and stakeholder engagement.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with a collaborative approach to teamwork.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with policy languages or authorization engines such as OPA or Cedar.
• Background with Zanzibar-style authorization systems such as SpiceDB or Google Zanzibar.
• Demonstrated ability to evolve large-scale production services without disrupting dependent systems.

Additional Information

Hiring decisions will be based on your skills, experience, and alignment with Canva’s culture. Applicants are encouraged to share pronouns and any required accommodations for the interview process. The company values diverse backgrounds and skillsets and welcomes applicants even if they do not meet every listed qualification. Interviewing is conducted virtually.