Backend Software Engineer (Gateway)

Canva’s Commitment and Mission
At Canva, we celebrate diversity. We deeply believe that bringing together diversity of thoughts, perspectives and expression is key to building the best product, team and company. We look for many different skills and abilities, as well as how you can enhance Canva and our culture. So, even if you don’t think you quite meet all of the skills listed or tick all the boxes, we’d still love to hear from you! 
Our mission at Canva is to empower the world to design and since launching in 2013, we have grown exponentially, amassing over 100+ million monthly active users across 190 different countries and a team of over 3,000 people… and the best bit is that we’ve only achieved 1% of what we know we’re capable of. 
Join us and design your future.
About the Group/Team


You'll be joining the Gateway team, Application Platform Group, responsible for the front line of our microservices. Gateway’s work is based on three cornerstones: reliability, security, and scalability. We want to ensure that every request that hits Canva goes through the Gateway components at ludicrous speeds and that the developers who work on the platform can be efficient and productive.
This role is based in our Sydney office. However, it is remote-friendly for applicants physically based anywhere in Australia or New Zealand.
What you’ll do

 
As an individual contributor, design and implement tools and libraries to improve the reliability of the Canva microservices.
 
Conduct and organise reliability experiments to identify possible scenarios in which failures might occur and verify the reliability measures.
 
Design and build services and tooling that help ensure each of Canva’s microservices are working optimally and are resilient to failures.
 
Have a widespread impact across the organisation by facilitating and spearheading cross-team initiatives that raise the bar for reliability, velocity, and security.
 
Deep investigation into production incidents followed up by applying the learning to code.
 
Researching, developing, and justifying the best choices in the form of design docs for features that will shape the future of Canva
 
Identifying and addressing performance bottlenecks within the application and broader infrastructure
 
Propose new approaches and solutions to ensure we future-proof Canva’s distributed cloud infrastructure as we scale. Participating in design meetings, hiring interviews, and code reviews

What we're looking for

 
Five-plus (5+) years of commercial experience developing complex, distributed web applications on the JVM; experience writing Java (experience with other JVM languages such as Scala, Kotlin, etc is a big plus - however, we primarily use  Java 17)
 
Familiar with asynchronous or reactive programming techniques and associated patterns; At our scale, writing blocking code is often not an option.
 
Comfortable with computer science and engineering fundamentals: concurrency, data structures, and distributed systems
 
Experience working in large distributed cloud environments (ideally AWS); CDNs, DNS. We're hosted on AWS and leverage the tools they provide as much as possible.
 
Disciplined coding practices, experience with code reviews and pull requests and a creative and conceptual problem-solving approach as opposed to framework or library-focused; We strive to build fast and lean solutions; not library/framework-heavy patchwork.
 
Strong communication and team collaboration skills, both written and verbal. A Canva engineer strives to understand the exact problem before jumping into writing code - look before you leap!


Working at Canva 
Our culture is unlike anywhere else and we design your #CanvaLife experience to empower you to do the best work of your life.  
Whether you’re in the office, working from home or choosing your own adventure, our benefits for permanent Canvanauts include: 

• Equity packages for you to truly be a part of the Canva journey. 
• We have a hybrid work model (in-office & from home), with our offices are always open to you balancing flexibility and connection
• Flexible leave so you can recharge, give back, support others or focus on your own professional development.
• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents and carers throughout their parenting and caring journey.
• An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance. This is for you to spend on whatever will support your wellbeing and development.. because you know what you need to Vibe and Thrive, better than anyone.
• Virtual and in-office wellness benefits including Canva University, Employee Assistant Programs and Fitness & Meditation Classes.
• Canva For Good program matching your not-for-profit donations, Force for Good leave (3 paid volunteering days) and a range of sustainability and ethical initiatives to get involved in.   

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion. Please note that interviews are conducted virtually. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.