Staff Software Engineer - (Portable Libraries) Rust/C++

Owning the portable libraries problem space: Define and build the libraries that run across iOS, Android, and web. The interface, the safety model, and the ergonomics for consumers in every runtime are yours to shape.

Working in system languages: Rust and C++ are the tools for the foundational layer. Build production-grade libraries that need to be fast, safe, and reliable across every device Canva ships to.

Joining a technical leadership group: This isn't a lone-Staff seat. You'll work alongside other Staff engineers shaping the mobile platform's technical direction, with room to flex into the problems where your strengths land hardest.

Leading with code, not whiteboards: Canva doesn't have an architecture function — Staff engineers stay hands-on. This role is heavily hands-on. The work is the work.

Communicating across the stack: The libraries you build will be consumed by frontend engineers who don't write Rust. Strong technical communication isn't a nice-to-have for this role. It's how the work lands.

Sparring with strong peers: The technical debate is hard, fast, and substantive. Bring strong opinions, change your mind when better evidence shows up. The bar is high.

Influential Individual Contributor: No direct reports. But how you operate sets the standard others reach for.

What success looks like. The portable libraries ship to production and run reliably across iOS, Android, and web. The interface feels native to the engineers consuming it from every runtime. The patterns set by this role become the foundation that other mobile work at Canva builds on.

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

Mobile depth: Built production mobile software on iOS and Android, not just one. You understand the platforms deeply enough to know where they diverge, where they don't, and how to write libraries that feel native on both.

System languages: Shipped production code in Rust. The portable libraries are the centre of gravity for this role, and they live in this layer.

Staff altitude: You've been operating where both the problem and the solution are unknown. You walk into ambiguous work saying "this is the shape of the problem, this is what I think we should do, here's where we'll experiment."

Cross-platform fluency: You understand what it takes to write code that runs well across multiple runtimes. You've thought hard about ABI boundaries, memory safety across language barriers, and the ergonomics of foreign function interfaces.

Technical communication: You write design docs that other engineers act on. The libraries you build need to be understood by the engineers consuming them, and clear writing is how that happens.

AI fluency: Used agents in real work. Have a view on what changes for mobile and systems-level engineering when AI is a daily part of the workflow.

Native interop: Bindings between system languages and the iOS, Android, and JavaScript runtimes that consume them

Mobile fundamentals: Native iOS and Android depth, not just the JS side of the boundary

Cross-platform architecture: Portable library design across multiple runtimes

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

Library API design: Making system-language code feel native to the mobile and frontend engineers who consume it

React Native runtime: Enough fluency to know how your libraries get consumed from the JS side

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

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

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 Group and Team Join Client Platform 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.

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

We see AI as a powerful amplifier of creativity and technology at Canva. We're evolving how we assess AI skills in our Technology hiring experience — you'll tackle interactive, real-time challenges that reflect the kind of work we do. In some interviews, you may also be asked to solve a problem using an AI tool to show how you approach challenges with tech by your side. 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.