Staff Front End Engineer

Title: Staff Front End Engineer - Accessibility Team

Location: Melbourne VIC, Australia

Employees work in a hybrid mode

• Full-time
• Recruitment type: Permanent

Job Description:

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

Collingwood is home to our Melbourne campus - a vibrant, creative hub for connection and impactful work. While Sydney is home to our HQ, Melbourne brings its own unique vibe, with local artwork, lush greenery, and thoughtfully designed spaces to help you collaborate, focus, and feel part of a welcoming community.

This role is based in Melbourne, and we're looking for someone who calls it home. Our hybrid way of working gives you the flexibility to work remotely, and to come together on campus for meaningful in-person collaboration and connection when it matters most.

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.

The Accessibility team is building something the industry doesn't have a playbook for. AI agents that can understand how features work, reason about component relationships, and make them accessible automatically. Linting and testing infrastructure that catches issues before they ship. The kind of tooling that lets every product team at Canva ship accessible features as a default, not an extra step at the end.

The strategic bet is AI-assisted accessibility at scale. The interesting work here isn't adding alt text or running the same audit on a new surface. It's building the engines - the agents, the automation, the patterns - that make accessibility a property of how the company builds. Every product team at Canva builds on top of what this team ships, and hundreds of millions of users rely on it.

There's a second reason this work matters now. Canva hit WCAG AA compliance earlier this year, which puts the company ahead of most peers. Holding that bar as the product grows requires a completely different kind of engineering muscle. Not subject matter expertise applied to individual surfaces. Platform-level systems that scale alongside the product.

At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Building AI agents for accessibility: Build the agents that can understand component relationships, reason about how features work, and make them accessible automatically. This is novel territory - there's no playbook to copy.

• Scaling through automation: Linting, automated testing, and tooling that gives every product team the signal they need to build accessibility at the point of writing the code. The kind of infrastructure that makes accessibility a property of the platform, not a step at the end.

• Holding the bar as the product grows: Canva ships fast. The accessibility platform needs to keep up. Define the systems and the tooling that let accessibility scale alongside the product, not chase it.

• Influencing the broader product specialty: Every product team at Canva builds on top of what this team ships. You'll work across product orgs to shape the patterns, the tooling, and the standards that make accessibility the default.

• Leading with code, not whiteboards: Canva doesn't have an architecture function - Staff engineers stay hands-on. Live in the code, build the tooling, ship to production.

You're probably a match if

• You have deep accessibility expertise. You've built accessible web products at scale, you understand WCAG inside out, you've shipped to it, and you know where the spec leaves room for judgment.

• You think in systems, not screens. You've built tooling, linting, or testing infrastructure that other engineers actually use. This role leans more toward a frontend platform than a frontend product.

• You're fluent with AI in production. You've used agents on real engineering work - ideally tasks that require understanding component relationships and reasoning about behaviour, not just generating text. You have a clear-eyed view of what AI can and can't do in production workflows.

• You're comfortable in the unknown. You've operated where both the problem and the solution are undefined, and you walk into ambiguous work with a point of view: "here's the shape of the problem, here's what I think we should do, here's where we'll experiment."

• You're a strong communicator across disciplines. You can explain accessibility concepts to engineers who don't share your background, and engineering concepts to accessibility specialists who don't share yours. Both sides of that bridge matter.

• You have production depth in React and TypeScript, with the ability to reason about component structure and accessibility together.

Nice to have

• AI agents: Production experience building agents that operate on code or product surfaces

• Open-source contributions: Accessibility ecosystem or frontend tooling

• Cross-functional work: Alongside dedicated accessibility specialists, user researchers, or assistive technology users

• Scaled programmes: Familiarity with how other large companies approach accessibility at this scale

About the 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.

Accessibility is the team inside Client Platform responsible for making sure every product Canva ships is usable by everyone. We're the team for engineers who care deeply about accessibility, want to work on it at platform altitude, and are excited by what AI makes possible at this scale.

The work compounds in two directions at once. Every team at Canva benefits when accessibility tooling gets better. And the systems built here shape how the company ships for years to come.

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 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.