Principal Software Engineer, Mobile Platform

Overview

This full-time, permanent position invites a seasoned Principal Software Engineer to lead the evolution of Canva's mobile platform on iOS and Android. You will play a critical role in shaping architecture used by hundreds of millions of users worldwide and enable cross-platform mobile application development strategies.

Responsibilities

• Establish and direct the technical architectural vision for Canva's hybrid mobile platform, integrating React Native, native iOS and Android components, and shared mobile infrastructure.
• Convert architectural plans into production-ready code with foundational supports for performance, reliability, and monitoring within the first few months.
• Deploy a React Native user interface in production within six months, ensuring stability and support for product teams.
• Guide senior engineers through the migration from legacy mobile architectures, serving as a central technical authority.
• Facilitate adoption of the new platform across Canva, collaborating with several product teams and influencing over 800 frontend developers.

Qualifications and Experience

• Proven experience in designing or significantly improving large-scale cross-platform mobile architectures, with expertise in React Native, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform, or similar frameworks.
• Successful leadership of major migrations of active mobile products onto new architectures, navigating complex technical and organizational challenges.
• Strong principal-level leadership skills, including influencing multiple teams and driving technical decisions that impact large engineering organizations.
• Hands-on coding capabilities with direct involvement in difficult implementation issues.
• Exceptional engineering judgment and critical reasoning skills, comfortable challenging assumptions and refining architecture for scalability and efficiency.

Technical Skills

• In-depth understanding of mobile runtimes, native boundaries, bundle management, and real device performance profiling.
• Expertise in both iOS and Android platform fundamentals, with a keen sense of appropriate abstraction boundaries.
• Experience with mobile performance tuning, reliability engineering, crash analysis, and large-scale optimization.
• Knowledge of shared platform architecture components, libraries, and infrastructure supporting multiple teams.
• Strong foundation in engineering principles including data structures, algorithmic complexity, and system-level trade-offs.

Preferred Skills

• Advanced production experience with React Native and React internals.
• Usage of system programming languages such as Rust or C/C++ for building portable mobile libraries.
• Contributions to open-source projects in the cross-platform mobile ecosystem (React Native, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform, Expo).
• Expertise with mobile continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes including release trains and over-the-air updates.
• Practical understanding of AI tools applied in mobile software development and operations.

About the Team

You will join the Client Platform group, responsible for the core foundations upon which Canva’s product teams build. This includes ownership of the Web Platform, Mobile Platform, and user-facing product surfaces. Your work will impact hundreds of millions of users globally and guide the next decade of Canva’s mobile experiences.

Benefits and Culture

• Equity participation so you can share in the company's success.
• Inclusive parental leave policies supportive of all parents and carers.
• An annual allowance for wellbeing, social activities, and workplace setup.
• Flexible leave policies that promote personal wellbeing and work-life balance.

Additional Information

Recruitment focuses on your expertise, experience, and potential cultural contribution. The interview process is conducted remotely. Applicants are encouraged to share their pronouns and any accommodation needs for interviews.