Performance & Development Specialist
- Full-time
- Recruitment type: Permanent
Job Description
Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.
Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte!
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
Our flagship campus is in Sydney. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. But you have choice in where and how you work, we trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals. This role will be Sydney based.
About the team
The Impact Experience team exists to make performance feel clear, fair, and empowering for every Canvanaut. We focus on designing and delivering world-class performance experiences, from feedback and growth conversations to performance cycles, tools, systems, promotions and recognition.
We’re a small team with big goals. In 2026, we’re reimagining how performance, feedback, and development work at Canva, while also building the internal systems and experiences to support a world-class people program.
About the role
This is a specialist role where you'll work closely with your Coach, the Growth and Impact Lead, and your peer Performance & Development SME, as well as many cross-functional partners to help design and deliver the end-to-end ‘’Growth & Impact’’ experience at Canva.
You’ll play a key role in ensuring performance processes land well with clarity, consistency and with the right level of structure to enable impact at scale.
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.
At the moment, this role is focused on:
Partnering with the Lead and team to shape and deliver Performance Review cycles, including planning, education, comms, and rollout.
Reviewing and improving our existing Growth and Impact processes, including promotions, feedback and goals.
Owning and running key performance workstreams and initiatives, leading day to day delivery, coordination, and stakeholder alignment.
Bringing clarity and structure to complex performance programs by thinking through scale, change, and interdependencies.
Input into shaping and improving enablement content including feedback guides, comms plans, toolkits, and Hub updates.
Continuously improving systems, tools, and processes to support clarity, adoption, and impact at scale.
Building context quickly by diving into past performance and recognition work to understand what’s been done, what’s evolving, and what’s changing.
Nurturing new coaches (managers) and providing them with the tools to manage performance effectively, and guide them on how to have great conversations.
You're probably a match if
You have a background in Organisational Development or HR Business Partnering within fast-paced and hypergrowth global companies, ideally tech/SaaS environments.
You have deep expertise in performance management and have successfully scaled performance management processes in previous roles, and are comfortable getting into the weeds and delivering on all facets of impact and performance.
You have a deep understanding of the system functionality, education programmes, communications, support guides, calibration practices, and distribution reporting, leveraging your HR knowledge to drive continuous improvement.
You have the ability to flex between delivering quickly and also reflecting, ideating, challenging, and maturing our approach and practices.
You have a knack for synthesising complex ideas into simple, brief, direct messages; and who communicates in a kind, clear, conversational tone of voice.
You have a deep understanding of, and ideally first-hand experience in, managing performance approaches and tooling.
You’re high agency and outcome oriented, quick to get context and quick to move. People trust you to take ownership, drive progress, and figure things out when the map is incomplete.
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 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.