Lead Technical Program Manager- Product Platform

  • Full-time
  • Recruitment type: Permanent

Job Description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey, hello, hiya, 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. That means if you want to do your thing in the office (if you're near one), at home or a bit of both, it's up to you.

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.

  • Build and coach a high performing team of engaged Technical Program Managers that are continuously growing in their craft. 
  • Help define the delivery roadmap for the Supergroup and Group by working with your team and stakeholders across the company.
  • Monitor and track delivery status across multiple teams and projects while promoting accountability towards sustainable program delivery
  • Manage open issues and risks relating to program delivery
  • Manage dependencies across teams and groups
  • Facilitate effective, timely and transparent team decision making practices
  • Ensure an appropriate degree of consistency in planning, documentation and core practices across teams to ensure meaningful velocity and promote our ability to scale how teams work across Canva
  • Facilitate continual improvement rituals to build the effectiveness of product development and engineering teams
  • Build a culture and environment to achieve excellence and innovation
  • Build partnerships with cross-functional teams to influence decisions, drive alignment and prioritisation
  • Partner with Supergroup and Group Leadership to facilitate the delivery of Canva’s highest priority, complex and multi-disciplinary initiatives

You're probably a match if

  • You have a  minimum of 5 years TPM experience at a SaaS company & hands on experience in driving large programs of work 
  • You have experience in leading and coaching teams, building high performing impact across the company and developing individual TPMs to grow their skills 
  • You are motivated to provide an inclusive and psychologically safe environment for our diverse team to collaborate together, in a timely fashion, towards shared goals
  • You have an understanding of software development processes, methodologies, and best practices.
  • You have experience in cross-cutting domains like user perceived performance, mobile, accessibility and design systems 
  • You have a deep understanding of Agile product development processes and experience working with Product Managers, Designers and Engineers to deliver key company initiatives
  • You are comfortable with ambiguity in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities
  • You are a natural communicator who leads through influence, not authority and loves navigating complexity and tackling ambiguous problems 
  • You have the leadership capability to ensure clarity, alignment and accountability to achieve our crazy big goals
  • You have the ability to think strategically but also able to make crazy big goals happen. This role will be very hands-on!

About the Product Platform Supergroup


Product Platform’s mission is to "Build pathways that empower Canva to deliver a delightful experience for billions of users". This means we are helping teams in Canva to build a better product faster instead of spending time creating the same common building blocks repeatedly across the company. Product Platform consists of three groups including Product Insights Enablement, Client Platform and Application Platform.


Client Platform focuses on the user's experience of using the Canva product and owns things like the Design System, frontend performance, Android, iOS and Desktop clients and other user-facing cross-cutting concerns like internationalisation and accessibility of the product. 


Teams in Application Platform own systems that provide the foundation for most of our product services like account management, login and signup, request handling, routing and our CMS.


Product Insights Enablement builds platforms and tools to foster a culture of informed decision-making with Canva. They provide core capabilities to measure and visualise how users interact with our products, for example product analytics to capture user behaviour, A/B testing or feature flagging.

About the Technical Program Managers

At Canva, we’re all constantly striving towards our Crazy Big Goals! Since growing to a worldwide team of over 4,000 we need to work effectively together and improve our delivery ability as we scale, which is where our Technical Program Managers come in. 

As a Lead Technical Program Manager for Product Platform, it is your mission to work closely with senior managers and development teams to build a sustainable culture of positive urgency in delivery. You will lead complex, multi-disciplinary programs and be equally comfortable working with leadership to set strategic goals and clarify priorities, as you are with teams to communicate program status, escalate issues and manage dependencies as you are discussing technical trade-offs with an engineer. You will be also coaching a team of 3, supporting the team to build high performing impact across the company and develop individual TPMs to grow their skills.

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.

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