Principal Partner Engineer — Ecosystem (AI)

TL;DR

Principal Partner Engineer — Ecosystem (AI): Building and evolving Canva's external platform surfaces including MCP, REST APIs, and Apps to connect agentic AI systems with visual design with an accent on technical alignment between partners and internal engineering. Focus on designing runnable prototypes, shaping the agentic AI roadmap, and ensuring a coherent platform experience across heterogeneous product stacks.

Location: Must be based in the USA and work on Pacific Time hours

Salary: USD 297,000 - 345,000 yearly

Company

Canva is a global design platform redefining how the world experiences visual communication through its ecosystem of AI-native tools and design apps.

What you will do

• Drive technical decisions and alignment between external partners (e.g., OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) and Canva's internal engineering teams.
• Set the strategic technical direction for external platform surfaces, identifying where to invest, deprecate, or evolve.
• Validate proposed solutions by developing working code and runnable prototypes against Canva's actual architecture.
• Oversee product-line engineering across MCP, REST APIs, and the middleware PaaS to maintain a coherent platform surface.
• Lead technical relationships end-to-end for flagship partner engagements, shaping roadmaps and driving technical spikes.
• Communicate emerging platform direction to partners early to ensure strategic alignment.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, specifically at the intersection of partner, platform, and product engineering.
• Proven experience shipping production code for developer platforms used by external developers.
• Deep technical expertise in the modern AI platform stack, including MCP, tool-use, and agentic API design.
• Ability to orient quickly in heterogeneous, fast-moving codebases.
• Strong communication skills with a focus on resolving misalignments through clear, written documentation.
• Must be based in the USA and able to work on Pacific Time hours.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience shipping or integrating with MCP (Anthropic, OpenAI, Copilot, or Gemini).
• Proficiency in TypeScript, React, and server-side JavaScript, with the ability to read Java backend code.
• Track record of translating ambiguous partner signals into concrete engineering decisions.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive equity packages to share in the company's success.
• Inclusive parental leave policy supporting all parents and carers.
• Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance for wellbeing, social connection, and office setup.
• Flexible leave options to support personal recharge and wellbeing.
• Flexible work arrangements with access to co-working spaces across the USA.