Staff Software Engineer (Portable Platform Rust/C++)

Location: Sydney, Australia. Hybrid work with regular collaboration on the Sydney campus; remote work is also available within the hybrid arrangement.

Company

Canva is a design technology company building a cross-platform product used by hundreds of millions of people across web and mobile devices.

What you will do

• Own the portable libraries problem space across iOS, Android, and web.
• Build production-grade foundational libraries in Rust and C++ that are fast, safe, and reliable across devices.
• Design native-feeling APIs and interfaces for engineers consuming libraries from multiple runtimes.
• Shape the technical direction of Mobile Platform alongside other Staff engineers while remaining heavily hands-on.
• Communicate designs through technical documentation and collaborate with frontend engineers who consume the libraries.
• Set engineering patterns that become the foundation for future mobile platform work.

Requirements

• Production mobile development experience across both iOS and Android.
• Production Rust experience, or strong C++ experience for portable libraries.
• Staff-level experience handling ambiguous problems and defining technical direction.
• Experience with cross-platform architecture, ABI boundaries, memory safety across language barriers, and foreign function interfaces.
• Knowledge of native interop with iOS, Android, and JavaScript runtimes, plus React Native runtime consumption.
• Strong technical communication, design documentation, computer science fundamentals, and practical experience using AI agents.

Nice to have

• Experience migrating a mature mobile product to a new architecture.
• Open-source contributions to React Native, Expo, or the cross-platform mobile ecosystem.
• Experience with mobile CI/CD, release trains, and over-the-air updates at scale.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work with flexibility to balance remote work and collaboration on campus.
• Equity package.
• Inclusive parental leave for parents and carers.
• Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance for wellbeing, social connection, and office setup.
• Flexible leave options.

Hiring process

• Interviews are conducted virtually.
• The hiring process includes interactive, real-time challenges assessing AI skills; some interviews may involve solving a problem with an AI tool.