Okay - Senior Software Engineer Canva Employee Review

3.0
Mar 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great office - Excellent pay - Reasonable onboarding process for general corporate things + general engineering things

Cons

- Team didn't use structured container of work model (e.g., sprints) - Team didn't have daily video stand ups, nor other regular rituals - Backlog of work wasn't prioritised and cards didn't have well defined definitions of done - Team didn't have shared deliverables / team was split into silos of knowledge - A lot of implicit social coordination + coalition building skills required - Nobody on team was colocated - Lots of red tape. A looot of it. To get something simple approved in one instance I needed to get sign off from my one over one over one. - Heaps of back and forth on design docs without being able to align quickly on what needs doing. - Newbie tasks not already scoped + are secretly "redesign our entire team workflow". - Culture of everyone on the team working on their own thing; no shared team deliverables. - Review culture not aligned towards shipping + mildly antagonistic. - Culture of introducing scope from e.g. slack message from previous day that newbie is supposed to be keyed into, into otherwise small pull requests.

Explore other reviews about Canva

5.0
Apr 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Fast pace - Interesting tech - Fun product to work on - Great culture & values

Cons

- Crunch periods can be full on

3.0
May 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Product is beloved by users. Brand affinity is second to none which makes being a marketer a lot of fun. Genuinely good and caring coworkers who want to build something great. Hiring bar is high. Vibe and Thrive benefit is clever and unique.

Cons

Behind the brand is a cult like culture with the “founders” surrounded by yes people (whether they are aware of it or not). Mediocrity seems to be tolerated among management’s “old guard” causing tension and churn with newer and sometimes more experienced leaders. Insecure leaders at some of the highest levels perpetuate much of the toxic behaviors described in the reviews below such as gaslighting and favoritism. People “disappear” with little to no explanation, but hey, it’s the “Canva way”.

4
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