Principal Partner Engineer – Ecosystem

Canva

Principal Partner Engineer at Canva, working on Ecosystem platform integrating AI and design. Driving partner decisions, technical direction, and strategic engagements in a collaborative environment.

Posted 5/27/2026full-timeRemote • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $297,000 - $345,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design
Work on Pacific Time hours and collaborate daily with Canva's engineering teams in AEST
Drive decisions and alignment across Partners and Canva engineering
Explain why a partner's proposed solution won't work and generate the realistic option set
Contribute to technical direction for Canva's external platform surface
Ground partner conversations in working code
Drive product-line engineering across external platform surfaces
Shape strategic partner and customer engagements
Lead the technical relationship end-to-end for a small number of flagship engagements

Requirements

What you’ll need

10+ years of software engineering experience
Several years in roles operating at the seam between partner engineering, platform engineering, and product
Built developer platforms, not just evangelized them
Shipped code in production on platforms used by external developers
Move fluidly between product roadmap conversation, system design discussion, and partner negotiation
Bring a prototype or sample code to hard conversations
Technically deep on the modern AI platform stack
Real opinions on MCP, tool-use, agentic API design, and tradeoffs
Communicate directly and resolve misalignments by writing clearly
Worked inside product stacks that are heterogeneous and move fast
Ability to orient quickly in a codebase

Benefits

Comp & perks

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

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

software engineeringdeveloper platformsproduction codesystem designAI platform stackAPI designcodebase orientationprototype developmenttechnical directionproduct-line engineering

Soft Skills

communicationnegotiationproblem-solvingcollaborationleadershipalignmentdecision-makingcustomer engagementtechnical relationship managementwriting