About this role
As Canva continues to scale toward our goal of empowering 1 billion users, our security posture must evolve in lockstep. The Detection & Response capability plays a critical role in protecting our community, our people, and our platform from increasingly sophisticated threats.
This role exists to set and deliver upon the strategic direction of Detection & Response (DnR) across Canva — ensuring we have world-class monitoring, incident response, threat intelligence, and operational resilience. At the Senior Engineering Manager level, this leader will drive sub-group-level outcomes that materially impact Canva’s global risk posture, business continuity, and trust with our community.
About the Group
We’re part of the Security & Trust Supergroup, on a mission to protect our community, people, and company from online threats — by making the most secure actions simple.
Within Security, we build scalable, proactive capabilities that safeguard Canva’s platform and infrastructure at global scale. We partner deeply with Engineering, Product, Infrastructure, and Legal to ensure security is embedded into everything we ship. Our work underpins trust — and trust is foundational to Canva’s growth.
About the Role / Specialty
As a Senior Security Manager in Detection & Response, you’ll lead the strategy and execution of Canva’s Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) Team. This includes capabilities such as Security Operations, Incident Response, Threat Hunting, Automation and others.
You’ll lead security engineers directly, and act as a mentor for other coaches in the group, setting the direction for how Canva detects, investigates, and responds to threats at scale. You’ll integrate deep technical security knowledge with business context — anticipating emerging risks, evolving threat landscapes, and scaling our operational maturity.
You’ll act as a thought leader across Security & Trust and the broader company, ensuring our detection and response capabilities are resilient, data-driven, and aligned with Canva’s rapid product and infrastructure growth.
What You’ll Do (Responsibilities)
• Set and deliver the strategy for the DFIR team within Detection & Response, aligned with Security & Trust priorities.
• Lead security engineers, ensuring clarity of direction, accountability, and high performance.
• Direct the evolution of Canva’s Security Operations, threat hunting, and incident response capabilities.
• Evaluate complex, multi-dimensional security challenges and guide the development of innovative, scalable solutions.
• Embed operational excellence, metrics, and automation to drive measurable improvements in detection and response maturity.
• Partner with stakeholders during high-severity incidents, providing clear risk framing and decisive leadership.
• Build and retain world-class security engineers who raise Canva’s security bar.
What We’re Looking For
You’re a strategic security leader who blends deep technical expertise with strong business acumen. You understand that security is both a technical discipline and a trust enabler for millions of users.
You likely bring:
• Significant experience leading Detection & Response or Security Operations functions in high-scale cloud environments.
• Proven experience leading and developing individual contributors.
• A track record of uplifting security maturity across security operations, detection engineering, incident response, and/or threat hunting.
• Strong executive communication skills — you can translate technical risk into business impact.
• A proactive, systems-thinking mindset — you anticipate threats and build resilient frameworks rather than reacting tactically.
• A passion for building inclusive, high-performing teams aligned to Canva’s values.
What You’ll Learn & How You’ll Grow
• How to operate security at truly global consumer scale.
• How to influence cross-company strategy within a hyper-growth, product-led environment.
• How to evolve security from reactive defense to proactive resilience and enablement.
• How to grow senior security leaders and scale leadership impact across a supergroup.
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.