Chief of Staff, Algorithms

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design. Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte! Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point. Where and how you can work Our flagship Sydney campus is uniquely Canva - an extension of our Surry Hills neighbourhood. It’s a thoughtfully designed space with plenty of room to collaborate, focus, and connect. This role is based in Sydney, and we’re looking for someone who calls it home. Our hybrid way of working gives you the flexibility to work remotely, and to come together on campus for meaningful in-person collaboration and connection when it matters most. We trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

As the Chief of Staff (known internally as Leadership Operations), you’ll act as a force multiplier to the leader of one of Canva’s newest and most strategically important orgs – Algorithms. This brand-new org , led by our Chief Algorithms Officer (CAO), is focused on personalisation and ML/AI based experiences across the product. The goal is to make Canva the best destination for visual communication for every user, by getting each person to the right thing at the right moment. In this role, you’ll extend the reach, capacity and impact of the CAO, driving clarity, prioritisation, and alignment across strategic business priorities that span product, engineering, research, data, marketing, communications, operations, and leadership engagement. You’ll play a critical role in enabling the success of the CAO, their leadership team, and the broader Algorithms organisation by providing strategic direction, building the right spaces for effective collaboration, and proactively solving business challenges that unlock scale and impact. Because this org is brand new, you won't inherit a finished machine — you'll help build one. While the Admin Business Partner (Executive Assistant) focuses on unlocking capacity for leaders through world-class support, the Chief of Staff partners with teams to deliver on core operational cadences, strategic planning, and goal execution. Together, you’ll help the org deliver on its crazy big goals. If you thrive in ambiguity, love juggling multiple competing priorities, and enjoy connecting the dots across people and priorities, this role is for you. What you’d be doing in this role As Canva scales, change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. We move fast here at Canva, and this role will certainly keep you on your toes. At the moment, this role is focused on: Strategic partner to CAO: Act as a trusted thought partner across strategy and long-term direction. Bring structure to the major bets across personalisation and ML/AI, and help drive them into execution. Bring structured thinking to trade-offs, sequencing, and investment decisions. Represent the CAO: Step into product, technical, and cross-functional forums on behalf of the CAO. Ensure discussions are grounded in user impact, clear hypotheses, and defined success metrics. Engage in technical and delivery discussions: Sit in on technical architecture, delivery, and experiment reviews, follow the substance, and surface the real issues. You can carry a technically flavoured workstream end to end, so the CAO's reach extends into the work itself — not just the operating machinery. You won't need to be an ML expert, but you're comfortable around technical work and technical people. Build and drive new initiatives: Own brand-new bets end to end — for example, standing up a regular user-insight and beta-testing cadence, establishing a Canva Research brand, or exploring other bigger swings as we uplevel Canva’s standing in the ML/AI research community. You'll