Staff Security Engineer- AI Security (remote across Australia)
Canva is seeking a Staff Security Engineer specializing in AI Security to join their team remotely across Australia. In this role, you will operate at the intersection of security engineering and AI innovation, pioneering new approaches to emerging AI security challenges and driving novel research into evolving threats and attack techniques. You will serve as a technical authority across Canva, setting strategic direction for AI security and defining frameworks, standards, and secure-by-design patterns that enable safe AI adoption across both the product and broader business landscape. This high-impact position involves close collaboration with engineering, product, AI research, and business stakeholders to shape how Canva secures AI now and in the future.
Key responsibilities include defining the strategic direction and security frameworks for AI systems at scale, leading the design and implementation of controls across model training pipelines, inference endpoints, and AI-powered features. You will conduct novel research into emerging AI security threats and attack vectors, driving threat modeling, vulnerability assessments, and penetration testing focused on risks such as prompt injection, model poisoning, and data extraction. Additionally, you will lead security reviews and code assessments for AI use cases, providing actionable recommendations to mitigate potential threats, and develop detection rules and response playbooks tailored to AI-specific security incidents. Collaborating with stakeholders across the business, you will embed secure-by-design workflows and mentor other security engineers working on AI initiatives.
The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise in AI security, with a track record of novel research and innovation, and the ability to apply that knowledge pragmatically to real-world challenges at scale. You should have a proven ability to explore unknown security problems, think holistically across product and business contexts, and set strategic direction in a fast-moving, ambiguous space. As a recognized technical authority and thought leader, you can influence senior stakeholders, align cross-functional teams, and drive outcomes without a clear playbook. Balancing risk, usability, and velocity intuitively, you enable safe AI adoption at scale without slowing down the teams building it. Self-motivated and thriving in high-paced environments, you bring calm, high-leverage leadership when the path forward isn't obvious. Strong communication skills and the ability to build trust quickly across engineering, product, and executive stakeholders are essential. You are invested in raising the bar for security across the organization by mentoring other engineers and building durable frameworks that help teams ship securely and consistently.
Canva offers a range of benefits, including equity packages to share in the company's success, an inclusive parental leave policy supporting all parents and carers, and an annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support wellbeing, social connection, office setup, and more. Flexible leave options empower employees to be a force for good, take time to recharge, and support personal needs.
Joining Canva means becoming part of a team dedicated to protecting one of the world's most trusted design platforms and the millions of users who rely on it every day. The AI Security Team works at the forefront of AI, building novel solutions to security risks posed by the rapidly evolving AI landscape. As Canva scales globally and integrates cutting-edge AI capabilities, the team evolves its security posture to stay ahead of emerging risks across all of Canva. Combining technical excellence with collaborative problem-solving, the team ensures that security is embedded in everything they do, directly enabling Canva's mission to empower the world to design securely.