Staff Security Engineer- AI Security (remote across Australia)

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 campus is in Sydney. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. But you have choice in where and how you work, we trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals. 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. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve. We’re building a specialized AI Security capability to address the unique challenges that come with deploying AI and machine learning at scale. As a Staff Security Engineer, you’ll 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’ll serve as a technical authority across Canva, setting strategic direction for AI security and defining the frameworks, standards, and secure-by-design patterns that enable safe AI adoption across both our product and broader business landscape. You’ll be working closely with engineering, product, AI research, and business stakeholders in a high-impact role where you’ll shape how Canva secures AI both now and for the future. At the moment, this role is focused on: Define the strategic direction and security frameworks for AI systems at scale, and lead the design and implementation of controls across model training pipelines, inference endpoints, and AI-powered features across Canva's platform Lead novel research into emerging AI security threats and attack vectors, and drive threat modelling, vulnerability assessments, and penetration testing focused on risks such as prompt injection, model poisoning, and data extraction Serve as the technical authority for AI security across Canva by leading security reviews and code assessments for AI use cases, identifying risks and providing actionable recommendations to mitigate potential threats Drive the strategy and development of detection rules and response playbooks tailored to AI-specific security incidents and anomalous behaviour, ensuring they scale across Canva’s AI footprint Lead organisation-wide AI security standards and best practices by collaborating with stakeholders across the business (including executive leadership) to embed secure-by-design workflows, and mentor and guide other security engineers working on AI initiatives You're probably a match if You bring 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 have a proven ability to explore genuinely unknown security problems, think holistically across product and business contexts, and set strategic direction in a fast-moving, ambiguous space. You're a recognised technical authority and thought leader who can influence senior stakeholders, align cross-functional teams, and drive outcomes without a clear playbook. You balance risk, usability, and velocity intuitively - enabling safe AI adoption at scale without slowing down the teams building it. You're self-motivated and thrive in high-paced environments, bringing calm, high-leverage leadership when the path forward isn't obvious. You're a strong communicator and fast networker in large organisations, with the ability to build trust quickly across engineering, product, and executive stakeholders. You're invested in raising the bar for security across the organisation - mentoring other engineers and building durable frameworks tha