Senior Legal Counsel, Product & Privacy

Canva; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Canva is seeking an experienced legal advisor to support its acquired brands' compliance and integration within the Canva Group. This role requires expertise in global privacy laws, collaboration across time zones, and the ability to simplify complex legalities while offering practical legal support. Join Canva to enhance its mission and contribute to a trusting legal environment.

Benefits

Equity packages

Inclusive parental leave policy

Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance

Flexible leave options

Qualifications

• 7–10+ years of legal experience, including in-house work.
• Deep understanding of GDPR, ePrivacy, and consumer protection laws.
• Ability to simplify complex compliance issues.

Responsibilities

• Act as a legal advisor for acquired entities regarding compliance.
• Draft and maintain terms of use and internal compliance policies.
• Lead compliance projects and create legal processes for product launches.

Skills

Compliance with digital regulations

Collaborative teamwork

Pragmatic legal advice

Risk awareness

Education

CIPP/E certification

Legal qualification in UK, AUS/NZ, US, or EU

Job description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hello, 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.

About the Team

Canva’s Legal Team is on a mission: to help Canva become the world’s most trusted platform. You’ll sit in our Product & Privacy Legal function, acting as a trusted legal partner for Canva’s growing group of acquired brands across Europe and Australia - including Leonardo AI, Affinity, Flourish, Pexels, Pixabay, Mockups Library, and others. These companies operate with independence, but are rapidly integrating into the Canva Group.

About the Role

Canva is looking for an experienced and trusted advisor to help these entities uplift their compliance, grow, launch products and integrate into the Canva Group. This will require strong product counselling experience, as well as a solid foundation of global privacy laws, especially GDPR, AI and marketing laws.

This is a unique opportunity to join the exciting Product and Privacy function for Canva in Australia.You’ll provide end-to-end legal support for these smaller entities, working across a broad range of legal areas and collaborating globally across time zones (so comfort with timezone flexibility is a must!). You will report into a Lead Counsel in Australia with 2 colleagues in the UK, and have the support of the global legal team and its tools, templates and resources.

What you’ll be doing:

• A trusted legal advisor for acquired entities, particularly Leonardo, working across all levels of the business, including product, marketing and engineering teams.
• Provide specialist advice on compliance with digital regulations and product compliance laws (including data protection, ePrivacy, intellectual property, spam, cookies, marketing, online safety, content moderation, platform regulation, AI regulation, accessibility, cybersecurity, competition and consumer laws and other applicable laws)
• Lead and deliver compliance projects across subsidiaries (e.g. risk registers, PIAs, RoPAs)
• Draft and maintain terms of use, privacy and cookie policies, and internal compliance policies
• Build scalable processes for legal review and product launch, embedding early legal input and risk-aware decision-making
• Deliver product and privacy training to each subsidiary and work with product teams to build privacy by design and compliance by design into roadmaps.
• Participate in the review and coordination of potential privacy or data security incidents (including on call), including investigations, notifications, and other resolution efforts.
• Keep current on relevant industry standards, laws, and regulations.
• Collaborate with the broader Legal team, including policy, employment, contracts, IP, and legal operations specialists

What we're looking for:

• You’re legally qualified in the UK, AUS/NZ, US, or EU
• You must hold a CIPP/E certification
• You have 7–10+ years of legal experience, including in-house work
• You’re across global digital regulations (GDPR, ePrivacy, Online Safety, consumer protection, AI governance)
• You’re comfortable collaborating with team members in other time zones
• You are a collaborative, pragmatic, business-minded lawyer who wants to help the Canva group grow and be a part of its exciting journey
• You bring clarity to complexity and simplify compliance without compromising standards
• You love collaborating with engineers, PMs, and marketers — and thrive in fast-moving environments
• You’re risk aware, not risk adverse
• You’re creative, curious, and motivated by meaningful work

Bonus if you have:

• AI Governance Professional or commitment to obtain certification within 12 months of joining at Canva’s cost (CIPP/E is a prerequisite)
• Knowledge and passion for Canva’s mission and product
• A technical degree or strong comfort with engineering and product conversations
• Experience advising product teams at high-growth technology companies

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.