Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte!
Thanks for stopping by. We know job descriptions can feel a bit formulaic sometimes, but we promise Canva is anything but. If you're drawn to what we're building and you see yourself in this role, we'd love to hear from you.
Where and How You Can Work
This role is based in Manila and operates on a hybrid model — giving you the best of both worlds. Our office is a hub for collaboration and energy, and we also believe in the kind of deep thinking that happens away from it. Work in a way that suits you and the work.
What You'd Be Doing in This Role
Canva's Global Employment Legal Team is growing, and we're looking for a Senior Employment Counsel to join our well-established APAC team. This role is primarily focused on the Philippines, with opportunities to work across Southeast Asia and APAC depending on your experience. You'll partner closely with People, business leaders, and legal colleagues across Canva's global footprint — advising on the complex, the strategic, and the day-to-day.
This isn't a maintain-the-status-quo role. Canva is scaling fast, and you'll help shape how we build employment practices that are legally sound, commercially pragmatic, and true to our values. You'll navigate ambiguity with confidence, translate complexity into plain advice, and be a genuine partner to the business — not just a risk filter.
At the moment, this role is focused on:
- Providing strategic, commercially pragmatic employment law advice across Canva's Philippines operations, with scope to support broader APAC matters
- Advising on the full range of employment matters — performance management, employee relations, investigations, exits, regulatory issues, and contingent workforce questions
- Partnering with People, Total Rewards, Finance, and business leaders to support Canva's evolving workforce model as we scale
- Developing and implementing scalable employment frameworks, policies, and guidance that work in a high-growth environment
- Managing employment disputes, claims, and regulatory inquiries — including external counsel engagement where needed
- Delivering practical training and guidance to People teams and leaders so they can make better decisions, earlier
- Collaborating with Employment Legal colleagues globally on cross-border matters and strategic projects
You're Probably a Match If:
- You're admitted to practice in the Philippines and bring 6+ years of post-qualification experience specialising in employment law
- You have strong, current knowledge of Philippine employment law and employee relations frameworks
- You've advised senior stakeholders on complex employment matters and you know how to balance legal risk with real business and people considerations
- You've worked in a tech company, high-growth organisation, or multinational — you understand the pace and the complexity that comes with it
- You're comfortable in ambiguity — you make sound judgement calls without waiting for perfect clarity
- You communicate complex legal concepts in plain language that people actually act on
About the Team
Canva's Legal team operates as genuine business partners — embedded in the company's biggest decisions and most complex challenges. The Global Employment Legal Team is a collaborative, high-trust group with deep APAC coverage, and you'll join a team that genuinely enjoys working together, shares the hard problems, and invests in each other's development.
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.
Skills Required
- Admitted to practice in the Philippines
- 6+ years post-qualification experience specializing in employment law
- Strong, current knowledge of Philippine employment law and employee relations frameworks
- Experience advising senior stakeholders on complex employment matters
- Experience working in a tech company, high-growth organisation, or multinational
- Ability to navigate ambiguity and make sound judgment calls
- Ability to communicate complex legal concepts in plain language
- Experience managing employment disputes, claims, and regulatory inquiries, including engaging external counsel
- Experience developing and implementing scalable employment frameworks, policies, and guidance
- Experience delivering practical training and guidance to People teams and leaders
Canva Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Canva and has not been reviewed or approved by Canva.
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Parental & Family Support — Permanent employees are eligible for 18 weeks of paid parental leave from day one, inclusive of all parents. Additional supports include flexibility in how leave is taken and resources around pregnancy loss and caregiving.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Extra paid time off categories expand beyond standard PTO. Examples include five Flex Leave days, three days of paid volunteering, and milestone Epic Experience time off at 5 and 10 years.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity participation is a core element of total rewards. Company materials and industry reporting note periodic opportunities to realize value through secondary transactions, enhancing perceived upside.
Canva Insights
What We Do
Canva is an online graphic design platform with a mission to empower everyone to design anything and publish anywhere, offering a free-to-use tool for creating social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos, and more.
