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Canva is seeking a Head of Commercial Legal to lead its global Commercial Legal team. The role is based in San Francisco, with flexibility to work hybrid as part of Canva's US operations hub.
In this position, you will lead and coach a high-performing Commercial Legal team responsible for empowering Canva's scalable growth through strategic legal and operational guidance. The team structures, negotiates and manages Canva's customer, partner and supplier agreements, supporting go-to-market efforts, new products and commercial initiatives.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading and developing a global Commercial Legal team with attention to cross-timezone collaboration
- Setting vision and strategy for how Commercial Legal enables Canva's growth while managing commercial risk
- Providing strategic guidance to Canva leadership on material commercial, customer, partner and supplier matters
- Partnering with Sales, Procurement, Finance, Product and other teams to support launches, new business models and strategic initiatives
- Designing scalable commercial legal processes, playbooks, templates and ways of working that enable speed and consistency
- Fostering a high-performance, collaborative culture through thoughtful work distribution, growth and development, team wellbeing and resourcing decisions
- Driving team connection and culture through team rituals and engagement
- Championing Canva's AI Native ways of working and encouraging AI tool adoption to streamline workflows
- Managing Commercial Legal budgets and outside counsel engagement
- Monitoring market developments, emerging technologies and legal trends, translating these into practical recommendations
Canva offers equity packages, inclusive parental leave, an annual Vibe & Thrive allowance for wellbeing and office setup, and flexible leave options. The company emphasizes a collaborative, high-autonomy culture and celebrates diverse skills and backgrounds.
Requirements:
- Leadership & teamwork: Experience managing teams across different timezones, thriving in collaborative environments with high autonomy and mutual trust
- Commercial breadth and judgment: Strong experience advising on a broad range of commercial matters including customer, partner, supplier and technology transactions; ability to navigate complex commercial issues and make practical decisions
- Strategic business partnering: Ability to be a trusted adviser to senior business leaders, balancing legal risk with commercial opportunity, and communicating advice clearly to both legal and non-legal stakeholders
- Industry context: Experience advising technology companies, understanding how legal considerations intersect with product development and go-to-market strategy, comfort operating amid ambiguity and change
- Building for scale: Experience improving legal processes, using technology effectively and building functions that support growing global companies without creating unnecessary friction
- AI fluency: Comfort with and fluency in AI tools; willingness to drive AI adoption and integration into legal practices
