Senior Commercial Counsel

Job Description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design

Hiya, 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

The buzzing Canva London campus features several buildings around beautiful leafy Hoxton Square in Shoreditch. While our global headquarters is in Sydney, Australia, London is home to our EMEA operations. This role is a part of our hybrid working model and you'll need to be based within a commutable distance to our Shoreditch office.

You'll experience a warm welcome from our Vibe team at front of house, amazing home cooked food from our Head Chef and a variety of workspaces to hang out with your team mates or get solo work done. That said, we trust our Canvanauts to choose the hybrid balance that empowers them to achieve their goals and so you have choice in where and how you work.

Canva is on a mission to empower the world to design. With over 250 million users and a fast-growing Enterprise business, we’re scaling quickly and thoughtfully. We’re looking for a sharp, business-minded lawyer to join our Commercial Legal team and help us continue to close deals at pace, with precision and smart risk management.

In this role you will be embedded with our GTM teams, reviewing and negotiating a high volume of commercial agreements across enterprise, higher education, government, and strategic partnerships. You will be required to bring expertise, good judgement, and a strong business sense to assess and mitigate legal risk while keeping deals moving. You will play a key role in enabling strategic growth in the EMEA region and beyond. 

What you’ll do:

• Review, draft, and negotiate commercial agreements with customers, and channel partners. 

• Support and evolve our contracting approach across a range of customer segments, including government, higher education institutions, and highly regulated industries. Support partner-led and channel transactions, including negotiating flowdown terms with resellers and other channel partners.

• Support international and cross-border transactions across Canva’s group companies, including working with customers and partners in multiple jurisdictions and navigating local legal and regulatory considerations.

• Respond promptly to legal questions and requests from stakeholders across Sales and Success, Finance, Deal Desk and other teams.

• Keep current on relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, including data privacy, AI regulations, and other regulatory requirements relevant to enterprise and commercial contracts.

• Contribute to the development and upkeep of contract templates, playbooks, escalation guides, and other legal team resources; this includes designing and delivering enablement and training to equip GTM and cross-functional stakeholders to move faster and more independently on routine commercial matters.

• Identify and help develop and implement improvements to contracting processes, workflows, and tools with a scalable, future-focused mindset.

• Collaborate with cross-functional partners in Sales, Product, Finance, Security, Privacy Legal and other teams to deliver practical, solutions-oriented legal support.

What we are looking for:

• You have hands-on experience reviewing and negotiating a variety of contracts at a fast-paced technology company, including enterprise SaaS transactions, AI terms, and DPAs.You are excited to roll up your sleeves, learn the business and proactively identify and analyse opportunities and risks. You are genuinely curious: about Canva, the industry, and the challenges in front of you..

• You deliver timely, practical advice that is calibrated to risk, deal structure, and internal policy, and you know how to frame guidance in a way that is actionable for non-legal stakeholders.

• You have excellent communication skills and can make complex communications simple.

• You are comfortable participating in cross-functional and internationally distributed teams. 

• You have experience supporting international or cross-border transactions, ideally within EMEA or other multi-jurisdictional environments.

• You are a collaborative team player with strong interpersonal skills and a collegial, solutions-driven attitude.

• You are energised by the role AI is playing in legal work and are ready to embrace AI tools and workflows to help you work smarter, faster, and more impactfully.

• You are familiar with, or willing to learn, the fundamentals of how GenAI works in order to apply that knowledge in supporting sales contracts

• You are comfortable getting on the phone with customers and vendors. 

• You are able to prioritise and effectively set and balance expectations.

• You have the pragmatism and agility required to meet the needs of the business each day.

Minimum Requirements:

• Qualified to practice law in a relevant EMEA jurisdiction (e.g. UK or EU member state)

• 8+ years of in-house experience, primarily at a SaaS or fast-growth tech company.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Knowledge and understanding of Canva and/or SaaS offerings.

• Experience using contracting tools (e.g. Ironclad and DocuSign).

• Demonstrated interest or experience in using AI tools in a legal or operational setting.

• Additional language skills (e.g. German and/or French) are highly valued