Source : The Verge
SYDNEY, November 4, 2026 – Australian design platform Canva has announced a sweeping restructure affecting 1,271 employees, or 22 per cent of its staff, with some workers facing new roles or relocation and others losing their jobs, as reported by The Verge and shared on X.
Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins set out the changes in a memo to staff titled “An important update on our team”, according to Business Insider. She said that for some people the changes would mean different roles or being asked to move to centralised hubs, and that the company would also be saying goodbye to colleagues and friends who had helped build Canva into what it is today.
Perkins described the restructure as the “hardest moment in our 13-year history”, ABC News reported. She said Canva’s growth had slowed for the first time in a decade, and that after exploring a wide range of alternatives she had reached the difficult conclusion that small changes would not be enough.
“To set ourselves up for the next decade, we need to refound Canva, getting back to our roots of small, empowered teams with the freedom to make decisions, take ownership and focus on what matters most for our community,” Perkins wrote.
Under the plan, Canva will bring its Product, Growth and Platform teams together into a single product organisation, simplify management layers and consolidate overlapping responsibilities. Sydney will become the primary home for more of its product teams, as well as for roles in other specialties where shared context and close collaboration are considered especially important.
Perkins told staff that this had been the company’s hardest year yet, and that the changes meant making some of the hardest decisions Canva had ever faced, Business Insider reported. The company is also tightening its office expectations. From January, Canva expects most hybrid employees to spend about two to three days a week in the office, depending on what makes sense in their area.
Employees who leave will receive at least six months’ salary, 12 months of healthcare coverage and career support, according to The Verge. ABC News reported that the package also includes health and wellbeing support, the removal of the one-year equity vesting cliff for some recently hired staff, and a new fund to help departing employees who want to start a business or pursue a community project.
Canva said new technology was changing how people create and use products, though ABC News noted that the company did not explicitly mention artificial intelligence in its announcement. Canva grew out of a Perth-based start-up founded by Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, later joined by co-founder Cameron Adams, and has become one of Australia’s biggest technology success stories, with a design platform used by hundreds of millions of people. Besides Sydney, it has operations in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and operates in 37 countries.
The announcement adds to a wave of job cuts in the technology sector. The Verge noted that website builder Squarespace announced layoffs affecting 19 per cent of its staff earlier this week, while in Australia, software company Atlassian cut 1,600 jobs earlier this year, ABC News reported.
About The Author
