Tech and AI

Canva restructure affects 1,271 staff, about 22 per cent of its workforce, after the design platform's growth slows for the first time in a decade

By Staff Writer  |  5 November 2026

Some staff will lose their jobs and others will be asked to move to the company's main offices, as Canva merges its product teams and removes layers of management.

Canva, the Australian online design platform, is restructuring in a way that will affect 1,271 employees, about 22 per cent of its workforce. Its co-founder and chief executive, Melanie Perkins, told staff in an email on Wednesday 4 November that some roles would change, that some people would be asked to relocate to central offices and that some colleagues would leave the company. She did not say how many jobs would go.

Perkins wrote that this had been the company's hardest year, that its growth had slowed for the first time in a decade, and that after looking at a wide range of alternatives she had concluded that small changes would not be enough. Canva will merge its product, growth and platform teams into a single product organisation, remove layers of management and cut back on narrowly specialised roles, so that some employees take on wider responsibilities. More of its product teams will move to its headquarters in Sydney, and staff will be asked to work from an office a few days a week.

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.

Melanie Perkins, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Canva

The terms for those leaving

Departing staff will receive at least six months' pay and may keep their company laptops. Health cover continues for a further year in the countries where staff receive it, and those leaving may apply for grants of 10,000 US dollars to start their own businesses. Staff affected by the changes have been offered an individual meeting with a senior leader, and the rest of the company will meet next week, first as a whole and then in the new teams.

The email did not cite financial pressure, and it did not name artificial intelligence as a reason for the changes. It said instead that new technology was changing what people create, how they create it and what they expect from the products they use. Canva is privately owned, so it does not publish the detailed accounts a listed company must.

Pressure from general AI tools

The company has been building its own AI models to reduce costs and its reliance on outside providers. It also faces competition from general-purpose chatbots whose image tools let users put together posters and presentations without specialist design software. Atlassian, another of Australia's best-known software companies, has also announced job cuts this year.

Perkins described herself in the message as deeply sorry for the changes. For the 1,271 people affected, the detail of what the new structure means for each of them will come in those meetings.