Melanie Perkins
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Executive
6 reports
Canva
Canva operates a founder-led functional org focused on product velocity and global scale
Technology · Functional structure · 4K employees · Sydney, Australia
7
CEO span
↑ wider than peers (avg 6)
1
Avg span
tight
2
Max depth
2 levels
0 yr
Avg tenure
0%
Internal hires
↓ below industry avg
Interactive org chart
Canva organizational chart
Explore the leadership model, functional ownership, and scale-up reporting pattern behind this company.
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Canva is a private, high-growth design software company headquartered in Sydney with a globally distributed workforce and a strong founder-led leadership team overseeing functional departments focused on product, platform, and global growth.
What to model
Use the chart to test org decisions, not just view reporting lines
Start with the public baseline, then use the scenario views and source-backed changes to ask what happens when leadership, span, or team ownership shifts.
Scenario views in the chart
- Add a Chief AI Officer Introduce a dedicated executive to oversee AI strategy and applied design intelligence across product and platform.
Atlas work this supports
- Compare scale-up operating models Benchmark founder span, product-engineering structure, GTM leadership, and platform teams against other high-growth companies.
- Model your next leadership layer Plan when to add operators, split product and engineering, regionalize GTM, or create new platform and AI leadership roles.
- Turn public signals into a planning map Use official leadership pages and announcements as a baseline, then adapt the model for your own hiring and scenario plans.
The people
Who's running this
7 public leadership roles from company pages, announcements, and reliable news signals. Use this as a current operating-model reference, not an SEC filing table.
Cliff Obrecht
Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder
Operations
0 reports
Cameron Adams
Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder
Product
0 reports
Brendan Humphreys
Chief Technology Officer
Engineering
0 reports
Kelly Steckelberg
Chief Financial Officer
Finance
0 reports
Zach Kitschke
Chief Marketing Officer
Marketing
0 reports
Open Role
Chief People Officer
People
0 reports
The businesses
How Canva divides the work
3 divisions report into the group CEO. Tile size scales with estimated headcount.
Product
800 employees
cpo
Owns product vision, user experience, and feature roadmap across Canva's design platform.
Engineering
1K employees
cto
Builds and scales Canva's core platform, infrastructure, and AI-driven design capabilities.
Marketing & Growth
500 employees
cmo
Responsible for brand, performance marketing, community, and enterprise demand generation.
The thesis
Why this org is unusual
Canva maintains a classic founder-led functional structure, with the CEO and co-founders retaining direct control over product, operations, and culture.
Product and engineering are separated at the C-suite level, enabling parallel velocity in design-led innovation and platform scalability. GTM maturity is increasing through a dedicated CMO, while finance and operations support global expansion and enterprise adoption. The absence of divisional P&L owners suggests continued emphasis on a unified product platform rather than business-unit autonomy.
- Founder-led CEO
- Product and engineering split at C-suite
- Functional global structure
The comparison
How Canva stacks up
Compared with peers like Figma, Notion, and Miro, Canva shows similar founder retention and strong product centralization. Unlike some later-stage peers, Canva has not fully split into divisional GM structures, indicating continued platform-first scaling.
Current signals
What changed recently
No confirmed recent executive changes publicly announced as of the current quarter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who leads Canva?
Canva is led by co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins.
What does Canva do?
Canva provides a cloud-based design platform that enables individuals and teams to create visual content easily.
What type of organizational structure does Canva use?
Canva uses a functional, founder-led organizational structure.
Who reports directly to Canva's CEO?
Key functional leaders including product, technology, operations, finance, and marketing report directly to the CEO.
How can this org chart be used for scaling planning?
The org chart highlights areas where Canva could add divisional or regional leadership as it scales enterprise and international operations.
Sources
Reference
Cite this page
If you reference this page in research, analysis, or news writing, use one of the formats below. Citation includes the SEC filing source where applicable.
APA 7th
Creately. (2026). Canva organizational structure. Creately. Retrieved , from https://creately.com/org-chart/major-startups/canva/MLA 9th
"Canva Organizational Structure." Creately, April 1, 2026, https://creately.com/org-chart/major-startups/canva/. Accessed .Chicago 17
Creately. "Canva Organizational Structure." Last modified April 1, 2026. https://creately.com/org-chart/major-startups/canva/.Permanent URL: https://creately.com/org-chart/major-startups/canva/ · last updated 2026-04-01