Canva Cuts 1,271 Jobs in 22% Global Restructuring

Australian design platform Canva is cutting 1,271 jobs, or 22% of its workforce, NDTV reported, as the company restructures an organization with more than 5,700 employees across 37 countries, including India.

Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced the decision in an internal memo, calling it the “most difficult moment” in Canva’s 13-year history. The company has not disclosed which teams or locations will bear the deepest reductions, so no team-by-team allocation is available.

What does the 22% cut change for employees?

The restructuring will combine product, growth and platform teams under one product organization. Canva says it will simplify management layers, consolidate overlapping responsibilities, and return to smaller teams with greater ownership and decision-making authority.

For an individual employee, that reorganization means reporting lines and responsibilities may change. It does not identify which functions will lose jobs or how many positions each affected team holds, limiting any reliable read of where an employee’s skills may be redirected.

Sydney will become the primary base for more product teams. Some employees may be asked to relocate, while others could see changes in their roles, making location and role scope immediate practical variables in a job search.

From January, most hybrid employees will also be expected in the office two to three days a week. That marks a major shift from Canva’s previous embrace of flexible and remote work, so departing and remaining staff must plan around a more office-centered operating model.

What support will laid-off employees receive?

Canva’s severance package includes:

• Six months’ salary: Every affected employee will receive at least six months’ salary, inclusive of statutory entitlements (legally required severance), regardless of location.
• MacBook: Employees can keep their company-issued MacBook. Perkins said the aim was to ensure departing staff still had a laptop, especially those without a personal device.
• LinkedIn Premium: Canva will provide 12 months of the subscription to support job searches and networking.
• Career support: Employees receive one-to-one coaching and interview preparation; Canva’s Talent Acquisition team will also help with resumes and interview practice.
• Healthcare: Canva will continue healthcare coverage for 12 months in countries where it offers the benefit.
• Canva Care: The employee assistance programme (EAP), which supports employees and families, will remain available to departing workers for 12 months.

Access to Slack and Gmail will remain until the end of the week, giving departing employees time to notify colleagues and decide how they want to communicate their departure. That access ends earlier than the longer severance and support package.

What do grants and the alumni directory offer?

Under the Canva Collective Fund, departing employees can apply for $10,000 grants to launch a business or undertake a local community project. Canva says it will not seek ownership or equity in anything created with the grants, and applications close December 14.

Canva is also creating an opt-in alumni talent directory. It will share the directory with investors, partners and the company’s wider industry network, giving departing workers a potential route to new opportunities.

For job seekers, the grants and directory address two different needs: seed capital for independent work and access to employers and contacts for continuing employment. Canva has not attached a hiring forecast or placement target to either offer.

Why is Canva cutting jobs now?

Perkins said Canva’s growth slowed for the first time in a decade. Before choosing layoffs, the company explored several alternatives and concluded that smaller changes would not be enough to achieve the restructuring.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is making it easier to generate images, presentations and other visual content, raising questions about how traditional design platforms compete and grow. Canva has been investing heavily in AI features and reorganizing its platform around them, putting the company’s product and workflow choices—not only its headcount—at the center of the reset.

NDTV framed the move as part of a wider technology-sector challenge: reorganizing businesses as growth slows and AI changes products, workflows and workforce requirements.

Investor pressure adds another dimension. Blackbird, Canva’s largest venture backer, reportedly cut the company’s valuation by 17% to $34.9 billion in August 2026. The reported markdown did not come with a revised hiring forecast or a list of roles Canva intends to add.

For workers, the immediate market signal is narrower than the 1,271 headline: Canva is consolidating functions, changing its office footprint and accelerating AI work. It has published neither vacancies nor a forward hiring plan. Employees in product, platform and growth work should expect role and location questions to outlast the announcement, but the source identifies no specific affected roles.

By January, the clearest test of the new operating model will be the two-to-three-day office requirement; until Canva discloses which teams and locations bear the cuts, workers still cannot assess role-specific demand inside the company.