Procurement Beyond Playbooks: Vinod Kumar on Leading with Curiosity, Clarity, and Courage at Canva
In a company where creativity and speed drive everything, from design to deployment, procurement must do more than keep up; it has to lead. As Technology Sourcing Lead at Canva, Vinod Kumar has embraced this challenge head on. With a background that spans luxury hospitality, banking, and tech, Vinod brings a rare mix of customer centricity, commercial insight, and operational sharpness to the world of technology procurement.
In this interview, he shares how Canva’s fast paced, collaborative culture shapes his sourcing strategy, how AI is already transforming the way procurement adds value, and why building authentic relationships across the business matters more than ever. From navigating SaaS complexities to enabling scale through smart vendor partnerships, Vinod offers a grounded yet future focused perspective on what it really takes to lead procurement in one of the world’s most dynamic tech companies.
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Career Journey: Can you share your career path and what led you to your current role as Technology Sourcing Lead at Canva? What experiences have most influenced your approach to technology procurement?
I started my career in luxury hospitality, working across India, the Middle East, and on cruise lines, an experience that instilled in me a deep focus on customer centricity, cost consciousness, and operational excellence. After a decade, I moved to Australia with the goal of transitioning into the corporate world. I joined one of the country’s largest banks to help transform its Corporate Services team.
That role led me to manage an accelerated supplier consolidation program following a major M&A, and eventually into technology procurement after navigating a particularly challenging software audit. Since then, I’ve led complex negotiations with major software vendors, service integrators, and cloud providers, always with a focus on creating long term value.
Looking back, three key experiences have shaped my procurement approach. Hospitality taught me to always put the customer first. That principle now guides how I design procurement processes, building everything around what internal users truly need, while aligning with the company’s broader strategy. I’ve also learned that success in procurement isn’t about squeezing vendors; it’s about understanding usage patterns and unlocking real ROI. And finally, working at Canva has shown me how essential it is to stay tech savvy and market aware. In a fast growing tech company, procurement must enable innovation, not slow it down.
Why Canva: What attracted you to Canva?
I wanted to join a company that moves fast, solves meaningful problems, and gives me the freedom to truly own my work. Canva delivered on all of that and more.
The first thing that drew me in was the culture. It’s young, dynamic, and deeply collaborative. Everyone thinks like a founder: bold, curious, and unafraid to challenge the status quo. There’s no red tape and no sacred cows. We set a high bar, celebrate wins loudly, and always push for progress over perfection.
That mindset is matched by the scale of what we’re building. Over 243 million people use Canva each month, with more than 35 billion designs created to date. We’re also one of the top AI design platforms globally, and our AI tools have already been used over 18 billion times. As Canva expands into the enterprise space with customers like Salesforce, DocuSign, and eXp Realty embracing Canva Enterprise we’re tackling even more complex and impactful challenges.
From a procurement perspective, that means operating at the intersection of velocity, innovation and real impact. We’re not just ticking boxes. We’re helping shape the future of how people design, collaborate and create. That’s what makes coming to work every day genuinely exciting.
Technology Procurement Strategy: As the Technology Sourcing Lead, how do you align Canva’s technology procurement strategies with the company’s mission to empower everyone to design?
Canva’s mission is to empower everyone to design, and that means technology procurement can’t become a roadblock to innovation.
Our strategy is straightforward: be a trusted partner, understand what teams actually need, and then step back while keeping the right guardrails in place.
We take a growth first approach. We’re not just negotiating for today; we’re planning for the millions more people who will use Canva tomorrow. That means building flexible, scalable agreements that won’t hold us back as we grow.
Second, we aim to make procurement as seamless as possible. While some friction is inevitable in a fast moving environment, our goal is to eliminate unnecessary hurdles. We’ve simplified approvals and created frameworks that empower teams to make swift, sound decisions.
Finally, we prioritise real partnerships, not just vendor relationships. We look for partners who share our values and vision. In some cases, we’ve even invested in these partnerships because we believe in their long term potential.
At Canva, procurement is a catalyst, not a blocker. My role is to ensure our teams have what they need to keep pushing forward so anyone, anywhere, can design with ease.
SaaS Procurement Challenges: Given Canva’s extensive use of SaaS solutions, what are the primary challenges you face in SaaS procurement, and how do you address them to ensure optimal value and compliance?
As a born in the cloud company, SaaS has always powered the way we work, giving our teams instant scalability and access to world class tools. But after a decade of rapid growth, we’ve also learned that the convenience of SaaS comes with its own set of challenges, particularly around cost visibility and control.
AI driven and usage based pricing models make forecasting difficult. SaaS and cloud costs are becoming increasingly intertwined. And with every team able to spin up their own tools, fragmentation and security risks begin to scale quickly.
We’ve addressed this by focusing on volume right sizing, buying only what we need, when we need it and by building a strong Cloud FinOps capability that helps us surface the true cost of our technology decisions.
Our engineering culture is also a major strength. We know what good looks like and use that expertise to negotiate better deals. On the compliance side, we work closely with our Security Trust and Legal teams, using automation and proactive risk assessments to stay ahead of potential issues.
SaaS isn’t going anywhere, but getting the most out of it means treating it like a strategic investment, not just a convenience.
Vendor Selection Criteria: What criteria do you prioritise when selecting technology vendors to partner with Canva, and how do you ensure these partnerships support the company’s growth and innovation goals?
There’s a saying: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” That mindset shapes how we approach vendor selection; the upfront work helps avoid downstream surprises.
The cheapest tool rarely delivers the best value, especially at our scale. We prioritise scalability without the drama of no surprise usage caps, rigid licenses, or inflexible terms that can’t adapt as we grow. A solution that works at 500 people needs to perform just as well at 5,000 and beyond.
We also look for a strong technical fit and a genuine partner mindset. Our engineering teams move quickly, so we need vendors who can keep pace and ideally grow with us. That often leads us to emerging tech companies where we’re among the first major customers. The shared ambition usually results in deeper collaboration than we typically see with larger, more rigid providers.
Security and compliance are table stakes, especially as we expand our AI capabilities. We also value cost transparency, seamless integration, and long term alignment. But above all, we look for partners who make our teams more effective, not just better equipped.
Negotiation Best Practices: Can you share insights into your approach to negotiating technology contracts? What strategies have you found effective in achieving favorable terms for Canva?
Honestly, the best negotiations start long before you’re in the room. It’s less about being tough at the table and more about doing your homework, understanding your goals, the market, and the other side’s levers.
I begin by getting clear on our business priorities, growth plans, and deal breakers. Then I dive into the market, what’s available, what the tech actually delivers, and what likely drives the vendor’s costs. That context helps me understand where there’s room to move.
Before any meeting, I align internally and get signoff on what I can and can’t agree to. That allows me to make real time decisions rather than deferring with a “let me get back to you.”
I’m a firm believer in “don’t ask, don’t get,” but I’m also ready to make smart concessions. The best deals aren’t one sided. When both sides walk away feeling like they’ve won, that’s when you build real, long term partnerships.
And ultimately, the strongest leverage comes from being willing to walk away because you’ve already mapped out your limits.
Cross Functional Collaboration: How do you collaborate with other departments within Canva, such as IT, Legal, and Finance, to ensure a cohesive and efficient technology procurement process?
One of the biggest misconceptions in procurement is thinking we are the decision makers. We are not. We are facilitators, helping smart people make better decisions together.
At Canva, cross functional collaboration comes naturally. Our culture is agile, fast moving, and focused on progress over perfection. We use visual docs (made in Canva, of course) to align on ideas, decisions, and outcomes. Everyone contributes Legal, IT, Finance, Security and Trust so we draw on collective wisdom, not just one perspective.
Our purchase workflow functions like a town square. All teams review requests through their expert lens in a transparent flow. If something stalls, it is never a mystery. Anyone can see what is needed to keep things moving.
For larger purchases, we create dedicated channels with all stakeholders. Everything questions, decisions, trade offs happens in one place. And when the deal is done, we celebrate. A little recognition goes a long way in keeping people energised for the next big project.
The secret is simple. Respect everyone’s expertise, make collaboration seamless, and always share the wins. That is what keeps the engine running.
Risk Management in Tech Sourcing: What measures do you implement to manage risks associated with technology sourcing, particularly concerning data security, compliance, and vendor reliability?
Risk management in tech sourcing isn’t about eliminating risk. It’s about understanding it and making smart trade offs. With millions of users trusting us, we can’t afford to get this wrong.
We’ve embedded risk assessment into our procurement workflow, not as a blocker but as a way to move faster with confidence. Vendors are classified based on the type of data they will access. A design tool that interacts with user content is very different from a backend productivity app, and we treat those risks accordingly.
With AI vendors, we pay particular attention to privacy and data ownership. We want to be crystal clear that user content should never end up training someone else’s model.
On the security front, we work closely with our Security and Trust team. Instead of overwhelming vendors with endless questionnaires, we focus on what matters most encryption standards, data residency, and incident response protocols. For cloud native tools, we dig deeper into multitenancy models and data isolation.
Vendor reliability is about future proofing. We evaluate financial stability, operational resilience, and how vendors have handled past outages or service disruptions.
We know perfect security doesn’t exist, but transparency builds trust. We would rather work with vendors who are honest about their limitations than those who overpromise.
Most risks aren’t technical. They are communication failures in disguise. So we focus on clarity, alignment, and open dialogue from day one.
Impact of AI on Procurement: With the rise of AI and machine learning, how do you see these technologies influencing the future of procurement at Canva? Are there specific AI driven tools or processes you are considering adopting?
AI is already beginning to reshape how we work in procurement, and at Canva, we’re genuinely excited about the potential it holds.
We’re still early in the journey, but adoption has been fast and surprisingly smooth. We’re already using AI to review contracts more efficiently, boost team productivity, and gather sharper market insights. It handles much of the repetitive work, which frees us to focus on strategy, relationships, and better decision making.
Looking ahead, one area we’re particularly excited about is agentic AI tools that don’t just assist but act. We’re testing ways it could support smaller tasks, such as triaging purchase requests, comparing vendors, or kicking off low risk renewals. These processes still involve human oversight, but the goal is to have AI handle more of the heavy lifting.
We’re also exploring how AI can help us stay ahead of vendor risk, streamline documentation, and eliminate busywork throughout the sourcing lifecycle.
AI won’t replace the human side of procurement, but it’s already making us sharper and more proactive. For us, it’s not about whether we’ll use AI, but how far we can take it responsibly and how quickly we can unlock real value.
Advice for Aspiring Procurement Leaders: What advice would you offer to professionals aspiring to lead technology sourcing in dynamic and fast growing companies like Canva?
If you want to lead tech sourcing in a fast growing company, get comfortable being uncomfortable. You will face problems with no playbook, and honestly, that’s the fun part.
Start by getting curious about technology. You don’t need to know how to code, but you do need to understand how things work and why they matter. Spend time with engineers. They love talking about what they’re building, and those conversations will teach you more than any course ever could.
Build strong relationships across the business. Some of the best insights come from casual conversations. People are usually happy to share what they know if you show genuine interest.
Always remember you’re not just negotiating, you’re solving business problems. Be honest about what you don’t know. I’ve learned the most by asking questions, not by pretending to have all the answers.
And finally, invest in your people skills. Procurement is all about relationships. Great leaders know when to push, when to pause, and when to partner.
If you love variety, solving puzzles, and making a real impact, this is the role for you.
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