Staff Software Engineer

Job Description

• Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hello, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte!

Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point.

Where and how you can work

Our flagship office is in Sydney, Australia, but we've made our way from down under, to a hub in San Francisco, which is now home to our US operations. We offer flexibility in how and where you work. We trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

What you’d be doing in this role

As Canva scales change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.

• Designing and evolving our core template engine and schema — a unified data structure that describes video cuts, placeholders, transitions, and effects with frame-accurate precision.
• Building powerful authoring tools and Template Modes that allow designers to define parameters, constraints, and intelligent logic directly within video projects.
• Collaborating on cross-platform rendering to ensure templates are parsed and rendered seamlessly across Web (Wasm/WebGL), iOS, and Android.
• Developing modular, componentized video systems that encapsulate complex VFX, beat-synced audio, and animations into reusable template components.
• Working at the intersection of Generative AI and templates, enabling features like intelligent “Auto-Match,” where a template adapts dynamically to a user’s uploaded content.

You're probably a match if

• You design clean, extensible APIs and data models, and you think in terms of platforms and frameworks rather than one-off features.
• You have strong proficiency in C++ and are comfortable working in TypeScript or JavaScript on a daily basis.
• You have a solid understanding of data structures and know how to represent complex hierarchies — such as non-linear video timelines — using formats like JSON or Protobuf.
• You’re familiar with graphics and video concepts including keyframes, layers, easing functions, alpha compositing, and rendering pipelines.
• You care deeply about usability and craft, and you think about the experience of internal tools just as carefully as the end-user experience.
• You’ve collaborated closely with designers, AI researchers, and platform engineers to build cohesive, scalable systems.

About the team

The Video Group at Canva is redefining how millions of people tell stories. We’re a global, interdisciplinary team of rendering engineers, AI researchers, and product builders working toward ambitious goals. In San Francisco, you’ll join a high-impact team building the performant foundation that enables our creative ambitions.

We value technical excellence, thoughtful collaboration, and building systems that empower creativity for everyone.

What's in it for you?

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but you'll experience lots of moments of magic, connectivity and fun woven throughout life at Canva, too. We also offer a range of benefits to set you up for every success in and outside of work.

Here's a taste of what's on offer:

• Equity packages - we want our success to be yours too
• Health benefits plans to support you and your wellbeing
• 401(k) retirement plan with company contribution
• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents & carers
• An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support your wellbeing, social connection, office setup & more
• Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and supports you personally

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.

At Canva we value fairness, and we strive to provide competitive, market-informed compensation whilst ensuring internal equity within the team in each region. We make hiring decisions based on your skills, experience and our overall assessment of what we observed and learnt in the hiring process. The target salary range for this position is $251,000 to $329,000. When calculating offers, we make salary decisions based on market data and candidates' skills and experience.

Other stuff to know

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills, merit and business needs, in compliance with applicable local laws.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don’t feel like your skills quite match what’s listed above - we still want to hear from you!

When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process. Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.

Qualifications

Additional Information