Engineering Manager - Video Performance (Bay area only)

Canva • San Francisco, CA

16h

About The Position

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design. Hey, 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 and now Video teams. 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. At the moment, this role is focused on: Hiring, mentoring, and supporting a specialized team of performance and systems engineers, fostering a culture of technical rigor, thoughtful decision-making, and continuous improvement. Shaping the long-term performance roadmap for the Video Group and prioritizing high-impact initiatives — from low-level engine improvements to real-time AI optimization. Partnering closely with Video Engine, AI Research, Product, and Design teams to ensure performance is considered early and often in product development. Championing performance-aware engineering practices across the broader organization and building shared accountability for speed and reliability. Driving delivery of performance-related improvements and internal tooling, helping the team focus on the most meaningful user-impacting bottlenecks. Defining and tracking key performance indicators aligned with Canva’s global goals, and communicating progress and insights clearly to cross-functional and senior stakeholders. Contributing to technical design reviews to ensure new features are built with scalability, efficiency, and long-term maintainability in mind. You're probably a match if You have proven experience leading and developing engineering teams in fast-moving, product-focused environments. You bring strong end-to-end systems thinking across frontend, backend, and native engines, particularly in video or other performance-critical applications (e.g., gaming engines, multimedia platforms, OS-level systems). You can translate high-level performance ambitions into clear, actionable engineering roadmaps that drive measurable user impact. You communicate complex technical topics in a way that builds alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders. You balance long-term architectural quality with pragmatic delivery, always grounding performance work in user experience outcomes. You are comfortable using telemetry, experimentation, and A/B testing to evaluate and validate the impact of technical improvements. About the team The Video Group at Canva is on a mission to make professional-quality video creation accessible to everyone. We move quickly, experiment thoughtfully, and continuously integrate new AI capabilities into our editor. The Performance Optimization team plays a critical role in ensuring that innovation never comes at the expense of reliability or usability. In San Francisco, you’ll join a leadership group that values clarity, mutual respect, and people-first management — creating space for both technical excellence and sustainable growth. 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 $175,000 to $270,000. 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.

Requirements

• You have proven experience leading and developing engineering teams in fast-moving, product-focused environments.
• You bring strong end-to-end systems thinking across frontend, backend, and native engines, particularly in video or other performance-critical applications (e.g., gaming engines, multimedia platforms, OS-level systems).
• You can translate high-level performance ambitions into clear, actionable engineering roadmaps that drive measurable user impact.
• You communicate complex technical topics in a way that builds alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• You balance long-term architectural quality with pragmatic delivery, always grounding performance work in user experience outcomes.
• You are comfortable using telemetry, experimentation, and A/B testing to evaluate and validate the impact of technical improvements.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with cross-platform engines (C++, WebAssembly, native platforms)
• Familiarity with performance considerations in Generative AI and ML model deployment
• Deep knowledge of mobile (iOS/Android) performance ecosystems and profiling tools
• Experience in a high-growth environment where priorities evolve quickly

Responsibilities

• Hiring, mentoring, and supporting a specialized team of performance and systems engineers, fostering a culture of technical rigor, thoughtful decision-making, and continuous improvement.
• Shaping the long-term performance roadmap for the Video Group and prioritizing high-impact initiatives — from low-level engine improvements to real-time AI optimization.
• Partnering closely with Video Engine, AI Research, Product, and Design teams to ensure performance is considered early and often in product development.
• Championing performance-aware engineering practices across the broader organization and building shared accountability for speed and reliability.
• Driving delivery of performance-related improvements and internal tooling, helping the team focus on the most meaningful user-impacting bottlenecks.
• Defining and tracking key performance indicators aligned with Canva’s global goals, and communicating progress and insights clearly to cross-functional and senior stakeholders.
• Contributing to technical design reviews to ensure new features are built with scalability, efficiency, and long-term maintainability in mind.

Benefits

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed