Senior Engineering Manager, Video Performance (Bay Area only)

Canva • San Francisco, CA

30d • $251,000 - $329,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

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:
Leading and growing a team of high-performing engineering managers and senior engineers focused on performance across Canva's Video experiences, creating an environment where people can do the best work of their lives.
Defining and driving the long-term performance strategy for Canva's Video Group, ensuring our products remain fast, reliable, and scalable as we continue to expand AI-powered capabilities and serve hundreds of millions of users globally.
Partnering closely with leaders across Video Engine, AI Research, Product, Design, and Platform teams to align performance investments with company priorities and user outcomes.
Establishing performance as a first-class engineering principle by building shared accountability, frameworks, and operating rhythms that enable teams across Canva to proactively identify and address performance challenges.
Driving large-scale performance initiatives across web, native, and rendering systems, balancing immediate user-impacting improvements with long-term platform investments.
Building and evolving performance measurement frameworks, telemetry systems, and engineering health metrics that enable data-driven decision making across the organization.
Influencing technical direction through architecture reviews, strategic planning, and executive-level discussions to ensure new capabilities are designed with scalability, efficiency, and maintainability in mind.
Supporting career development, succession planning, and organizational growth while fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
The Video Group at Canva is on a mission to make professional-quality video creation accessible to everyone. We're building powerful creative tools that help millions of people tell stories, communicate ideas, and bring their visions to life through video.
The Performance team sits at the heart of this mission, ensuring that innovation never comes at the expense of speed, reliability, or user experience. We work across multiple disciplines and technologies to solve some of Canva's most complex performance challenges, from rendering and playback systems to AI-powered workflows and platform scalability.
As a Senior Engineering Manager based in the Bay Area, you'll play a critical leadership role in shaping both the technical direction and organizational growth of this space, helping Canva deliver exceptional experiences to users around the world.

Requirements

• Extensive experience leading engineering teams and engineering leaders in fast-paced, product-driven environments, with a demonstrated track record of building healthy, high-performing organizations.
• Deep technical expertise in performance engineering, systems optimization, or platform engineering, with experience working on performance-critical products at scale.
• Strong systems thinking across frontend, backend, native platforms, rendering engines, or multimedia systems, and can effectively navigate complex technical trade-offs.
• Successfully developed and executed multi-year technical strategies that delivered measurable improvements in user experience, platform scalability, or engineering efficiency.
• Skilled at influencing across organizational boundaries, aligning diverse stakeholders around shared goals, and driving execution through ambiguity.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to audiences ranging from engineers to executive leadership.
• Use data, experimentation, and customer insights to guide decisions and measure impact, balancing long-term architectural investments with pragmatic business outcomes.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading teams working on video technologies, rendering systems, gaming engines, or other real-time performance-sensitive platforms.
• Experience with cross-platform technologies including C++, WebAssembly, graphics pipelines, or native mobile platforms.
• Familiarity with performance optimization challenges related to Generative AI, model inference, and AI-powered user experiences.
• Deep understanding of mobile performance ecosystems, profiling tools, and performance monitoring platforms.
• Experience scaling engineering organizations during periods of rapid growth and organizational change.

Responsibilities

• Leading and growing a team of high-performing engineering managers and senior engineers focused on performance across Canva's Video experiences, creating an environment where people can do the best work of their lives.
• Defining and driving the long-term performance strategy for Canva's Video Group, ensuring our products remain fast, reliable, and scalable as we continue to expand AI-powered capabilities and serve hundreds of millions of users globally.
• Partnering closely with leaders across Video Engine, AI Research, Product, Design, and Platform teams to align performance investments with company priorities and user outcomes.
• Establishing performance as a first-class engineering principle by building shared accountability, frameworks, and operating rhythms that enable teams across Canva to proactively identify and address performance challenges.
• Driving large-scale performance initiatives across web, native, and rendering systems, balancing immediate user-impacting improvements with long-term platform investments.
• Building and evolving performance measurement frameworks, telemetry systems, and engineering health metrics that enable data-driven decision making across the organization.
• Influencing technical direction through architecture reviews, strategic planning, and executive-level discussions to ensure new capabilities are designed with scalability, efficiency, and maintainability in mind.
• Supporting career development, succession planning, and organizational growth while fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Equity packages
• Health benefits plans
• 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

What This Job Offers

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