Staff Software Engineer - Video Performance - (Bay area only)

Canva • San Francisco, CA

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design. 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.

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.

Lead end-to-end performance strategy across the video creation lifecycle — from timeline scrubbing and real-time preview through to export and rendering. You’ll identify bottlenecks and drive measurable improvements to the editing experience. Profile and optimize critical paths in our C++ native engine, GLSL/HLSL shaders, and ML-powered effect pipelines to reduce latency and memory footprint. Design and build observability systems including internal profiling tools and automated regression suites that capture key performance metrics (FPS, jank, memory usage, thermal behavior) across Web, iOS, and Android. Define and own performance metrics that directly reflect user-perceived fluidity and creative flow — ensuring performance remains a first-class product feature. Collaborate across teams with Video Engine and AI engineers to evolve system architecture for improved parallelism, cache locality, and asynchronous processing. Leverage hardware acceleration using platform-specific APIs (Metal, Vulkan, WebGPU) to unlock maximum performance across diverse consumer hardware.

Requirements

• Treat performance as a product feature.
• Optimized complex, multi-threaded systems and can reason clearly about trade-offs between latency, memory, and maintainability.
• Think in systems. Understand how frontend, backend, and native engines interact to create seamless user experiences at scale.
• Strong proficiency in C++
• Strong understanding of CPU/GPU architectures, memory hierarchies, and SIMD
• Experience working with graphics APIs such as OpenGL, Metal, or Vulkan
• Fluent in profiling and diagnostics. Used tools such as Perf, Instruments, Chrome DevTools, Systrace, or custom telemetry systems to uncover bottlenecks and guide engineering decisions.
• Understand multimedia fundamentals. Experience with video codecs (H.264/5, VP9, AV1), container formats, and frame-accurate seeking and composition.
• Use data to validate impact. Analyze telemetry at scale to identify regressions and measure improvements.
• Elevate those around you. Influence peers and partner teams to prioritize performance and long-term quality.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with modern systems languages (e.g., Rust) is a plus

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end performance strategy across the video creation lifecycle — from timeline scrubbing and real-time preview through to export and rendering.
• Identify bottlenecks and drive measurable improvements to the editing experience.
• Profile and optimize critical paths in our C++ native engine, GLSL/HLSL shaders, and ML-powered effect pipelines to reduce latency and memory footprint.
• Design and build observability systems including internal profiling tools and automated regression suites that capture key performance metrics (FPS, jank, memory usage, thermal behavior) across Web, iOS, and Android.
• Define and own performance metrics that directly reflect user-perceived fluidity and creative flow — ensuring performance remains a first-class product feature.
• Collaborate across teams with Video Engine and AI engineers to evolve system architecture for improved parallelism, cache locality, and asynchronous processing.
• Leverage hardware acceleration using platform-specific APIs (Metal, Vulkan, WebGPU) to unlock maximum performance across diverse consumer hardware.

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