About the Role/Specialty

As a Staff Engineer on the Native Video team, you'll be at the epicentre of revolutionary technology development that will reshape how video content is created and rendered within Canva's ecosystem. We're seeking industry-leading experts who can hit the ground running with deep video and rendering expertise, bringing proven knowledge from the broader graphics and multimedia industry. Your work will establish the architectural foundations and performance standards that will serve as the backbone for all future video innovations at Canva. This role represents a unique opportunity to architect systems from the ground up, mentor emerging talent, and directly influence the technical direction of one of the world's most popular design platforms. You'll be joining at the perfect moment to shape not just the technology, but the culture and practices of this transformative team.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• You'll architect and implement major subsystems within the core Native Video Engine, making critical technical decisions that will influence the platform for years to come
• You'll lead complex rendering pipeline development, optimising for performance, memory efficiency, and cross-platform compatibility
• You'll mentor and guide junior engineers, sharing your expertise in graphics programming, performance optimisation, and system design
• You'll collaborate with product teams to translate user needs into technical specifications, ensuring our engine delivers exceptional creative experiences
• You'll establish coding standards, development practices, and architectural patterns that will scale with our growing team
• You'll research and evaluate emerging technologies in graphics and video processing, keeping Canva at the cutting edge of rendering innovation
• You'll drive technical discussions and decision-making processes, balancing performance, maintainability, and feature requirements

What we're looking for

• Deep expertise in graphics (Vulkan, OpenGL, DirectX) with hands-on experience building high-performance rendering systems
• Proven experience in shader development, performance optimisation, and multi-threaded graphics programming
• Strong background in memory management, real-time rendering, and rendering pipeline architecture
• Experience with video processing, encoding/decoding, and multimedia frameworks
• Solid programming skills using system languages (C++, Rust)
• Track record of leading technical projects and mentoring engineering teams
• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex graphics and performance issues
• Experience working with cross-platform development and hardware-specific optimisations