Engineering Manager Video Performance (Bay area only)

What youd be doing in this role

As Canva scales change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think thats all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things youll 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 Canvas 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.

Youre 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.

Nice to have:

• 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

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 San Francisco youll join a leadership group that values clarity mutual respect and people-first management creating space for both technical excellence and sustainable growth.

Whats in it for you

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but youll 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.

Heres a taste of whats 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 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 $175000 to $270000. 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 dont feel like your skills quite match whats 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 for more info.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time