Senior 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:

• Leading and growing a team of high-performing engineering managers and senior engineers focused on performance across Canvas Video experiences creating an environment where people can do the best work of their lives.

• Defining and driving the long-term performance strategy for Canvas 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.

Youre probably a match if

• You have 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.

• You bring deep technical expertise in performance engineering systems optimization or platform engineering with experience working on performance-critical products at scale.

• You have strong systems thinking across frontend backend native platforms rendering engines or multimedia systems and can effectively navigate complex technical trade-offs.

• You have successfully developed and executed multi-year technical strategies that delivered measurable improvements in user experience platform scalability or engineering efficiency.

• You are skilled at influencing across organizational boundaries aligning diverse stakeholders around shared goals and driving execution through ambiguity.

• You communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to audiences ranging from engineers to executive leadership.

• You use data experimentation and customer insights to guide decisions and measure impact balancing long-term architectural investments with pragmatic business outcomes.

Nice to have:

• 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.

About the team

The Video Group at Canva is on a mission to make professional-quality video creation accessible to everyone. Were 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 Canvas 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 youll 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.

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

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 $251000 to $329000. 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