Urgent Search Engineering Director

Company Description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte

Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point.

Where and how you can work

Our flagship campus is in Sydney. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Auckland. But you have choice in where and how you work, we trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

Job Description

What you’d be doing in this role:

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:

- Defining and delivering the long-term AI platform strategy, aligning technical direction with Canva’s broader product and AI research vision.

- Defining and delivering the next-generation AI platform, transforming how AI is developed, evaluated, and deployed at global scale.

- Partnering with leaders across Engineering, Product, and Data to ensure AI enablement across Canva’s ecosystem.

- Coaching and developing a diverse team of engineering leads and senior engineers across our global workforce to achieve technical excellence at scale.

- Ensuring the AI Platform remains reliable, secure, and performant while enabling rapid innovation.

- Acting as a visible champion for AI and platform excellence across Canva and the wider engineering community.

You're probably a match if

- You’re a platform believer and technical innovator at heart, driven to lead and expand foundational AI capabilities at scale that redefine what’s possible.

- You’ve successfully led large-scale engineering or platform teams in AI/ML, data, or infrastructure domains.

- You have deep technical expertise in modern AI platforms, distributed systems, or cloud-native architectures.

- You anticipate challenges before they arise and bring clarity and direction to complex, cross-functional problems.

- You’re known for visible, forward-leaning leadership — shaping direction early and rallying people behind shared goals.

- You balance autonomy with visibility — managing up and across senior leadership confidently and transparently.

- You build cultures of accountability, empowerment, and support, where teams thrive on trust and ownership.

About the team
At Canva, we empower everyone to design, using technology to simplify challenges and enhance the enjoyable parts of the design process. Our Generative AI (GenAI) supergroup exists to make Canva feel less like a tool, but more like a creative partner that wows - an AI collaborator that understands your intent, amplifies your ideas, and helps the world create with joy. You can see our recent launches in canva.com/magic.

The AI Platform Group is a key part of Canva’s Generative AI Supergroup and broader AI ecosystem, laying the technical foundation for Canva’s next wave of transformative AI experience. From massively scalable model serving infrastructure to next-generation training and evaluation platforms, we enable thousands of engineers and product teams to create innovative, responsible, and reliable AI features used by millions around the world.

What's in it for you?

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

Here's a taste of what's on offer:

- Equity packages - we want our success to be yours too

- 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 lifeatcanva.com for more info.

Other stuff to know

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion, as well as how you can enhance Canva and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don’t feel like your skills quite match what’s listed above - we still want to hear from you

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.

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