Staff Software Engineer: Rendering & Export Systems

Canva; Sydney; On-site; AUD 210,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Canva is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to own the rendering and export pipeline that converts designs into downloadable files. You will tackle the hardest rendering problems, upstream-change strategies, and PDF accessibility decisions across enterprise exports.

You’ll mentor peers, drive architecture, and collaborate across the Editing Platform to ensure reliable, scalable downloads for millions of users weekly.

Qualifications

• Deep experience with Chromium or other browser rendering engines.
• Comfortable with C++ in large third‑party codebases.
• Background in rendering pipelines, graphics programming, or print production systems.
• Strong Java backend engineering skills for a product built on Java.
• Owned a technical domain end‑to‑end: architecture, trade‑offs and consequences.
• Debugged layered systems spanning multiple codebases and languages, guiding others.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction of Canva's design-to-file rendering and export pipeline.
• Be the go‑to expert for the hardest rendering problems and upstream changes.
• Design monitoring and testing to catch Chromium regressions before users.
• Set direction for PDF accessibility and compliance across exported files.
• Lead on export reliability and performance at scale (millions of downloads).
• Mentor engineers through design reviews and debugging sessions.

Skills

Chromium experience

C++ development

Java backend

Rendering pipelines

Mentoring/design reviews

Job description

Canva is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to own the rendering and export pipeline that converts designs into downloadable files. You will tackle the hardest rendering problems, upstream-change strategies, and PDF accessibility decisions across enterprise exports.

You’ll mentor peers, drive architecture, and collaborate across the Editing Platform to ensure reliable, scalable downloads for millions of users weekly.