Staff Software Engineer – Create, Grow - Growth

United States Digital Space LLC; United States; Hybrid; USD 98,322 - 147,483; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity packages

Parental leave

Wellbeing allowance

Flexible leave

Global AI challenges

Job summary

Canva’s Create team is advancing AI-powered marketing experiences for millions of users. You’ll design and operate scalable backend systems powering conversational AI, content generation, and shared platform capabilities across the Grow Group.

You will work with ML engineers and researchers to optimize model-serving, data pipelines, and orchestration while driving reliability and performance improvements in a hybrid Sydney-based setup.

Qualifications

• Significant experience designing, building, and operating high-throughput, low-latency distributed backend systems in production.
• Proficient in Java with strong backend engineering practices and service architecture.
• Strong CS fundamentals: distributed systems, concurrency, performance, scalable design.
• Comfortable working with ML engineers and researchers on model-serving tradeoffs and production AI systems.
• Track record of leading technical initiatives across multiple teams and influencing architecture.
• Excellent communicator who explains complex decisions to tech, product, and infra audiences.
• Mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across teams.

Responsibilities

• Advance backend systems powering AI Ad Reasoner for reliability, observability, scalability and cost efficiency.
• Productionise image/video models via orchestration pipelines, feature flagging, evaluations, and rollout strategies.
• Design and build a shared data platform ingesting data from Google, Meta, TikTok, Shopify.
• Improve AI generation stack performance: orchestration, batching, caching, streaming, routing and model interactions.
• Build reusable backend frameworks for LLM agents, prompt management, evaluation tooling, and asynchronous job orchestration.
• Lead cross-functional tech initiatives spanning Grow, CORE, Inference, AI, Design Agent, and Media teams.
• Set technical direction via architecture reviews, mentoring, and roadmaps focused on reliability and maintainability.

Skills

Java

Distributed systems

Backend engineering

Performance engineering

Cloud infrastructure

ML collaboration

Tools

Spring

Kubernetes

Terraform

Job description

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 Sydney campus is uniquely the company - an extension of our Surry Hills neighbourhood. It’s a thoughtfully designed space with plenty of room to collaborate, focus, and connect. This role is based in Sydney, and we’re looking for someone who calls it home. Our hybrid way of working gives you the flexibility to work remotely and to come together on campus for meaningful in-person collaboration and connection when it matters most. We trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

What you'd be doing in this role

As the company scales, change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. This role offers the opportunity to shape the technical foundations behind the company Grow's AI-powered marketing experiences. You'll work across multiple engineering teams to build highly scalable backend systems that power conversational AI, content generation, and shared platform capabilities used across the Grow Group.

At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Advancing the backend systems that power our AI Ad Reasoner, improving reliability, observability, scalability, latency, and cost efficiency.
• Partnering with the company Original Research \& Exploration (CORE) to productionise cutting-edge image and video generation models through robust orchestration pipelines, feature flagging, evaluations, and rollout strategies.
• Designing and building a shared data platform that ingests and normalises data from advertising and ecommerce platforms including Google, Meta, TikTok, and Shopify.
• Driving performance improvements across the AI generation stack by optimising orchestration, batching, caching, streaming, request routing, and model interactions.
• Building reusable backend frameworks and libraries for LLM agents, prompt management, evaluation tooling, and asynchronous job orchestration that can be adopted across the company.
• Leading cross-functional technical initiatives spanning Grow, CORE, Inference, the company AI, Design Agent, and Media teams to deliver seamless AI-powered creation experiences.
• Setting technical direction through architecture reviews, mentoring engineers, improving engineering excellence, and maintaining a roadmap focused on reliability, maintainability, and operational excellence.

You're probably a match if

• You have significant experience designing, building, and operating high-throughput, low-latency distributed backend systems in production.
• You're highly proficient in Java with strong knowledge of modern backend engineering practices and service architecture.
• You have deep computer science fundamentals, including distributed systems, concurrency, performance engineering, and scalable software design.
• You're comfortable working alongside machine learning engineers and researchers, understanding model-serving trade-offs, inference latency, and production AI systems.
• You have a demonstrated track record of leading technical initiatives that span multiple engineering teams and influencing architectural direction.
• You're an excellent communicator who can clearly explain complex technical decisions to engineering, product, infrastructure, and machine learning audiences.
• You enjoy mentoring other engineers and raising the technical bar across teams through collaboration and technical leadership.

About the team

The Create team sits within the company's Grow Group and is building the next generation of AI-powered marketing experiences for small businesses. Our mission is to help customers effortlessly create high-performing marketing campaigns by combining connected customer data with the company's world-class AI capabilities.

Backend engineers on the team work closely with Machine Learning Engineers and Research Scientists to develop conversational AI systems that generate static and video advertisements, while partnering across Launch, CORE, the company AI, Video Editor, and AI Media teams to deliver seamless experiences across the the company ecosystem. Together, we’re building the technical foundations that will empower millions of businesses to create, publish, and continuously improve their marketing with AI.

What's in it for you?

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard — and we do — but you'll experience plenty of moments of magic, connection, and fun along the way.

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

• Equity packages — we want our success to be yours too.
• Inclusive parental leave supporting all parents and carers.
• Annual Vibe \& Thrive allowance to support your wellbeing, home office setup, learning, and social connection.
• Flexible leave options that empower you to recharge, give back, and thrive both personally and professionally.
• The opportunity to solve highly complex AI and distributed systems challenges while shaping products used by millions of people around the world.

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 the company and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and let us know if there's anything we can do to make our interview process more accessible.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at the company. Even if your experience doesn't perfectly match every qualification, we'd still love to hear from you.

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.