Senior Frontend Engineer - Video AI

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.

About the Group/Team

The Video AI team at Canva is at the forefront of revolutionizing online video editing with pioneering AI/ML features. Our mission is to make multimedia storytelling fast, effortless, and enjoyable for everyone.

As we develop incredible new features to boost productivity for our rapidly growing user base, we're looking for talented software engineers to help shape the future of video content creation.  This is your chance to join at a thrilling moment. With technology advancing swiftly, you will have a direct impact on our ambitious plans to scale AI/ML experiences for over 100 million active users.

Canva video boasts one of the largest audiences of content creators worldwide. By integrating innovative "magic" AI capabilities into our product, we empower creators to design exceptional videos. Work within a dynamic full-stack team and make this vision a reality.

About the Role/Specialty

As a software engineer in Video AI, you'll have the exciting opportunity to write high-quality, performant frontend code, and take the lead in evolving our video editor, ensuring it remains modular, extensible, and testable—making it a pleasure to work with. You'll collaborate across various domains and products, offering ample opportunities to connect with diverse teams and experts. If you're passionate about innovation and eager to make an impact, this is a role not to be missed.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• Design, develop and deploy solutions to challenging problems, working closely with other engineers, designers and product managers to deliver features and experiments that will be used by millions of users monthly and make a global impact
• Own the entire lifecycle of the code; design, prototyping, development, testing, maintenance, and subsequent fixes and improvements as required to support the product roadmap
• Collaborate on technical decisions related to our in-browser and cross-platform video editing pipeline
• Developing novel solutions for video and audio composition by leveraging open-source and internal libraries e.g. compositing, filters and effects
• Leveraging browser and native APIs to process high-resolution video and audio content in real-time and faster-than-real-time
• Work closely with product managers, designers, machine learning, frontend and backend engineers to research and develop magic AI features
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and effectively advocate for engineering needs to non-technical stakeholders within the group
• Demonstrate initiative and ownership in achieving goals, improving processes and solutions
• Identify opportunities for cross-team collaboration to work on new ideas and improvements that help achieve our goals

What we're looking for

• Passionate and engaged in the video and audio space – rendering and composition of videos, 2D text rendering, audio manipulations, video encoding and decoding, etc
• Excellent computer science fundamentals
• Experience building audio and video processing technology, ideally with experience deploying across multiple platforms (web, iOS, Android and backend)
• Excited by solving hard problems – cross-platform video editing is a hard problem and requires deep exploration through prototyping and technical problem solving
• Someone who has (or wants to build) an understanding of AI in the context of audio and video applications
• Someone to jump into product development to continually ship value to users
• Excellent communication to build relationships with a diverse group of people and help drive impact across the company

Requirements

• Proficient in JavaScript, with a solid grasp of the web platform
• Skilled in crafting efficient, reusable code for audio and video processing, as well as UI components, including thorough testing
• Experienced in developing robust applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Knowledgeable and experienced in cross-browser and cross-device development
• Possesses a comprehensive understanding of fundamental browser concepts, such as the event loop, bubbling/capturing, and rendering pipeline
• Adept at using GLSL or WebGL for advanced video processing

Bonus Experience

• Audio signal processing knowledge
• Video technology knowledge around filters and effects, dynamic compositing
• HTML video
• Graphics programming
• GLSL / WebGL
• TypeScript (or other typed languages), React and MobX

Don't tick all the boxes? Don't worry about that - nobody does! We’d still love to hear from you! At Canva, we know that great engineers come from a variety of backgrounds, and we value passion, curiosity, and a willingness to learn just as much as specific experience. If you're excited about this role but don’t tick every box, we encourage you to apply, you might a great fit in ways you didn’t expect!

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 stack 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.