Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Design Import (ANZ remote)

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, with a second campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Auckland, NZ. You have flexibility in how and where you work — whether that's from one of our spaces, from home, or a mix of both. This role is remote-friendly within Australia or New Zealand, so you can choose the setup that empowers you and your team to do your best work.

Job Description

About the Group/Team

The Editing Platform group sits within the Design Experience supergroup and powers the foundations that enable anyone, anywhere, to create beautiful designs with speed and confidence. We build secure, performant, reliable, and scalable platform capabilities that support Canva’s editor and unlock powerful new product experiences.

Within this group, the Design Import team is focused on making it effortless for users to bring their designs into Canva from external tools and formats. We work at the intersection of rendering systems, file parsing, performance engineering, and user experience — ensuring that imported designs are accurate, editable, and production-ready. Our work plays a critical role in reducing friction for new users and deepening value for teams and enterprises migrating to Canva.

About the Role/Specialty:

As the first Senior Machine Learning Engineer on Design Import, you’ll be pioneering ML capability within the team. You’ll bring conceptual and practical expertise to complex problems and apply machine learning techniques to improve import accuracy, structure recognition, layout reconstruction, and performance optimization.

You’ll work cross-functionally with backend engineers, rendering experts, product managers, and designers to identify high-impact ML opportunities. As the first MLE in the team, you’ll shape strategy, define best practices, and build scalable ML systems that integrate deeply into Canva’s editor platform.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys building from first principles, and wants to make foundational impact in a high-scale, product-led environment.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• Design, build, and deploy machine learning models that improve the accuracy and quality of design imports at scale.

• Work closely with engineers to integrate ML systems into high-performance backend and rendering pipelines.

• Define data strategies — including data collection, labeling approaches, and evaluation frameworks — to continuously improve model performance.

• Take a new perspective on existing import solutions and apply analytical thinking to solve complex, ambiguous problems.

• Contribute to architectural decisions that impact the broader Editing Platform ecosystem.

• Champion experimentation, monitoring, and model observability best practices.

• Collaborate across teams to identify opportunities where ML can unlock step-change improvements in user experience.

What we're looking for:

You’re a strong technical craftsperson who combines deep ML expertise with product intuition. You’re comfortable operating independently and taking ownership of complex problem spaces, while still valuing collaboration and feedback.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has strong experience building and deploying machine learning models in production environments.

• Has hands-on experience with Python and ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and experience shipping scalable systems.

• Demonstrates conceptual and practical expertise in areas such as computer vision, document/layout understanding, structured data extraction, or related fields.

• Is comfortable navigating ambiguity and shaping problem definitions in a fast-scaling environment.

• Thinks beyond model performance — considering system design, latency, reliability, and user impact.

• Communicates clearly and can translate complex ML concepts into actionable engineering decisions.

Additional Information

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.