Lead Research Scientist - Video & Audio Generative AI

As Canva grows, so does the impact and opportunity of our AI-powered features. We’re looking for a Research Lead to coach a team of world-class scientists, build on our foundational model roadmap, and turn academic breakthroughs into delightful product experiences. If you thrive in bridging deep research with practical application, and you love helping others grow while solving hard technical problems—this could be the role for you.

You will lead and grow a team of high-performing research scientists who are advancing the future of AI at scale. Your focus will be on setting strategic research direction, coaching others to deliver impactful scientific contributions, and ensuring the translation of research into meaningful product capabilities. You’ll champion both scientific excellence and scalable impact, bridging foundational model innovation with real-world deployment across Canva’s platform.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is passionate about cultivating talent, shaping a research vision, and partnering cross-functionally to embed cutting-edge AI into delightful user experiences.

At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Coaching and mentoring a high-performing team of research scientists.
• Setting research strategy in alignment with Canva’s AI and product goals.
• Guiding technical direction across foundational model development, experimentation, and evaluation.
• Partnering cross-functionally to ensure research translates into product impact.
• Representing Canva in the global AI community through publications, talks, or open-source contributions.

You’re probably a match if you:

• Have led research or applied science teams, with a strong track record of coaching and impact.
• Possess expert knowledge and experience with GANs, Diffusion Models, VAEs, and Autoregressive Models.
• Are deeply skilled in ML, AI, or foundational model development and training —and still enjoy being hands-on.
• Excel at translating cutting-edge research into practical, scalable solutions.
• Bring strategic thinking and scientific rigour to project direction and problem solving.
• Thrive in collaborative environments and communicate clearly with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Stay current with research trends and are energised by continuous learning.