Staff Frontend Engineer - Editing Foundations (Rust)

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. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Auckland, New Zealand. However, you have a choice in where and how you work, 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 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 Team
The Editing Group at Canva is responsible for the core design experience that powers millions of creations every day. From intuitive design tools to real-time collaboration, this group ensures that Canva’s editor remains smooth, scalable, and feature-rich. Engineers in the Editing Group tackle complex challenges like rendering performance, interactive design elements, and seamless cross-platform editing, all while keeping the experience intuitive for users of all skill levels. Whether it’s enhancing text capabilities, refining image editing, or optimising the user interface, the Editing Group is at the heart of Canva’s mission to make design simple and accessible.

This specific team within the group is at the forefront of Canva’s performance-focused efforts, ensuring that the design editor remains fast, responsive, and seamless for users across the globe. We develop and optimize rendering pipelines, text and graphics integration, and state management solutions to support a world-class design experience.

What you'll be doing:

• Design, develop, and deploy novel solutions to our rendering technologies using Rust alongside wGPU, Data Oriented Design, and WebAssembly. This will ensure we increase performance, portability, and reduce overheads across all devices, low-to-high tier mobile and desktop.
• Build and optimize text, integration, graphics, and state management features, ensuring smooth and efficient rendering performance.
  • Text: Implement advanced text layout, shaping, and rendering techniques.
  • Graphics: Develop image and SVG preparation and rendering pipelines.
  • State Management: Design and refine entity-component system (ECS) implementations targeted for Wasm and Canva’s specific use case.
  • Integration: Collaborate with data model owners to efficiently transfer JS-side model data to a Rust-side render tree.
• Research, advocate for and implement novel ways of achieving superior performance under unique constraints.
• Take ownership of projects, improve processes, and proactively drive initiatives that contribute to team and company goals.
• Identify opportunities for cross-team collaboration to unlock new insights and innovations.

You may be a match if you have:

• Experience with Rust, C++, or C for performance-driven development.
• Proficiency in frontend development (TypeScript/JavaScript) and integrating native code via Wasm.
• Passion for writing performance-focused code, with a deep understanding of asynchronous programming, data structures, solution design, and architecture patterns.
• Passion for performance debugging and benchmarking, ensuring efficient and optimized solutions.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively within a team, communicate ideas clearly, and contribute to shared goals.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with experience in breaking down complex projects into actionable tasks.
• (Optional) Experience in game engine development or working with Entity Component Systems (ECS) and other data-oriented architectures.
• (Optional) Strong background in graphics programming using WGPU, WebGL, OpenGL, Vulkan, or similar technologies.

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, home 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.

Please note that interviews are predominantly conducted virtually.