Staff Software Engineer (Video C++)

TL;DR

Staff Software Engineer (C++/Video): Developing and maintaining high-performance C++ services and distributed systems for Canva's audio and video processing platform with an accent on multimedia pipelines and scalability. Focus on optimizing video ingestion, transcoding, and delivery for millions of global users.

Location: Hybrid; must be based in Sydney, Australia

Company

Canva is a global design platform redefining how the world experiences design.

What you will do

• Develop and maintain high-performance C++ services, frameworks, and tools for audio and video processing.
• Design and implement distributed systems to ingest, process, store, and deliver multimedia content globally.
• Collaborate with engineers, product managers, and designers to enable exceptional video editing and playback experiences.
• Optimize multimedia processing pipelines for reliability, performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.
• Build new platform capabilities to support the rapidly growing video and multimedia ecosystem.
• Drive engineering excellence through testing, code reviews, and operational best practices.

Requirements

• Strong commercial experience building highly scalable and performant backend systems using C++.
• Deep grounding in computer science fundamentals, including concurrency, multithreading, and memory management.
• Experience designing and operating distributed systems and scalable backend architectures in cloud production environments.
• Proficiency with modern video codecs such as H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP9, or AV1.
• Deep experience with FFmpeg and/or GStreamer, including source-level debugging and custom patch development.
• Must be based in Sydney, Australia.

Nice to have

• Contributions to FFmpeg, GStreamer, or other open-source multimedia projects.
• Experience optimizing video playback via adaptive bitrate streaming (DASH, HLS, or CMAF).
• Experience tuning encoding pipelines for quality, storage efficiency, and delivery performance.
• Experience working with Java-based services in large-scale distributed environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Equity packages to share in the company's success.
• Inclusive parental leave policy supporting all parents and carers.
• Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance for wellbeing, social connection, and office setup.
• Flexible leave options to recharge and support personal needs.
• Hybrid work model balancing remote flexibility with in-person collaboration in Sydney.