Senior Research Scientist (AI Design Generation)

Location: Sydney, Australia; preferred to be based in the Sydney office

Company

Canva is a design platform developing AI-assisted creative tools for hundreds of millions of users.

What you will do

• Train and evaluate generative models, including large language and multimodal models, for design generation.
• Design and run experiments covering model architecture, training methods, and data.
• Build evaluation methods and benchmarks for measuring generative design quality.
• Investigate model quality issues, failure modes, and gaps against user and business needs.
• Translate research findings into techniques suitable for production and collaborate with product teams on model launches.
• Own scoped research projects from problem framing through validation or deployment, and communicate findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience fine-tuning large language and multimodal models at scale in an industrial research setting.
• Experience working with large-scale data pipelines, training objectives, generative quality metrics, and multi-GPU training and evaluation.
• PhD in AI, machine learning, or a related field plus at least two years of industry experience, or at least six years of industry experience without a PhD.
• Ability to independently frame and solve ambiguous research problems and deliver validated results.

Nice to have

• Background in diffusion models or image generation.

Culture & Benefits

• Equity package.
• Inclusive parental leave for parents and carers.
• Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance supporting wellbeing, social connection, and office setup.
• Flexible leave options.
• All interviews are conducted virtually.