Machine Learning Engineer – Inference Platform (AU 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. 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, so you can choose the setup that empowers you and your team to do your best work. We’re unable to provide employer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have current, ongoing work rights in Australia.

Job Description

About the Group/Team: We are part of the Generative AI Supergroup, focused on building the foundations that enable Canva to become an AI-first creative partner. Within this, the AI Platform group is responsible for developing scalable infrastructure and tooling that powers machine learning across Canva.

Our Inference Platform team sits at the heart of this mission—ensuring that ML models are deployed, served, and optimised efficiently at scale. We enable fast, reliable, and cost-effective inference so that every user interaction feels instant and magical. By building robust systems that support real-time AI features, we help unlock entirely new creative possibilities for our global community.

About the Role/Specialty: As a Machine Learning Engineer, you’ll focus on building and improving systems that serve machine learning models in production. You’ll work closely with research scientists, backend engineers, and platform teams to ensure models are scalable, reliable, and performant.

This role blends engineering excellence with practical ML knowledge—you’ll be implementing production-grade systems, improving latency and throughput, and contributing to infrastructure that supports Canva’s rapidly growing AI capabilities. Your work will directly impact how quickly and effectively users can access AI-powered features across the platform.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• You’ll design, build, and maintain scalable systems for serving machine learning models in production

• You’ll optimise inference performance, including latency, throughput, and cost efficiency

• You’ll collaborate with ML researchers and engineers to productionise models

• You’ll implement monitoring, logging, and alerting to ensure system reliability

• You’ll contribute to platform tooling that improves developer experience and ML workflows

• You’ll identify opportunities to improve infrastructure and drive technical enhancements across the platform

• You’ll provide on call support to the services supported by the team

What we're looking for

We’re looking for someone who is passionate about building reliable, scalable systems and is excited by the opportunity to work at the intersection of machine learning and infrastructure. You enjoy solving complex technical problems and are motivated by delivering real-world impact at scale.

You likely have experience working with backend systems and some exposure to deploying or supporting machine learning models in production. You’re comfortable collaborating across teams and are eager to learn and grow in a fast-paced, product-driven environment. Most importantly, you bring a growth mindset and a desire to help shape the future of AI at Canva.

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.

All interviews are conducted virtually