Senior Software Engineer - Web Engine Team - Infra
ExternalPrepare for this interview
EliteAI-generated questions, company research, and talking points tailored to this role
About the role
The Web Engine Infra team is essentially the Video Export team at Canva. We own and manage the end-to-end process of exporting Canva designs to MP4 or GIF. This covers the full backend pipeline from design input through to rendered video output, including scene composition, rasterisation, output processing, and integration with the Native Video Engine (NVE). Our systems handle millions of video exports per day and we are responsible for making sure those exports are fast, correct, and cost-efficient. The work is deeply technical and infrastructure-focused, spanning Kubernetes worker orchestration, AWS infrastructure management, monitoring and observability, Terraform-managed deployments, and performance engineering. We sit within the Video Platform subgroup and work closely with teams across Video. We value pragmatic problem-solving, clear communication, and taking ownership of production systems. As a Senior Backend Engineer on Web Engine Infra, you will focus primarily on reliability, performance, and cost efficiency of the video export backend. This is an infrastructure-heavy role where you will spend your time investigating production issues, improving monitoring, optimising resource usage, and building the tooling and automation that keeps a tier 1 service running well. You will work closely with other engineers on the Web Engine team, as well as cross-functional partners across Video, Cloud Compute, Core Export, NVE, and Data Science. This role requires comfort with ambiguity, strong debugging instincts, and a genuine interest in understanding how systems behave under load. Other stuff to know We see AI as a powerful amplifier of creativity and technology at Canva. We're evolving how we assess AI skills in our Technology hiring experience - you'll tackle interactive, real-time challenges that reflect the kind of work we do. In some interviews, you may also be asked to solve a problem using an AI tool to show how you approach challenges with tech by your side. Your recruitment partner will walk you through what to expect. We make hiring decisions based on your experi