Senior Research Engineer - Datasets

Location: Team Engineering

Team: Country San Francisco / United States

About the Role

At Canva, our mission is to empower the world to design, and we're building the foundational datasets that will power our next-generation generative AI models. As a Senior Research Engineer - Datasets on our Engineering team in San Francisco, you'll be the data expert ensuring our models truly understand human creativity, taste, and intent. This hybrid role combines deep technical expertise with a passion for design, owning the end-to-end lifecycle of high-quality datasets—from curating nuanced human feedback on design aesthetics to pioneering ML-driven synthetic data generation that scales our capabilities. You'll dive into statistical analysis to uncover insights from complex data, design scalable pipelines for human evaluation workflows, and create robust evaluation systems that measure alignment between our AI outputs and real user preferences. Collaborating closely with designers, product teams, and fellow engineers in our innovative, supportive culture, you'll conduct experiments that demonstrate tangible impact on design quality, identify model failure modes, and guide the future of creative AI at Canva. This is a unique opportunity for a data-first thinker with strong aesthetic sensibilities to shape the ground truth that defines AI creativity. Join our collaborative San Francisco team where your work will directly fuel magical design experiences for millions, backed by Canva's flexible hybrid model, competitive compensation ($220,000 - $280,000 base), and a culture that celebrates bold ideas, wellbeing, and shared success through equity and comprehensive benefits.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable pipelines for processing and curating large datasets of human design feedback
• Research and develop ML models to generate high-quality synthetic data for training and fine-tuning generative AI
• Own the design and implementation of human evaluation workflows, including guidelines and quality rubrics
• Prepare datasets for automated evaluation systems and analyze outputs for model performance and human alignment
• Design and analyze experiments to measure real-world impact of models on design quality
• Conduct deep-dive analyses into model performance to identify failure modes and guide development
• Apply statistical methodologies to identify trends, validate model performance, and derive actionable insights
• Pioneer machine learning techniques for synthetic data that aligns with human taste in design
• Collaborate cross-functionally with design, product, and engineering teams to ensure datasets fuel innovative AI capabilities
• Drive alignment analysis between model outputs and user preferences in creative contexts

Required Qualifications

• Strong aesthetic sense with background or demonstrated passion for visual design or human-computer interaction
• Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow
• Extensive experience designing and implementing large-scale data processing workflows using Pandas and data warehousing solutions like Snowflake
• Solid understanding of statistical methods including experimental design, A/B testing, and quality evaluation systems
• Experience owning end-to-end dataset lifecycle management for AI/ML models
• Proven ability to conduct statistical analysis, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis on complex datasets
• Background in curating and processing large-scale human feedback data

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) for data storage, processing, and MLOps
• Experience with MLOps practices and tools for data versioning, lineage, and pipeline automation
• Experience with generative AI and synthetic data generation techniques
• Ability to develop data visualization or data collection interfaces using TypeScript or Python
• Prior work in design-focused AI or creative technology domains

Required Skills

• Python programming expertise
• ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow)
• Large-scale data processing (Pandas, Snowflake)
• Statistical analysis and hypothesis testing
• Experimental design and A/B testing
• Human feedback data curation
• Synthetic data generation with generative AI
• Data pipeline development
• Evaluation framework design
• Visual design sensibility
• HCI principles
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Problem-solving in ambiguous environments
• Attention to design quality and aesthetics
• Cloud data platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Benefits

• Equity packages to share in Canva's success
• Comprehensive health benefits plans supporting your wellbeing
• 401(k) retirement plan with generous company contribution
• Inclusive parental leave policy for 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 offering flexibility from our San Francisco hub
• Vibrant, collaborative culture with moments of magic and connectivity

Canva is an equal opportunity employer.