Research Lead

Join to apply for the Research Lead - Evaluations role at Canva

Overview

As Canva grows, so does the impact and opportunity of our AI-powered features. We’re looking for a Research Lead to coach a team of world-class scientists, build on our foundational model roadmap, and turn academic breakthroughs into delightful product experiences. If you thrive in bridging deep research with practical application, and you love helping others grow while solving hard technical problems—this could be the role for you.

About The Role

You will lead and grow a team of high-performing research scientists who are advancing the future of AI at scale. Your focus will be on setting strategic research direction, coaching others to deliver impactful scientific contributions, and ensuring the translation of research into meaningful product capabilities. You’ll champion both scientific excellence and scalable impact, bridging foundational model innovation with real-world deployment across Canva’s platform. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is passionate about cultivating talent, shaping a research vision, and partnering cross-functionally to embed cutting-edge AI into delightful user experiences.

At The Moment, This Role Is Focused On

• Coaching and mentoring a high-performing team of research scientists and machine learning engineers.
• Owning the evaluation strategy - Design and run robust evaluation frameworks—quality, safety, red-teaming, competitive benchmarking—to guarantee enterprise readiness and user delight at scale.
• Setting research strategy in alignment with Canva’s AI and product goals.
• Guiding technical direction across foundational model development, experimentation, and evaluation.
• Partnering cross-functionally to ensure research translates into product impact.
• Representing Canva in the global AI community through publications, talks, or open-source contributions.

You’re Probably a Match If You

What’s In It For You

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.

Please note that interviews are predominantly conducted virtually.

Details

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Canva by 2x

Get notified about new Lead Researcher jobs in Vienna, Vienna, Austria .

#J-18808-Ljbffr