Creative Performance Director Jobs in California

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hello, 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 global HQ is in Sydney, Australia, and as we continue to grow in our largest global market, we’ve made our way from down under to San Francisco.
Our Jackson Square campus blends the neighborhood’s vibrant downtown charm with Canva’s signature flair. The space is designed for both deep work and collaboration, along with spaces for Canvanauts to relax, recharge, and connect. We offer flexibility in how and where you work. We trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

What you’d be doing in this role

As Canva scales change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.

At the moment, this role is focused on:

• Turning campaign briefs, audience insights and performance data into distinctive creative concepts for paid social across Meta, TikTok, YouTube and other channels.

• Writing high-performing hooks, scripts, static copy, carousels and longer-form video content designed to capture attention and drive action.

• Planning and running self-directed shoots for UGC-style, creator-led and direct-to-camera content, including sourcing and directing talent.

• Editing and iterating high volumes of short-form video quickly, using strong judgement around pacing, structure, captions, sound and storytelling.

• Reviewing creative performance across metrics such as hook rate, hold rate, CTR and conversion, and turning those insights into clear hypotheses for the next round of work.

• Remixing and repurposing existing creative into new variations, testing different angles, formats and messages to improve performance.

• Partnering closely with strategists, marketers and media partners to keep creative decisions connected to campaign goals and audience needs.

• Raising the creative bar by bringing strong craft judgement, sharing learnings generously and helping turn successful experiments into repeatable playbooks.

You're probably a match if

• • You have 5+ years of experience across performance creative, copywriting, video production, or content creation, with a strong focus on paid social.

  • You have a portfolio of YouTube, Meta, or TikTok ads that demonstrate strong performance. You’ve got the polish, and the results.

  • You have experience creating and remixing UGC-style content into ads that convert.

  • You’re analytically minded: comfortable in dashboards, confident with performance metrics, and able to connect creative decisions to outcomes.

  • You have a deep understanding of platform dynamics, formats, and what actually makes people stop scrolling.

  • You’re a strong communicator who can present creative rationale clearly to stakeholders.

  • You can work at speed and scale, managing multiple projects and tight turnarounds without dropping quality.

About the team

Canva’s Growth Creative team sits at the intersection of creativity, performance, and scale. We create high-performing work across video, copy, static, UGC-style content, and everything in between - always with a clear focus on what drives impact.

We move quickly, test often, and use performance data to sharpen our thinking and improve the next piece of work. Great creative and great data go hand in hand here, and the team is constantly learning, experimenting, and raising the bar.

You’ll join a team that values strong craft, curiosity, and momentum with plenty of opportunity to shape how performance creative evolves at Canva.

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 range 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

• Health benefits plans to support you and your wellbeing

• 401(k) retirement plan with company contribution

• 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.

At Canva we value fairness, and we strive to provide competitive, market-informed compensation whilst ensuring internal equity within the team in each region. We make hiring decisions based on your skills, experience and our overall assessment of what we observed and learnt in the hiring process. The target salary range for this position is $172,000 to $199,000. When calculating offers, we make salary decisions based on market data and candidates' skills and experience.

Other stuff to know

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills, merit and business needs, in compliance with applicable local laws.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don’t feel like your skills quite match what’s listed above - we still want to hear from you!

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 conducted virtually.

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.