AI Visual Design Lead

We’re seeking an AI-Native Visual Design Coach. A senior designer who guides, mentors, and scales a team of AI-visual evaluators, annotation specialists, and creative quality analysts. This role is less about individual hands-on execution and far more about direction, quality leadership, cross-functional alignment, and talent development.

As a key collaborator to Canva’s China-based Research team, this leader ensures that the visual AI models we build (image generation, layout, design, multimodal output) meet a consistently high global standard of design craft. They will also operate as the primary bridge into Canva’s global Content Studio teams, requiring strong written English communication skills, clarity, and influence.

This is a strategic, collaborative role that shapes how Canva defines, measures, and delivers world-leading visual AI.

1. Team Leadership & Coaching

• Lead and develop a team of visual design annotators, evaluators, and AI quality specialists.

• Provide ongoing coaching to elevate visual judgment, consistency, and annotation accuracy.

• Build a culture of continuous learning in AI, design fundamentals, and model behaviour

• Ensure the team’s work is aligned with global quality expectations and project priorities.

2. Quality Governance & Standards Ownership

• Mmaintain visual quality standards, aesthetic guidelines, and annotation frameworks for foundational visual AI research.

• Oversee the creation of high-fidelity datasets that reflect professional design craft.

• Establish scalable QA processes that ensure consistency across projects and contributors.

• Audit team outputs regularly and implements refinements or training where needed.

3. Strategic Partner to Core Research (China)

• Work closely with researchers, data scientists, and product partners in the China Core team.

• Translate visual quality issues into actionable, structured insights for engineers.

• Prioritise feedback loops based on model development timelines and research goals.

• Help Core Research teams understand global user needs, brand expectations, and design nuances.

4. Global Collaboration & Communication

• Serve as the primary communication bridge between the China-based team and global Content design and AI leadership.

• Produce clear, concise written reports, insights, and proposals in English.

• Align with international stakeholders on model quality definitions, annotation requirements, and research direction.

• Represent the China team in global discussions around visual model evaluation, dataset strategy, and creative AI excellence.

5. Process Improvement & Operational Excellence

• Identify opportunities to streamline annotation, scoring, and evaluation workflows.

• Collaborate with tool builders to improve internal annotation and data-quality platforms.

• Introduce best practices for project planning, capacity management, and knowledge sharing.

• Measure team impact and communicate progress to senior leaders.

6. Strategic Influence on AI Model Development

• Advocate for design-centric priorities in foundational model development.

• Surface emerging trends, visual patterns, and edge cases for future research planning.

• Partner with global design leaders to define what “world-leading visual AI” should look like for Canva.

• Ensure new model capabilities align with expected creative behaviors and user value.

Leadership & Coaching

• Experience leading creative or design-adjacent teams, ideally in tech, AI, or digital product environments.

• Ability to mentor team members, build expertise, and maintain a high-quality bar at scale.

• Skilled at giving structured feedback that enhances craft and consistency.

Design Expertise

• Deep understanding of visual design fundamentals (composition, hierarchy, typography, color, layout, creative direction).

• Ability to evaluate visual quality and guide teams toward higher standards.

• Broad understanding of global design styles and culturally diverse aesthetics.

AI & Data Fluency

• Familiarity with generative AI systems, training data workflows, and evaluation methodologies.

• Experience working with cross-functional engineering or research teams.

Communication & Collaboration

• Strong written English communication skills required — clarity, structure, and confidence.

• Ability to translate design feedback into structured input for technical partners.

• Comfortable working across cultures, time zones, and work modes.

Bonus Skills

• Experience coordinating with global teams in matrixed environments.

• Background in design and creative QA

• Knowledge of annotation tool ecosystems or ML data pipelines.

 

 

This role is perfect for designers who are:

• Curious about the future of AI-driven creativity

• Comfortable with both artistic judgment and structured evaluation

• Excited to influence how AI models “see” and “create”

• Skilled in both visual taste and systematic thinking