Canva has announced the appointment of Nirmal Govind as its first Chief Algorithms Officer. Prior to this role, he served as Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MangoAI, an AI driven creative optimisation startup.
In this newly created role, Govind will lead how data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence are used to deliver more personalised and intuitive experiences for Canva’s global community. He supports Canva’s growth as a visual communication platform while ensuring advanced machine learning remains easy to use for both individual users and professional creative teams.
As per the company, by bringing Govind experience in mathematical optimisation and generative AI into its leadership team, Canva strengthens its focus on advancing Creative AI. Working with the wider leadership team, he is expected to play a key role in improving the company’s algorithmic capabilities and making the design experience on the platform more seamless and effective.
Govind joins the organisation with strong experience, including eight years at Netflix where he served as Vice President of Data Science and Engineering. During this time, he led data science initiatives supporting global content, studio operations, and creative production. His expertise in large scale machine learning and creative algorithms positions him well to lead Canva’s next phase of technical growth.
Over the past year at MangoAI, Govind worked on building an AI powered creative optimisation platform for video advertising. He led the development of a closed loop reinforcement learning system that improves video ads using real world performance data, helping increase content effectiveness while reducing the time and cost needed to identify successful creative approaches.
Govind’s career also includes leadership roles as Chief Technology Officer at Fable, which was later acquired by Scribd, and Chief Technology Officer at Lightning Bolt Solutions. Earlier, at Intel Corporation saw him implementing the company’s first real-time production scheduling solutions.
