Fast Facts

Khan Academy is seeking a Staff Product Designer for a 30-month fixed-term role focused on developing AI-driven reading comprehension tools for secondary classrooms, aiming to enhance user engagement and learning outcomes.

Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include creating end-to-end design artifacts, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and enhancing product usability and engagement.

Skills: Required skills include strong interaction design, prototyping skills, experience with product design, exceptional communication, and the ability to work in dynamic environments.

Qualifications: Preferred qualifications include at least 10 years of relevant experience and familiarity with English Language Arts education.

Location: Remote work available for US candidates; based in Mountain View, CA.

Compensation: $152908 - $173002 / Annually

ABOUT KHAN ACADEMY

Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission to deliver a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Our proven learning platform offers free, high-quality supplemental learning content and practice that cover Pre-K - 12th grade and early college core academic subjects, focusing on math and science. We have over 181 million registered learners globally and are committed to improving learning outcomes for students worldwide, focusing on learners in historically under-resourced communities.

OUR COMMUNITY 

Our students, teachers, and parents come from all walks of life, and so do we. Our team includes people from academia, traditional/non-traditional education, big tech companies, and tiny startups. We hire great people from diverse backgrounds and experiences because it makes our company stronger. We value diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as necessary to achieve our mission and impact the communities we serve. We know that transforming education starts in-house with learning about ourselves and our colleagues. We strive to be world-class in investing in our people and commit to developing you as a professional.

THE ROLE

Imagine being a teacher in Sarasota, Florida with a classroom full of 6th graders who haven’t had a normal year of school or learning since before the COVID pandemic. It’s the reality of so many educators and students who use Khan Academy – and our team is uniquely positioned to help them when they need it most.

We have no end of fascinating challenges that can only be solved with a deep understanding of our users, diligent product & UX thinking, and a strong drive to make a positive impact. Some questions we’re working on answering right now are:

• How do we support district teachers and administration with the resources they need to improve reading comprehension?
• How do we help students with learning gaps catch up to their grade level?
• How do we center schools serving historically under-resourced communities in our product design and development?
• How do we reach more school districts so our learning experience gets used in more classrooms?
• …and more

The best part? Our work really matters: catch Sal talking to CNBC about low math and reading test scores.

We’re looking for a Staff Product Designer (30 months fixed-term) to join a newly formed Language and Literature team. The heart of this role is driving the end-to-end design strategy and solutions for efficacious, AI-driven reading comprehension and writing solutions for secondary classrooms. We’re looking for someone who can approach a suite of products as a system – not just mockups and prototypes, but work cross-functionally to meet business objectives and create a competitive advantage in the market. 

Some of the things you will work on immediately:

• Increasing engagement and usability of the flagship Writing Coach product
• Develop AI reading skill practice activities for teacher and learner in-classroom use
• Design tools to better support humanities teacher workflows

You will play a vital role on an inclusive, small but mighty Design team, helping us fulfill the mission of the organization: to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. We genuinely care about people and value compassion in our everyday interactions. You’ll be able to be yourself, feel valued, supported, learn and grow, no matter how experienced you are.

If you’re looking for the opportunity to shape the future of learning by shipping high-quality tools and solutions that help solve real problems for learners and educators, please don’t hesitate to apply — we’d love to hear from you.

What you’ll do:

• Leverage your product design and systems thinking skills to form and advocate for a clear Design POV for a newly formed team rapidly experimenting with ELA solutions.
• Create end-to-end design artifacts, across customer journey mapping, wireframing, low-high fidelity mockups, rapid prototyping, to test hypotheses around solutions impacting reach and engagement.
• Partner closely with Product Management, Engineering, User Research, Content, and Partnerships to iterate on existing products and design new experiences.
• Integrate useful generative AI features into new experiences that support the Jobs-to-be-Done of ELA Teachers
• Set a standard of operational excellence by driving the design side of projects effectively through strong project management, lightning-fast execution on design iterations, and clear communication of validated rationale.
• Join the cross-functional group that maintains our design systems, propose changes and additions to our design systems, review what other designers propose and help maintain internal consistency and usability.
• Build alignment across diverse teams by being able to successfully present ideas to a range of teams and stakeholders across Khan Academy.
• Cultivate a growth mindset (another one of our values) by soliciting feedback on solutions from key stakeholders and learning how to partner effectively with Brand and Visual Design to ensure what you ship looks and feels like Khan Academy.
• Invest in our org by mentoring, coaching and developing both your Design team comrades and your cross-functional partners.
• Write about, present, and share what you have learned, both internally and with the wider Design community via our blog and industry events.

WHAT YOU BRING

• You have at least 10+ years of relevant experience on an in-house product design team.
• You are outstanding across interaction design, prototyping, and information architecture, with strong visual design chops.
• You have the ability to juggle ambiguous and broad problems/opportunities along with smaller well-defined projects.
• You are a critical participant in design reviews, both in delivering feedback to teammates to strengthen their work, but also in soliciting feedback at every step of the process.
• You have exceptional verbal and written communication skills for technical and non-technical partners, internally and externally.
• You are comfortable in ambiguous situations and dynamic environments that run similar to a startup, where you regularly interact with and gather feedback from Senior Leadership.
• You are scrappy, have a bias toward action, and love moving fast.
• You know how to build strong relationships cross-functionally and bring people into the conversation when their input and buy-in is crucial.
• You bring a lean approach to product design and regularly ask yourself: how do we learn quickly and ship regularly? What’s the most concise experience we can deliver that still provides value?
• Ideally, you have prior understanding of English Language Arts education and/or experience designing for complex, user-facing content experiences.

Qualities we value in ourselves, and those who join our team:

• Introspective, mature, low-ego, and emotionally intelligent
• Growth mindset, willingness to learn and to teach others
• Proactively seek out the people and info you need to move work forward and unblock yourself
• High comfort level working within a strong top-down product vision led by our CEO, Sal Khan
• Able to balance the immediate tactical needs of helping deliver and ship features with scouting ahead for what’s next
• Comfortable with ever-shifting priorities and ambiguous situations, like you’d experience in a startup
• Proven cross-cultural competency skills demonstrating self-awareness, awareness of other, and the ability to adopt inclusive perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors to drive inclusion and belonging throughout the organization.
• Willing to roll your sleeves up and pitch in when a project goes off-script
• Excited about education and engaging learning experiences, deeply curious about how and why people learn

NOTE: Submitting a portfolio with your application is required. We're looking for a portfolio that highlights the parts of your background and experience that are relevant to the job description. Applications without a portfolio link or attachment (plus password if required) will not be considered.

PERKS AND BENEFITS

We may be a non-profit, but we reward our talented team extremely well! We offer:

• Competitive salaries
• Ample paid time off as needed – Your well-being is a priority
• 8 pre-scheduled Wellness Days in 2026 occurring on a Monday or a Friday for a 3-day weekend boost
• Remote-first culture - that caters to your time zone, with open flexibility as needed, at times
• Generous parental leave
• An exceptional team that trusts you and gives you the freedom to do your best
• The chance to put your talents towards a deeply meaningful mission and the opportunity to work on high-impact products that are already defining the future of education
• Opportunities to connect through affinity, ally, and social groups
• And we offer all those other typical benefits as well: 401(k) + 4% matching & comprehensive insurance, including medical, dental, vision, and life

At Khan Academy we are committed to fair and equitable compensation practices, the well-being of our employees, and our Khan community. This belief is why we have built out a robust Total Rewards package that includes competitive base salaries, and extensive benefits and perks to support physical, mental, and financial well-being.

The target salary range for this position is $152,908 - $173,002 USD. The pay range for this position is a general guideline only. The salary offered will depend on internal pay equity and the candidate’s relevant skills, experience, qualifications, and job market data. 

MORE ABOUT US

• Sal’s TED talk from 2011
• Sal’s TED talk from 2015
• Sal's TED talk from 2023
• Our team: http://www.khanacademy.org/about/the-team

OUR COMPANY VALUES

Live & breathe learners

We deeply understand and empathize with our users. We leverage user insights, research, and experience to build content, products, services, and experiences that our users trust and love. Our success is defined by the success of our learners and educators.

Take a stand

As a company, we have conviction in our aspirational point of view of how education will evolve. The work we do is in service to moving towards that point of view. However, we also listen, learn and flex in the face of new data, and commit to evolving this point of view as the industry and our users evolve.

Embrace diverse perspectives

We are a diverse community. We seek out and embrace a diversity of voices, perspectives and life experiences leading to stronger, more inclusive teams and better outcomes. As individuals, we are committed to bringing up tough topics and leaning into different points of view with curiosity. We actively listen, learn and collaborate to gain a shared understanding. When a decision is made, we commit to moving forward as a united team.

Work responsibly and sustainably

We understand that achieving our audacious mission is a marathon, so we set realistic timelines and we focus on delivery that also links to the bigger picture. As a non-profit, we are supported by the generosity of donors as well as strategic partners, and understand our responsibility to our finite resources. We spend every dollar as though it were our own. We are responsible for the impact we have on the world and to each other. We ensure our team and company stay healthy and financially sustainable.

Bring out the joy

We are committed to making learning a joyful process. This informs what we build for our users and the culture we co-create with our teammates, partners and donors.

Cultivate learning mindset

We believe in the power of growth for learners and for ourselves. We constantly learn and teach to improve our offerings, ourselves, and our organization. We learn from our mistakes and aren’t afraid to fail. We don't let past failures or successes stop us from taking future bold action and achieving our goals.

Deliver wow

We insist on high standards and deliver delightful, effective end-to-end experiences that our users can rely on. We choose to focus on fewer things — each of which aligns to our ambitious vision — so we can deliver high-quality experiences that accelerate positive measurable learning with our strategic partners.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or Veteran status. We value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we encourage candidates from historically underrepresented groups to apply.

As part of this commitment, Khan Academy will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact [email protected]