Product Designer, Khanmigo

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 155 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 teachers who are dealing with the impact that the pandemic had on learning?
• 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 Product Designer to float between our Khanmigo Tutoring and Khanmigo Core Platform teams, focused on designing and shipping AI-driven experiences. The heart of this role is creating and iterating on the ideal tutoring experience, foundational user-facing AI components, and how Khanmigo is used in the classroom by teachers and students.

You will drive product design improvements in partnership with the Staff Product Designer already working in this area and the Principal Product Designer on the Classroom Experience team. Ultimately, we want your help creating and delivering a personalized tutor that supports learning and educating both inside and outside of the classroom.

Some of the things you will work on:

• Sketch, mock up and prototype innovative AI-driven experiences using Figma and Figjam
• Develop content strategy and design system patterns for Khanmigo features and functionality
• Improve accessibility, usability and discoverability of the existing Khanmigo experience
• Help us define a shared vision of what makes a good vs. great AI tutor

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 and ship high-quality products that solve real problems for learners and educators, please don’t hesitate to apply — we’d love to hear from you.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Design and deliver generative AI features and user-facing experiences
• Work closely with Product, Engineering, cross-functional teams and key stakeholders
• Participate in the creation and maintenance of shared design systems
• Play an active role in shipping outstanding experiences as a Design team
• Participate in Design team critiques and work across disciplines with Research and Brand
• Regularly tell the story of your work and why it matters, how it aligns to company objectives, how it drives meaningful engagement and learning
• Write about, present, and share what you have learned, both internally and with the wider Design community via our blog and industry events
• Optional travel: participate in research trips (school visits) led by UXR and District Success, company on-sites, team off-sites

WHAT YOU BRING

• 3-5 years of relevant experience as a product designer
• Experience driving the end-to-end product design process, from problem definition to delivering solutions and measuring success
• Strong generalist skills with strengths in information architecture and interaction design (please show us in your portfolio)
• Experience following WCAG AA guidelines to create accessible design solutions
• Experience using quantitative and qualitative data to make informed design decisions and measure success
• Experience evaluating your own designs through research, conducting user interviews
• Strong teamwork skills, proactively bringing in both designers and cross-functional partners
• Ability to juggle ambiguous and broad problems/opportunities along with smaller, well-defined projects
• Great verbal and written communication skills for technical and non-technical partners, internally and externally
• Bias toward action, and can move quickly designing solutions that balance technical effort with a good experience
• Excited to become an expert in designing generative AI-driven products
• Bonus if you have experience designing educational products, content-forward experiences, and/or if you’ve worked in a K-12 classroom before

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/information you need to move work forward and unblock yourself
• High comfort level working within a strong top-down product and pedagogical vision led by our CEO, Sal Khan, and our Chief Learning Officer, Kristen DiCerbo, PhD
• Able to balance the immediate tactical needs of helping deliver and ship features with scouting ahead for what’s next
• Comfortable with frequent change and ambiguous situations, like you’d experience in a startup
• 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.
• 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 $98,018 - $119,934 USD / $122,522 - $149,917 CAN. 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. Exceptional performers in this role who make an outsized contribution can make well in excess of this range.  Additional incentives are provided as part of the complete total rewards package in addition to comprehensive medical and other benefits.

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.