Director, Design

Khan Academy; Mountain View (CA); Remote; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dynamic design leader to guide a talented team in creating exceptional learning experiences. This role involves strategic oversight and hands-on collaboration with product management and engineering to realize a visionary product roadmap. You will inspire and mentor a diverse design team, fostering a culture of feedback and continuous improvement. Join a mission-driven organization dedicated to providing a free, world-class education to learners everywhere. If you are passionate about making a difference and thrive in a collaborative environment, this opportunity is perfect for you.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in technology-based product design and user experience.
• Strong leadership skills with a focus on mentorship and team growth.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of designers to execute product vision and strategy.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to enhance user experiences.

Skills

Product Design

Leadership

User Experience Research

Strategic Thinking

Communication

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Design or related field

Relevant certifications in UX/UI

Tools

Design Software (e.g., Figma, Sketch)

Analytics Tools

Job description

Mountain View, CA / Remote friendly (Continental US + Hawaii + Canada Only)

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 are at seven different levels of math achievement. 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 help students with learning gaps catch up to their grade level?
• How do we center schools serving under-resourced communities in our product design and development?
• How do we reach and support more school districts so our learning experience gets used in more classrooms?
• How might AI help us solve learning challenges that have been intractable until now?

The heart of this role is building a high functioning team and working collaboratively as part of the product leadership team to drive impact by delivering amazing learning experiences across Khan Academy’s offerings. You will lead a team of product designers, visual designers, and UX researchers who are hard at work designing experiences for/with students, teachers, and school administrators.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Reporting to our Chief Learning Officer, help Khan Academy develop our offerings through design leadership.
• Lead the ~20 person design team in operationalizing the product vision and strategic priorities. Together with product management and engineering leadership, own execution of our product roadmap.
• Collaborate with our founder and other product leaders to drive the product strategy and vision which lays out our unique path for engaging teachers and learners and driving accelerated learning; working collaboratively across content, product management, engineering, learning science and research & efficacy.
• Own the design team’s budget, working closely with finance and leadership to forecast needs, manage headcount planning, and making strategic trade-offs to maximize impact while maintaining sustainability.
• Seamlessly shift between high-level visionary strategy and detailed execution, ensuring alignment across all team deliverables.
• Know our customers and products inside and out. Inspire others to a similar depth of knowledge - and to use customer/product insights to guide product decisions.
• Motivate and grow our world-class design team to deliver best-in-class offerings in service to user growth and accelerated learning outcomes.
• Drive data-informed decisions Lead our User Experience Research team in developing insights from their work and collaborating with our analytics and efficacy teams to provide information to the organization at the time it is useful for driving decisions.
• Provide and develop a culture of feedback where designers are encouraged to iteratively improve on their work.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Deep, relevant experience in technology-based product design, building and shipping joyful user experiences.
• Strong leader of people, with proven ability to lead teams, prioritizing mentorship and career growth.
• Able to collaborate, influence, and quickly build trust and respect across the organization.
• Exceptional communicator, collaborator, and facilitator who enjoys leading through influence.
• Strategic thinker who can build frameworks and connect ideas.
• Track record of combining customer-focus with mission alignment.
• Demonstrated experience supporting and enabling a user experience research team.
• A positive mindset that is energized by ambiguity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a keen eye for detail.
• Motivated by the Khan Academy mission “to provide a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere.