Sr. Design Manager, Product

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.

OUR CONTEXT

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 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? 
• …and more

The best part? Our work matters:  see it featured on 60 Minutes recently.

THE ROLE

In this role, you will act as the Senior Design Manager for a group of designers working on ambitious, high-impact experiences across Khan Academy offerings, including those for students, teachers, and administrators. 

As a Senior Design Manager, you’ll be a force multiplier for your reports, applying your senior-level expertise and proven design process as you guide and coach your team across many projects and products. You will also use your strong process and project management skills to improve how our team collaborates with cross-functional teams. You will play a vital role on an inclusive, collaborative Design team, helping us shape and 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. Even if you don’t check every box (no one does), we encourage you to apply.

What you'll do:

• Partner with Product Management, Engineering, Content, Data, Design peers, and other departments to shape the future of our products, beginning with Assessments and District platforms
• Lead a 5-10 person design team in owning the end-to-end product research and design solutions – from IA and journey maps to wireframes, user flows, high-fidelity mockups, clickable prototypes, and everything in between.
• Seamlessly shift between high-level strategic planning and detailed execution across a complex, multi-touchpoint product surface area, 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. 
• Set the bar for delivering high-impact, high-quality products rooted in a deep understanding of the business and customer needs. 
• Manage,  coach, and develop  individual contributors, from associate to principal levels, in both user experience research and product design. Engage in coaching, career planning, career path development, and performance management of this critical team.
• Provide and develop a culture of feedback where designers are encouraged to iteratively improve on their work 
• Cultivate a growth mindset by contributing to design best practices for organizational needs such as career ladders, design critique, lean research, advanced design methods, integrating our brand into the product, and more.
• Drive communication with  cross-functional peers, directors, and teammates, ensuring clarity and alignment up, down, and across.

WHAT YOU BRING

• You have 10+ years of relevant experience, with at least 6 years of experience as an individual contributor on an in-house product design team, and at least 4 years of experience as a people manager of product/UX designers.
• You have senior expertise in design methods and strategies, with skills across service design, complex software product design, user research, and modern user interface design.
• You have a wealth of experience with developing and improving the design process, with a keen sense of where we are struggling and proactively applying your expertise to streamline how our team ships world-class design solutions.
• You know how to build strong relationships cross-functionally and bring people into the conversation when their input and buy-in is crucial.
• 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, modeling what it looks like to deliver effective feedback to strengthen design work, as well as soliciting feedback at every step of the process.
• You are comfortable in ambiguous situations and dynamic environments, where you regularly interact with and gather feedback from Senior Leadership.
• You are scrappy, have a bias toward action.
• You have an understanding of common needs and roles in K-12 school districts in the U.S.
• Motivated by the Khan Academy mission “to provide a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere."
• 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.

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

• Introspective, mature, and emotionally intelligent, with excellent communication skills.
• Invested in your own growth and the growth of our team.
• Proactively seek out the people/information you need to move work forward and unblock yourself.
• High comfort level working within a strong product and pedagogical vision.
• Able to balance the immediate tactical needs of helping deliver and ship features with scouting ahead for what’s next.
• Willing to roll your sleeves up and pitch in when a project goes off-script.
• Passionate about education and designing engaging learning experiences, deeply curious about how and why people learn.

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 $181,654 - $227,068 USD / $245,471 - $306,839 CAD. 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 careers@khanacademy.org