Khan Academy

Khan Academy

Principal Experience Architect

San Mateo, CA / Remote (Continental US + Hawaii + Canada Only) · Principal

Sponsorship not specified$182k-$204kDetected 18 days ago
RESTProduct StrategyResearchLeadershipCommunicationMentoringPublic Speaking

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odds of building a lasting career here

56Sponsors, lottery-bound
Cap-exempt (no lottery)0
Sponsors this role72
Entry-level history0
PERM / green-card track0
Lottery odds (Level IV)94
Fits your clock70

Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.

Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.

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About the role

  • You will be the person who sees the whole system:
  • You're not designing individual screens or flows day-to-day (though you can, and will when it matters).
  • You're designing the underlying structure-the taxonomies, navigation models, mental models, and cross-product patterns-that make Khan Academy feel like one coherent product rather than a collection of features.

Responsibilities

  • Ecosystem and information architecture: Own and evolve the end-to-end product interaction model and related information architecture across Khan Academy's products-navigation systems, permission and role models, and the vocabulary we use to describe things.
  • Cross-product experience design: Map and design the journeys that span multiple products and user roles (student, teacher, parent, district admin), identifying where handoffs break down, where mental models conflict, and where consolidation or simplification would meaningfully improve the experience.
  • Systems thinking and pattern-setting: Build and maintain the artifacts that make the ecosystem legible to the rest of the org-experience maps, service blueprints, experience architecture diagrams, and design patterns-so that product teams can make locally good decisions that also add up to a coherent whole.
  • Strategic advisory and design leadership: Act as a senior voice on the Design Leadership Team, weighing in on major product decisions with an eye toward long-term coherence and scalability.
  • Partner with design managers, PMs and technical architects to ensure architectural decisions are grounded in real user and district needs.
  • Governance without gatekeeping: Develop lightweight frameworks, guidelines, and review processes that help embedded product designers align with the broader architecture-coaching and influencing rather than mandating, since you won't own every team's roadmap.
  • Demonstrated ability to zoom out from individual features to see how a whole product ecosystem fits together, and to translate that view into clear, actionable structures (maps, models, frameworks) that others can build on.
  • Excellent visual, interaction, and structural design skills.

Requirements

  • NOTE: Submitting a portfolio with your application is required.
  • Comfortable with ever-shifting priorities and ambiguous situations, like you'd experience in a startup
  • Deep IA and systems expertise: 12+ years of experience in product design, UX architecture, or UX strategy, with a strong track record in information architecture, ecosystem- and multi-platform interaction modeling, and systems-level design work-ideally across complex, multi-sided platforms.
  • Ecosystems thinking: Demonstrated ability to zoom out from individual features to see how a whole product ecosystem fits together, and to translate that view into clear, actionable structures (maps, models, frameworks) that others can build on.
  • Strong craft foundation: Excellent visual, interaction, and structural design skills. You can move fluidly between high-level architecture and detailed execution when needed.
  • Cross-functional influence: A track record of guiding designers, PMs, and engineers toward shared, coherent decisions without formal authority over their teams-through clarity, credibility, and collaborative problem-solving.
  • Complexity management: Experience designing for environments with multiple user types, roles, and permission structures (enterprise, B2B2C, marketplace, or platform products are all relevant backgrounds).
  • Communication and storytelling: Ability to make abstract architectural concepts tangible and compelling to both design peers and non-design executive stakeholders.
  • EdTech experience (preferred): Familiarity with K-12 education, school district structures, or other regulated/high-stakes environments is a strong plus, but not required.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Nice to have

  • Systems thinking and pattern-setting:
  • Governance without gatekeeping:
  • Hands-on craft when it counts:
  • Roll up your sleeves to prototype, wireframe, or redesign critical cross-cutting flows (e.g., navigation, onboarding, account and role management) when the problem is foundational enough to warrant direct involvement.
  • may change as business and team needs evolve.
  • Deep IA and systems expertise:
  • Ecosystems thinking:
  • Strong craft foundation:

Compensation

  • The compensation band for this role is $181,654 - $204,361USD annually for candidates based in the United States and $245,471 - $276,155 CAD annually for candidates based in Canada.
  • The pay range for this position is a general guideline only.

Benefits

  • 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
  • Generous parental leave
  • 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
  • 401(k) + 4% matching & comprehensive insurance, including medical, dental, vision, and life
  • The salary offered will depend on internal pay equity and the candidate's relevant skills, experience, qualifications, and job market data.
  • 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 team includes people from academia, traditional/non-traditional education, big tech companies, and tiny startups.
  • 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.

Company info

  • Sal's TED talk from 2011
  • Sal's TED talk from 2015
  • Sal's TED talk from 2023
  • 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
  • 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
  • http://www.khanacademy.org/about/the-team
  • Live & breathe learners
  • We deeply understand and empathize with our users.
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This listing is sourced directly from Khan Academy's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.