Staff User Experience Researcher, Foundations and Enablement

Notice to applicants: We have seen a rise in recruitment scams. Please note that outreach from Khan Academy recruiters will only come from the @khanacademy.org domain. Our team does not use Gmail or other personal accounts for contacting potential candidates. Khan Academy will never solicit money, equipment fees, or sensitive financial information at any stage of the hiring process. We also do not work with external recruiting agencies, so outreach from headhunters presenting opportunities on behalf of Khan Academy is illegitimate. Please always check the email domain and cross-reference the position with the official Khan Academy Careers page to confirm an opening is valid. 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 We’re looking for a Staff UX Researcher to join our Design team. The heart of this role is not just conducting research, but building the high-performance engine that powers user understanding across our entire product. You will be the architect of our "People Who Do Research" (PWDR) program, empowering our Design team to conduct their own tactical research while you provide the methodological rigor, technical guardrails, and strategic oversight. We are looking for an expert who can lead our transition into AI-enhanced research operations—acting as the essential "Human-in-the-Loop" to ensure that as we accelerate our workflows, our insights remain grounded, ethical, and highly actionable. You will play a vital role in scaling our impact, serving as a coach and consultant to product teams as they navigate the complexities of U.S. school districts. By building the playbooks and knowledge systems that turn raw data into institutional wisdom, you will help us fulfill the mission of the organization: to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. WHAT YOU’LL DO PWDR Program leadership and enablement: Refine and scale our "People Who Do Research" program. You will empower designers and product triads to conduct high-quality tactical UXR research (both qual and quant) by providing the playbooks, training, and mentorship necessary to maintain rigorous standards across the team. AI strategy and research operations: Design, propose, and manage a research tech stack (including Dovetail) powered by responsible AI. You will implement automated workflows for recruiting, synthesis, and insight distribution, serving as the UXR "Human-in-the-Loop" authority to ensure AI-generated outputs are grounded, ethical, and accurate. Cross-product research, synthesis, and leadership: Act as the Design Leadership Team’s expert on customer and user profiles, end-to-end user journeys, and forward-looking research. You will synthesize insights that span multiple product surface areas to identify "connective tissue," strategic gaps, and opportunities that go beyond the scope of individual embedded researchers or designers on