Senior Content Creator, Computer Science

ABOUT KHAN ACADEMY

Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization on a mission to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. We already reach millions of students every month and are growing rapidly, and right now we’re hard at work helping learners address any unfinished learning that the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused. We also know that not all communities have been impacted equally by this pandemic, which makes our work focusing on providing equitable solutions to historically under-resourced communities even more important.

WE ARE DRIVEN BY OUR COMMUNITY 

Our students, teachers, and parents come from all walks of life and so do we. We are fun, diverse, quirky people that come from a variety of backgrounds. Our team includes people from academia and from high tech companies and tiny startups. We hire great people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. Valuing diversity, equity and inclusion is necessary for us to actualize our mission and truly impact the communities we serve. We believe that the best way to provide impactful education is to create a diverse team of people from different backgrounds, races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, ages, and experiences. We’re a hardworking team that’s passionate about helping learners and teachers around the globe! We strive to be world class in investing in our people and commit to developing you as a professional. 

THE ROLE

The Computer Science Content Creator at Khan Academy will have the unique opportunity to shape the future of coding education for millions of students around the world. By developing and executing a strategic vision for our coding platform, this individual will play a critical role in leveling the playing field for learners from historically under-resourced communities. By making coding accessible and engaging for middle, high school and college students, we aim to empower them to build their skills from scratch, all the way through to pursuing exciting internship opportunities, and furthering their education in the field. As part of this role, they will also be responsible for thinking about ways to integrate coding into different domains, such as Math and Science, to make these subjects more engaging and interesting for learners. 

What you'll do:

• Lead the strategic vision for Khan Academy's coding platform, transforming it into the go-to resource for students who want to learn to code
• Collaborate with engineers to build user-friendly components that create an engaging and accessible learning experience
• Craft content that is both informative and captivating, ensuring students of all skill levels can benefit from our platform
• Stay up-to-date on advancements in computer programming to ensure our platform remains cutting-edge
• Think creatively about ways to integrate coding into different domains to make them more engaging and interesting for learners, working alongside our content team
• Develop course scopes and sequences, including units, lessons, and content assets (articles, videos, exercises, activities)
• Create and curate high quality content on schedule, designing and developing new standards-aligned exercises and articles, leveraging pre-existing resources from Khan Academy and third parties, and scripting (and possibly recording) engaging lesson videos
• Be accountable for content from any contractors and 3rd parties used to build out the courses
• Act as an editorial expert in your content area by reviewing new content, participating in the maintenance of existing content, and working with partners
• Track the performance and usage of content in your courses
• Leverage analytics, community features, and campaigns to attract and retain learners within your domain
• Learn and use our content management system to improve existing courses and build new courses
• Contribute to the long-term strategic direction of Khan Academy’s content efforts by improving upon our processes around content sourcing, sharing insights with other members of the team, and advocating for learners

WHAT YOU BRING

Engineering 

• Several years of experience building world-class product experiences for an interactive web-app, as not only will you be creating content, but also creating the learning components as well. In particular, you have built and maintained scalable backend services, as well as complex, stateful frontend user interfaces (HTML/CSS/JS is a must). Currently, we build with Go, GraphQL, JavaScript, React & React Native, Redux and we adopt new technologies when they’ll help us better achieve our goals.
• Project management skills (e.g. fluent with Google docs and spreadsheets and other tools) and a willingness to learn new tools
• An ability to actually build and/or coordinate the construction of the tools and instructional experiences you envision.

Computer Science Curriculum Design 

• A passion for education and a desire to change the world
• Proven ability to create high-impact computer science instructional content (minimum of 2 years) 
• Strong understanding of how students like to learn in Computer Science and insight into common misconceptions (minimum of 2 years of relevant teaching/tutoring experience)
• Desire to teach at scale, engage a broad array of learners, and question your assumptions about what's most important for learners
• Desire to leverage online tools to publish quickly, gather user feedback, and iterate on content
• Highly analytical and able to make tough prioritization calls in service of most critical metrics
• An entrepreneurial mindset, including a high tolerance for ambiguity, a penchant for experimentation, and a bias toward action
• Strong interest in building replicable systems and iterating on existing systems and curricula to achieve goals and meet deadlines 
• Experience leading collaborative work on time-sensitive projects
• Impeccable command of written communication; an energetic can do attitude as a fluent and efficient content creator, a keen editorial eye for high quality text in exercises and articles, and a knack for empowering, supportive peer review
• Meticulous attention to detail and time management skills

PERKS AND BENEFITS

We may be a non-profit, but we reward our talented team extremely well!

• Competitive salaries
• Ample paid time off as needed – we are about getting things done, not face time
• Generous parental leave
• A fun, high-caliber team that trusts you and gives you the freedom to be brilliant 
• The ability 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
• Affinity groups where Parents, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Women and Gender Minorities, and LGBTQIA+ identified folks come together
• And we offer all those other typical benefits as well: 401(k) + 4% matching & comprehensive insurance including medical, dental, vision, and life

HOW TO APPLY

In addition to submitting a resume, please include a brief cover letter highlighting your most relevant experience and explaining why you’re interested in this job. 

MORE ABOUT US

• Sal’s TED talk from 2011
• Sal’s TED talk from 2015
• 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.