Principal Experience Architect

Khan Academy • San Mateo, HI

7d • Remote

About The Position

Khan Academy is seeking an experienced Experience Architect (Principal Product Design Specialist) to join their Design team. This role is crucial due to the expansion of Khan Academy's product offerings, which now span multiple products, tools, and touchpoints for students, teachers, parents, and district administrators. The Experience Architect will be responsible for understanding and designing the overarching system, ensuring seamless transitions between different user experiences and products. This involves designing the underlying structure, including taxonomies, navigation models, mental models, and cross-product patterns, to create a cohesive product experience rather than a collection of disparate features. The role requires close collaboration with the Director of Design, product designers, PMs, and engineering leads, acting as both a hands-on contributor and a strategic advisor to maintain a clear "big picture" perspective.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in product design, UX architecture, or UX strategy.
• Strong track record in information architecture, ecosystem- and multi-platform interaction modeling, and systems-level design work, ideally across complex, multi-sided platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to see how a whole product ecosystem fits together and translate that view into clear, actionable structures (maps, models, frameworks).
• Excellent visual, interaction, and structural design skills.
• Track record of guiding designers, PMs, and engineers toward shared, coherent decisions without formal authority.
• Experience designing for environments with multiple user types, roles, and permission structures (enterprise, B2B2C, marketplace, or platform products).
• Ability to make abstract architectural concepts tangible and compelling to both design peers and non-design executive stakeholders.
• 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.
• Submitting a portfolio highlighting relevant background and experience is required.

Nice To Haves

• EdTech experience (preferred).
• Familiarity with K-12 education, school district structures, or other regulated/high-stakes environments is a strong plus, but not required.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the end-to-end product interaction model and related information architecture across Khan Academy's products, including navigation systems, permission and role models, and vocabulary.
• Ensure new features extend the existing architecture rather than fragment it.
• Map and design journeys that span multiple products and user roles (student, teacher, parent, district admin), identifying and addressing breakdowns, conflicting mental models, and opportunities for consolidation or simplification.
• Build and maintain artifacts such as experience maps, service blueprints, experience architecture diagrams, and design patterns to make the ecosystem understandable to the organization.
• Act as a senior voice on the Design Leadership Team, influencing major product decisions with a focus on long-term coherence and scalability.
• Partner with design managers, PMs, and technical architects to ensure architectural decisions are grounded in user and district needs.
• Develop lightweight frameworks, guidelines, and review processes to help embedded product designers align with the broader architecture, focusing on coaching and influencing.
• Contribute hands-on by prototyping, wireframing, or redesigning critical cross-cutting flows (e.g., navigation, onboarding, account and role management) when necessary.
• Utilize AI tools such as Claude Cowork to complete work efficiently.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries
• Ample paid time off as needed
• 8 pre-scheduled Wellness Days in 2026
• Remote-first culture
• 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
• Opportunity to work on high-impact products that are already defining the future of education
• Opportunities to connect through affinity, ally, and social groups
• 401(k) + 4% matching
• Comprehensive insurance, including medical, dental, vision, and life

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed