Senior Search & AI Discoverability Engineer (12 month contract, 40 hours/week, $85/hour)

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.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Marketing and Acquisition team operates as a cross-functional engine, partnering closely with Marketing, Philanthropy, Sales, and all product teams to move users from discovery to their first meaningful moment on the platform.

THE ROLE

Search has fundamentally changed. Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude now answer questions directly — often without the user ever clicking a link. At the same time, traditional organic search remains a major acquisition channel for Khan Academy. This role sits at the intersection of both.

As a Senior Search & AI Discoverability Engineer on the Marketing and Acquisition team, you'll own the technical foundation that determines whether Khan Academy's content gets found, indexed, cited, and recommended — by search engines and AI systems alike. You'll spec and ship technical projects. Even if you don't check every box (no one does), we encourage you to apply!

This is a 12-month contract — a full-time opportunity (benefits eligible) designed for someone eager to make meaningful contributions to high-impact education products while continuing to grow professionally.

What you'll do:

• Research and implement GEO/AEO/AIO strategies — optimizing KA's content, metadata, and page structure to appear in AI-generated responses across Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and other LLM-powered surfaces
• Conduct regular technical audits and translate findings into clearly scoped engineering projects with measurable impact
• Build and execute on compelling business cases for product enhancements by combining knowledge of our audiences — learners, teachers, and district administrators — with deep understanding of how search and AI discovery work
• Instrument and monitor discoverability metrics across traditional search (GSC, organic traffic) and emerging AI surfaces
• Partner cross-functionally with Marketing teams to prioritize and sequence discoverability improvements
• Stay current with how LLMs retrieve and cite web content, and bring new techniques back to the team

WHAT YOU BRING

• 5+ years of hands-on technical SEO experience, including direct implementation (not just recommendations)
• Ability to own implementation end-to-end — reading, writing, and shipping code (Go and React preferred) to deliver SEO/GEO/AEO/AIO improvements
• Proven ability to work independently while partnering with engineers, cross-functional teams, and leaders to scope, drive, and deliver SEO initiatives
• Working knowledge of how AI-powered search and answer engines retrieve, rank, and cite content (GEO/AEO/AIO fundamentals)
• Proficiency with tools such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Semrush, and Ahrefs
• Experience with creating actionable insights using a variety of analytics tools including Google Analytics.
• 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.
• Motivated by the Khan Academy mission “to provide a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere."

Nice to have:

• Experience at a content-heavy or edtech platform with high page counts and structured content types
• Experience with international SEO
• Experience using Generative AI / LLMs to build products

COMPENSATION

At Khan Academy we are committed to fair and equitable compensation practices, the well-being of our employees, and our Khan community. The hourly rate for this role is $85/hour USD. Overtime is not anticipated and must be approved by the team in advance. 

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