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 155 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 are searching for an experienced research scientist with a focus on machine learning to join our team. The Khan Academy Efficacy and Research team is responsible for rigorous efficacy research as well as cutting-edge R&D work that can improve teaching and learning on our platform. You will join our team to expand our ML capabilities, improve existing models, and develop new ones to solve real-world problems and optimize teaching and learning for Khan Academy users. At Khan Academy, the models and tools you build will impact the lives of millions of learners and teachers around the world.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Identify and implement improvements for models underlying recommender systems. 
• Monitor the performance of the existing models in production. 
• Retrain/update models based on changes to input data (eg. changes to content).   
• Train and fine-tune large-scale DL/ML models for various prediction and classification tasks (some examples include):
1. Recommendation engine for the next exercise/video to create a personalized learner experience (recommender models).  
2. Models for student/teacher attrition/disengagement. 
3. Identifying characteristics of our exercises/questions that lead to struggle/disengagement.   
4. Using ML techniques to develop and improve Khan Academy’s knowledge graph.
• Use natural language processing (NLP) techniques to:  
1. Study the effectiveness of Khanmigo (our AI tutor) interactions with students.
2. Analyze data from students’ free-form responses to infer/learn misconceptions and drive item/content improvement.    
• Partner with engineers on model testing, deployment, and calibration.
• Serve as an in-house expert on DL/ML tools/techniques to consult on ML projects of adjacent teams and validate external partnerships.  

WHAT YOU BRING

• 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.
• Strong Python programming skills
• Deep understanding of current NN architectures, especially for sequence data (e.g. transformers, encoder-decoder, recurrent neural networks)
• Experience with knowledge tracing models is strongly preferred 
• Fluency with ML libraries like Pytorch or Tensorflow (Pytorch preferred)
• Deep understanding of mathematical and statistical principles underlying ML (e.g. linear algebra, gradient descent)
• Strong skills in SQL and data wrangling (to prepare training data)
• 3+ years of experience training large ML/DL models for real-world tasks is a plus
• Experience working with engineering/product to deploy large ML models is a plus
• A degree in a technical field such as computer science, statistics, or equivalent

PERKS AND BENEFITS

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

• Competitive salaries
• Ample paid time off as needed – Your well-being is a priority.
• Remote-first culture - that caters to your time zone, with open flexibility as needed, at times
• 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 and the opportunity to work on high-impact products that are already defining the future of education
• Opportunities to connect through affinity, ally, and social groups
• And we offer all those other typical benefits as well: 401(k) + 4% matching & comprehensive insurance, including medical, dental, vision, and life

At Khan Academy we are committed to fair and equitable compensation practices, the well-being of our employees, and our Khan community. This belief is why we have built out a robust Total Rewards package that includes competitive base salaries, and extensive benefits and perks to support physical, mental, and financial well-being.

The target salary range for this position is $165k-$185k USD / $206k-$231k CAN. The pay range for this position is a general guideline only. The salary offered will depend on internal pay equity and the candidate’s relevant skills, experience, qualifications, and job market data. Exceptional performers in this role who make an outsized contribution can make well in excess of this range.  Additional incentives are provided as part of the complete total rewards package in addition to comprehensive medical and other benefits.

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

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.