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

About the role

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 wi

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