Notice to applicants:
We have seen a rise in recruitment scams. Please note that outreach from Khan Academy recruiters will only come from the [redacted].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.
THE ROLESearch 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
COMPENSATIONAt 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.
