Senior Motion Designer (Contract)
Senior Motion Designer (Contract)
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$ 80 - 100
1 Vacancy
Job Description
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 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 value diversity equity inclusion and belonging as necessary to achieve our mission and impact the communities 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
Imagine being a teacher in Sarasota Florida with a classroom full of 6th graders who havent had a normal year of school or learning since before the COVID pandemic. Its the reality of so many educators and students who use Khan Academy and our team is uniquely positioned to help them when they need it most.
We have no end of fascinating challenges that can only be solved with a deep understanding of our users diligent product & UX thinking and a strong drive to make a positive impact. Some questions were working on answering right now are:
- How do we support teachers who are dealing with the impact that the pandemic had on learning
- How do we help students with learning gaps catch up to their grade level
- How do we center schools serving historically under-resourced communities in our product design and development
- How do we reach more school districts so our learning experience gets used in more classrooms
- and more
The best part Our work really matters: catch Sal talking to CNBC about low math and reading test scores.
Were looking for an experienced Motion Designer who has helped to define the motion language and systems that speak to and support brands. In addition to motion fundamentals and excellent taste it is important that you have expertise architecting extensible and performant animation systems within Rive that support dynamic and flexible character animations that can react to user input or system data. An understanding of performance is important as these animations will need to perform on many millions of devices sometimes quite old in classrooms all around the world.
This is a contract role for 20 hours/week for 6 months with an hourly rate between $80-100/hr.
Some of the things you will work on:
- Establishing motion language for Khan Academy (really breaking new ground!) that can make experiences shine for the multiple personas who use our platform.
- Collaborating with Product Designers and Visual Designers to explore areas of the classroom experience that would be most improved with tasteful motioneither by supporting an experiences intuitiveness or amplifying a moment of success!
- Working with Engineers to define how Rive projects will consume data to influence and customize interactions (e.g. make a character jump or smile or swap accessories its wearing).
- Create in-app animations across multiple products .
- Documenting principles and process to leave a lasting mark on our fundamentals including timing style and interactions!
You will play a vital role on an inclusive small but mighty design team helping us fulfill the mission of the organization: to provide a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. We genuinely care about people and value compassion in our everyday interactions. Youll be able to be yourself feel valued supported learn and grow no matter how experienced you are.
If youre looking for the opportunity to shape the future of learning and ship high-quality products that solve real problems for learners and educators please dont hesitate to apply wed love to hear from you.
WHAT YOULL DO
- Work closely with our front-end engineering infrastructure team to define how visual and motion design impact the user experience
- Participate in the creation and maintenance of custom motion elements
- Communicate motion updates across design and engineering teams
- Document and establish proper motion design usage and approach for the product design team
- Work closely with our visual designer to determine when motion is critical to the user experience
- Participate in Design team critiques and team rituals
- Regularly tell the story of your work and why it matters how it aligns to company objectives how it drives meaningful engagement and learning
WERE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE
- Curiosity and a desire to learn! (Learning isnt just for the students)
- 4 years of experience working on Motion for digital surfaces
Please provide a portfolio of work that makes you proud!
- Strong preference for designers who have experience working in Rive and the ability to architect a complex Rive system
- Strong communication skills (written and verbal)
- Excellent taste and also the ability to find compromise with business and technical needs.
- Bias toward actionwere DOING something great here not just thinking about it!
Qualities we value in ourselves and those who join our team:
- Introspective mature low-ego and emotionally intelligent
- Growth mindset willingness to learn and to teach others
- Proactively seek out the people/information you need to move work forward and unblock yourself
- High comfort level working within a strong top-down product and pedagogical vision led by our CEO Sal Khan and our Chief Learning Officer Kristen DiCerbo PhD
- Able to balance the immediate tactical needs of helping deliver and ship features with scouting ahead for whats next
- Comfortable with frequent change and ambiguous situations like youd experience in a startup
- Willing to roll your sleeves up and pitch in when a project goes off-script
- Excited about education and engaging learning experiences deeply curious about how and why people learn
NOTE: Submitting a portfolio with your application is required.
Were looking for a portfolio that highlights the parts of your background and experience that are relevant to the job description.
Applications without a portfolio link or attachment (plus password if required) will not be considered.
MORE ABOUT US
The Design Team is a diverse and close-knit group spanning many disciplines who are excited about designing for the complexities of education. We are driven by our dedication to learners our craft and nurturing our unique low-ego and playful culture. We listen carefully think deeply and move quickly to help millions of learners all over the world.
- Sals TED talk from 2011
- Sals TED talk from 2015
- Sals TED talk from 2023
- Our team: 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 arent afraid to fail. We dont 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.
As part of this commitment Khan Academy will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed please contact
Required Experience:
Senior IC
Employment Type
Contract
