Staff Brand Experience Designer - Redwood City - Learning Commons

Description

Overview

Learning Commons is Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's education initiative, which aims to scale proven teaching and learning practices to benefit every learner. Learning Commons became the name of our education efforts in 2025 to build on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's work over the past decade to advance learning science and help translate that research into classroom practice.

The Team

At Learning Commons, we pair technology with grantmaking to scale proven teaching and learning practices to benefit every learner. We aim to translate what learning science tells us about how students learn best into classroom practice. With the advent of generative AI, that translation work can be accelerated and scaled to have a greater impact.

Our mission is to bring learning science into the tools used every day by teachers and students, ensuring that technology reflects the realities of classrooms and strengthens teaching and learning.

In today's fragmented edtech landscape, school districts are often left piecing together products that don't always align with curricula or instructional needs. While AI holds enormous potential to support educators, it can only deliver on that promise when grounded in research, high-quality educational data, and expert evaluation. That's why we're building open, public-purpose infrastructure — datasets, rubrics, and resources — that help raise the standard for educational tools and create more consistent, impactful learning experiences for all students and teachers.

The Opportunity

Learning Commons is building the AI infrastructure for the future of education—and we need a visionary brand designer to help us tell that story. As a senior member of the brand team, you'll own the visual identity of a newly formed organization backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, working directly under our Brand Strategist Manager and with our product and PMM teams to shape how we show up across every touchpoint.

This role offers rare creative latitude: you'll help lead our June 2026 website visual refresh, conduct a brand audit in H2 2026, and inform the 2027 brand evolution—all while building the systems and toolkits that allow our lean team to scale. You'll bridge strategy and craft, moving fluidly between high-stakes executive presentations, developer-focused web experiences, and educator-facing campaigns.

Why This Role Matters

Learning Commons develops pedagogically-aligned AI tools for EdTech developers building the next generation of learning software. Your work helps communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences—from foundation leaders and investors to educators and developers—making equitable education technology more accessible and understandable.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility role where your creative decisions directly influence how our organization is perceived in Philanthropic, EdTech, and AI infrastructure landscapes.

What You7ll Do

• Own end-to-end web design and digital experiences (visual design, responsive layouts, design system evolution) and collaborating with engineering to ensure timely execution and launch.
• Develop and execute strategic brand campaigns for major product launches, partnerships enablement, and events—translating complex technical concepts into compelling visual narratives for educators, developers, and district leaders.
• Design high-stakes creative materials including "sales" presentations, partnership collateral, and conference presence (ASU GSV, developer summits) that establish Learning Commons as a credible player in EdTech and AI.
• Conduct a comprehensive brand audit, assessing how the brand is performing after one year in market, gathering stakeholder feedback, and developing a refinement strategy for brand evolution and rollout based on real-world learnings and evolving market trends.
• Build scalable brand systems and toolkits—including audience-specific visual languages (developer vs. educator), self-service templates for GTM/Comms teams, and design governance—that enable our organization to grow without creative bottlenecks.

What You7ll Bring

• 8+ years of brand design experience with a strong portfolio demonstrating expertise across web design, brand systems, campaign creative, and digital experiences—ideally with examples of work in tech. Bonus for SaaS, AI focused, and / or mission-driven organizations.
• Deep web design fluency: You're highly skilled in responsive design, component libraries, design systems, and interaction design, and you're comfortable collaborating closely with engineers on technical feasibility, performance, and accessibility.
• Strategic and executional range: You can zoom out to conduct brand audits, develop visual strategy, and build scalable systems—then zoom in to execute pixel-perfect web designs, presentation decks, and campaign assets with equal craft quality.
• Startup mentality and high ownership: You thrive in ambiguity, move fast without sacrificing quality, and are energized by being the primary creative owner of major channels (web, campaigns, systems) rather than one contributor among many
• Collaborative communication skills: You can articulate creative rationale to non-design stakeholders (PMM, Comms, Product, engineering), educate partners on brand best practices, push back diplomatically on unrealistic timelines, and build trust across cross-functional teams.
• Additional strengths that elevate your impact: You bring experience leading brand development or refresh initiatives from strategy through execution, feel comfortable using AI tools to accelerate and streamline your workflow, and can design effectively for technical audiences—translating complex concepts into clear, compelling visuals.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for a new hire in this role is $171,000 - $235,400. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process.

Better Together

As we grow, we're excited to strengthen in-person connections and cultivate a collaborative, team-oriented environment. This role is a hybrid position requiring you to be onsite for at least 60% of the working month, approximately 3 days a week, with specific in-office days determined by the team's manager. The exact schedule will be at the hiring manager\'s discretion and communicated during the interview process.

Benefits For The Whole You

We're thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible.

• Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice.
• Funding for select family-forming benefits.
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving

If you're interested in a role but your previous experience doesn't perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.