People Relations Business Partner

• Our mission at Duolingo is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. It's a big mission, and that's where you come in!
• At Duolingo, you'll join a team that cares about educating our users, experimenting with big ideas, making fact-based decisions, and finding innovative solutions to complex problems.
• You'll have limitless learning opportunities and daily collaborations with world-class minds — while doing work that's both meaningful and fun.
• Join our life-changing mission to develop education for our half a billion (and growing!) learners around the world.
• Read our blog to learn more.

About the role

• We're hiring a People Relations Business Partner to lead Duolingo's approach to employee relations, leaves of absence, and workplace accommodations.
• You will serve as a trusted advisor to Duos, managers, and People Business Partners, bringing sound judgment and consistency to complex employee matters.
• You'll manage employee relations cases, own our leave and accommodations programs, and use insights across this work to strengthen our practices and employee experience as Duolingo grows globally.

🧠 You will...

• Employee Relations
• Manage Employee Relations Cases: Lead employee relations matters from intake through resolution, including employee concerns, workplace conflicts, conduct issues, and other sensitive situations.
• Conduct Investigations: Lead fair, thorough, and timely workplace investigations, documenting findings and partnering with Legal and People Business Partners on appropriate next steps.
• Advise Managers & PBPs: Provide practical guidance on employee concerns, performance and conduct matters, policy interpretation, and complex workplace situations.
• Build ER Practices: Develop tools, guidance, documentation standards, and case management practices that support consistent and thoughtful decision-making.
• Partner Across the Business: Work closely with People Business Partners, Legal, and other People teams to navigate complex or high-risk employee matters.

Leaves & Accommodations

• Own the Programs: Lead Duolingo's global leave of absence and workplace accommodations programs, including program strategy, employee experience, policies, processes, and continuous improvement.
• Lead Accommodations: Manage workplace accommodation requests from intake through implementation and follow-up, partnering with Duos and managers to identify effective, reasonable solutions.
• Navigate Complex Leaves: Serve as the internal expert and escalation point for complex leave matters, partnering with external administrators, Benefits, Legal, managers, and People Business Partners.
• Support Return to Work: Guide complex return-to-work situations and transitions between leave and workplace accommodations.
• Manage Vendor Performance: Establish clear expectations for external leave and accommodations partners and hold them accountable for service, accuracy, timeliness, and employee experience.
• Support Our Global Workforce: Partner with regional People Business Partners and Legal to navigate leave and accommodation matters across geographies and local requirements.

Insights & Program Improvement

• Surface Trends: Analyze employee relations, leave, and accommodation activity to identify recurring themes, emerging risks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Look Beyond the Case: Connect patterns across individual cases to broader questions about management practices, workload, role design, policies, benefits, accessibility, and the employee experience.
• Turn Insight Into Action: Partner with People leadership, PBPs, Benefits, and Legal to translate what we're learning into practical improvements.
• Measure Effectiveness: Develop meaningful measures of program health, including timeliness, consistency, outcomes, employee experience, and vendor performance.

People Team Support

• Support PBP Priorities: Provide coordination and project support across select People Business Partner priorities, including documentation, reporting, research, and process work.
• Drive Follow-Through: Help keep defined PBP workstreams organized and moving, bringing strong attention to detail, judgment, and execution.

✅ You have...

• 5+ years of experience across employee relations, workplace accommodations, leave management, HR, or related areas, including experience independently managing complex employee matters.
• Experience conducting workplace investigations and navigating sensitive employee relations matters from intake through resolution.
• Strong working knowledge of workplace accommodations and leave practices, including the ADA, FMLA, and interactive process.
• Experience advising managers and People partners on complex employee situations and translating policies and legal

requirements

into practical guidance.

• Strong judgment and the ability to navigate sensitive or ambiguous situations with consistency and discretion.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including clear, objective case documentation.
• Strong case management and organizational skills, with careful attention to confidentiality and follow-through.
• Ability to identify patterns across individual cases and translate them into broader organizational insights.
• Comfort working across teams, functions, and geographies in a fast-moving environment.

⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...

• Global Experience: Experience supporting employee relations, leaves, or accommodations across multiple countries or regions.
• Investigations Expertise: Significant experience independently conducting complex workplace investigations.
• Program Building: Experience building or scaling employee relations, leave, or accommodations practices.
• Vendor + System Management: Experience overseeing case management, external leave or accommodations administrators and using performance data to improve service.
• Systems & Insights: Experience using case management systems and employee data to identify trends and inform organizational decisions.

• The offered salary is dependent upon several factors, including work experience, skills, and internal peer comparisons.
• The posted range is subject to change in the future.
• For this role, base salary is supplemented by equity compensation.
• We encourage you to talk with your recruiter for more information related to compensation for this role!

Salary Range:

$163,200 — $244,800 USD

Benefits

Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits here .

We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

• Duolingo and our employees will never ask for your Social Security number, bank details, or passport info, and we'll never ask you to deposit a check, purchase equipment, or exchange money during the interview process.
• Real Duolingo employees always use an email that ends in @duolingo.com or @recruiting.duolingo.com.
• Stay alert and double-check these details before sharing any information.
• By applying for this position your data will be processed as per the Duolingo Applicant Privacy Notice .