Role details
- 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 finding innovative solutions to complex technical problems , running countless experiments (300+ at a time!) with our massive user base to make data-driven decisions, and educating our users and employees alike.
- You'll have limitless learning opportunities, mentorship and collaboration with world-class minds, and a variety of projects with large scopes — while doing work that's both fun and meaningful.
- Join our life-changing mission to develop education for our half a billion (and growing!) learners around the world.
About the role
Over the last few years, Duolingo has expanded beyond language learning into entirely new subjects: Math, Music, and Chess. These products reach millions of daily active users, are growing quickly, and represent a CEO-level bet that Duolingo can become a platform for learning anything.
- We're looking for a Senior Director of Engineering to co- lead our newest subjects, responsible for building and scaling products ranging from early stages through to some of the company's fastest-growing initiatives.
- This is a role for a builder. You'll make decisions about which subjects to invest in, how to allocate engineering resources across bets at different stages, where to continue investing and where to pivot.
- You'll partner closely with Product and Design to shape the future of the pillar while building the organization that delivers it.
- This role is based in our New York, NY office on a hybrid (4+1) work schedule.
🧠 You will...
- Drive the product and technical strategy across Math, Music and Chess , balancing short-term product impact with long-term strategic goals.
- Partner strategically with Product, Design, Learning and AI to evolve our strategy, including decisions on when and how to expand to additional subjects.
- Lead multiple engineering directors and their teams as they tackle some of the most interesting technical challenges in industry: AI-based content creation at scale, neural bots, and Unity-based gameplay.
- Drive operational excellence across Duolingo's engineering org , including reliability, performance, developer productivity, and efficient execution at scale.
- Contribute to Duolingo's engineering hiring bar and talent systems , playing a central role in hiring decisions, leveling, and organizational design to maintain a high-performance, high-density team.
- Lead an organization that moves quickly, runs high-quality experiments, and translates product insights into measurable business impact.
- Build and develop a strong leadership bench capable of bringing ambitious new products to market.
✅ You have...
- Experience leading consumer product engineering organizations (100+ engineers), ideally across multiple high growth product experiences.
- Product instincts and experience partnering closely with senior product leadership to define strategy, not just execute against it.
- A track record of driving measurable impact on business outcomes , including growing early product development through significant company scale.
- Experience building or scaling LLM-powered product features, with a strong interest in building engineering cultures that embrace AI-first ways of working.
- Deep experience building and scaling high-velocity, experiment-driven product organizations , leading through multiple layers of leadership (senior directors, directors, EMs).
- A track record of building high-performance, inclusive teams, and making thoughtful, high-judgment talent decisions.
- Ability to influence senior executives and drive clarity in ambiguous, cross-functional situations .
- Ability to work from our New York, NY office on a 4+1 hybrid work schedule.
- 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:
$296,000 — $444,000 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 .