Duolingo

Senior Director of Engineering, New Subjects

Duolingo$296K — $444K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Experience leading large-scale consumer product engineering organizations (100+ engineers) in high-growth environments.
  • Strong product instincts with experience in defining strategic direction in collaboration with senior product leadership.
  • Proven track record of driving measurable business impact through product development and scale.
  • Experience with LLM-powered features and fostering AI-centric engineering cultures.
  • Deep experience in building high-velocity, experiment-driven product teams with multiple layers of leadership.
  • History of creating inclusive, high-performance teams and making sound talent decisions.
  • Strong ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and clarify ambiguous situations.

Responsibilities

  • Drive product and technical strategy for Math, Music, and Chess, balancing immediate impacts with long-term goals.
  • Collaborate strategically with Product, Design, Learning, and AI to evolve expansion strategies.
  • Lead engineering directors in addressing complex technical challenges, including AI-based content creation and Unity gameplay.
  • Ensure operational excellence within the engineering organization, enhancing reliability and productivity.
  • Influence engineering hiring practices and maintain high-performance team standards.
  • Facilitate rapid experimentation and translate product insights into business results.
  • Develop strong leadership within the engineering team to launch ambitious products.

Benefits

  • Equity compensation part of the overall salary package.
  • Hybrid work arrangement (4+1 schedule) in the New York office.
  • Comprehensive health and well-being benefits.
  • Supportive company culture focused on employee growth and inclusion.
Full Job Description
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 the New Subjects pillar, 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 and tutoring 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 large-scale 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

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

We will do everything we can within reason to make sure that your interview takes place in an environment that fairly and accurately assesses your skills. If you need assistance or accommodation, please contact [redacted].

Sign up for job alerts here.

About Duolingo

Duolingo is a language-learning platform that includes a language-learning website and app, as well as a digital language proficiency assessment exam. The company was founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker. Duolingo offers courses in over 40 languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Chinese. The platform is free to use, but users can pay for additional features. Duolingo has won numerous awards for its innovative approach to language learning.
Learn more about Duolingo
Size
400 employees
Market Cap
$2.7 billion
Industry
Founded
2011
NASDAQ

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