Our mission is to reinvent the way people learn, starting with language.
Learning a language can change a life by opening doors to new cultures, careers, and communities. Two billion people around the world are actively trying to learn a language, but the best way to learn (one-on-one tutoring) is hard to access at scale and hasn’t been meaningfully improved in decades. Speak is building a human-level, AI-powered tutor in your pocket: a conversation-first experience that lets learners actually speak, get instant feedback, and progress through carefully designed lessons. The result is a complete path from beginner to confident speaker across multiple languages.
Speak first launched in South Korea in 2019, where Speak has now become the number one language learning app, and we now serve learners across many markets and 15+ languages. Speak is one of the world’s leading AI companies, with over $150m raised in venture investment from OpenAI, Accel, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and more, with a distributed team across San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, and Ljubljana.
As the Head of Data & Analytics, you will be responsible for building and leading a world-class data organization that powers product, growth, and data engineering at Speak. You’ll define and execute the strategy that ensures every decision at Speak is data-informed while scaling our infrastructure, improving data accessibility, and driving measurable business impact across millions of learners worldwide.
Build and lead a high-performing team of analysts and data engineers that support teams across product, growth, marketing, curriculum, finance, leadership, and more
Define and own the long-term data vision, strategy, and roadmap across infrastructure, analytics, and governance, with a specific focus on the use of AI and related tools to enable the team and scalability
Standardize key metrics and definitions across the organization, driving consistency and alignment
Develop and maintain robust, scalable data pipelines with >99% uptime and automated monitoring
Build and promote self-serve data tools and dashboards that empower teams to access insights faster
Increase experimentation velocity in partnership with Product and Growth, while improving rigor and accuracy of results
Establish strong data governance, ensuring compliance with global privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)
Hire, coach, and mentor data talent, growing the team while maintaining high standards for quality, accuracy, and reliability
Drive adoption of a data-first culture across the company through education, storytelling, and partnership
Proven experience building and leading high-performing data and analytics teams at a scaled tech company
Deep understanding of modern data stacks and tools: e.g., BigQuery, Airflow, Mode, Amplitude, dbt, Looker, or similar
Strong technical foundation in SQL, and proficiency in Python or similar languages for analytics and modeling
Demonstrated success in using data to drive measurable improvements in product and growth KPIs
Strong knowledge of data governance, privacy, and compliance frameworks
Ability to translate complex data into clear insights and narratives for executive and cross-functional stakeholders
Strategic mindset with a willingness to dive into hands-on problem solving when needed
Excellent communication skills and experience influencing senior leaders and cross-functional partners
Nice to have:
Experience in language learning, edtech, or other mobile consumer products
Experience building data functions across international markets
Exposure to ML/AI modeling for personalization or recommendation systems
Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing very quickly, we've most recently raised our Series C from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit in our initial markets. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company.
Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply.
Global in nature: We're live in over 40 countries and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, Seoul, and Tokyo, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel.
Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn, and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives.
Speak does 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.
Top Skills
What We Do
Speak is a language learning app that sets users on the path to fluency with the world’s most advanced AI tutor. Built on the core learning philosophy of getting users speaking out loud as much as possible, Speak's AI language-learning experience encourages dynamic two-way dialogue through personalized content and real-time speech recognition.
Speak was founded by Connor Zwick and Andrew Hsu in 2016 to democratize access to high quality language education through AI. Backed by Y Combinator, Open AI, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Matrix Partners and more, Speak is a series B startup with a global presence and offices in San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, and Ljubljana.
Featured by Apple as the ‘App of the Day’ and ‘Best New App’, Speak is hiring across the globe. Come join us as we teach the next billion people English and reinvent the way the world learns, staring with language
