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...
Duolingo is launching “Duolingo Academy” — a signature, company-wide learning program focused first on leadership development. We’re seeking a Head of Duolingo Academy to design the strategy, build and deliver high‑impact learning experiences for our leaders (with an initial emphasis on managers of managers), and scale a cohesive capability-building system that strengthens leader impact across the company. This high-visibility role partners closely with People leadership and senior executives to translate company priorities and values into practical, measurable learning that grows with Duolingo. This role is based in Pittsburgh, PA or New York, NY.
🧠 You will...
- Define the vision, strategy, and operating model for Duolingo Academy, starting with leadership development (managers of managers) and expanding into adjacent capability areas over time.
- Design, deliver, and iterate on a portfolio of leadership programs, frameworks (e.g., toolkits, guides, rubrics), and learning journeys (e.g., live, virtual, asynchronous) aligned to business priorities and Duolingo’s values, and ensuring consistency and a high-quality learning experience at scale.
- Design and oversee coaching, expert-led, and cohort-based learning programs (e.g., executive coaching, internal/external experts, communities of practice) to deepen leader capability and support individualized development.
- Establish clear success metrics and measurement practices (e.g., participant NPS, outcome metrics), review data and feedback regularly, and continuously improve programs based on impact.
- Partner with and serve as a trusted advisor to People leadership, function heads, and cross-functional stakeholders to align Duolingo Academy with talent strategies (e.g., performance, career ladders) and company priorities.
- Leverage Duolingo’s existing leadership offerings and integrate complementary learning pathways to create a cohesive, end-to-end leader development experience.
- Pilot, scale, and communicate Duolingo Academy programs and outcomes to executives, and refine the roadmap and resourcing plan as Duolingo Academy proves impact and evolves with the organization.
✅ You have...
- Extensive experience designing and delivering leadership development or capability-building programs, with a strong grasp of adult learning, program design principles and the science of teaching.
- A background as a successful leader and operator (ideally in Engineering, Product or Design) in addition to leadership coaching and development (not traditional L&D).
- Demonstrated ability to assess leadership needs, translate them into practical and sticky learning experiences, and facilitate engaging sessions for senior audiences.
- A track record of building scalable learning systems and content (frameworks, toolkits, assets) and measuring impact using data and feedback.
- Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and partner with senior leaders across functions in dynamic, high-growth environments.
- Comfort operating with ambiguity, simplifying the complex, and shipping high-quality work on tight timelines with a hands-on builder’s mindset.
- The ability to work from or relocate to Pittsburgh, PA or New York, NY.
⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...
- Experience establishing a flagship, company-wide learning program and scaling it from V1 to a durable, high-impact function.
- Expertise connecting leadership development to broader capability building (e.g., manager effectiveness, decision-making, communication, AI fluency).
- Familiarity integrating leadership programs with performance systems and career ladder enablement to manage organizational change at scale.
We post a multi-level salary range for all of our roles.
This is not inclusive of the rest of our awesome portfolio that includes equity compensation and world-class benefits. Our salary ranges are the same for all US locations. Your recruiter can share more details about the range for a specific level during the hiring process. The actual salary within the range is determined by many factors including but not limited to, skills, experience, education, and internal equity.
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 [email protected].
Duolingo is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. 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.
By applying for this position your data will be processed as per the Duolingo Applicant Privacy Notice.
Unfortunately, there is a rise in scammers pretending to be real Duolingo employees. 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.
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What We Do
Duolingo is a language-learning education platform that offers 98 total courses across nearly 40 distinct languages. Duolingo is the world’s most popular way to learn a language. Our mission is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. Some of our products include: 1. Duolingo: The free, fun, and effective way to learn a language! 2. DET (Duolingo English Test): A modern language proficiency tool designed for today's international students and institutions. It offers an English proficiency score, video interview, and writing sample in an accessible, efficient, and secure testing experience. 3. Duolingo Math: An app that can make math be fun. For everyone. Students can focus on elementary math, which covers classroom topics, or adults can focus on brain training, which strengthens mental math skills and covers more advanced topics. 4. Duolingo ABC: An educational learning app that offers immersive lessons to teach preschool to second grade kids reading fundamentals. Founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker, Duolingo is the most downloaded education app in the history of the App Store and in 2019 became the top-grossing education app worldwide. The app has been awarded Apple's iPhone App of the Year and Android's Best of the Best. Learning a new language used to be expensive; we believe it should be free. Over 1.2 billion people are learning a second language and most of them are learning English to improve their lives. Learning a new language is hard; we believe it can be fun. We use bite-sized lessons that feel like playing a game to keep our learners motivated. With over 500 million learners we have unprecedented data insights on how people learn. Our teams of language learning scientists, machine learning engineers, and AI experts use this data to constantly improve our effectiveness. We’re building a future in which the highest-quality education is accessible to all. Duolingo has been named: 2022 Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators 2022 Fast Company 10 Most Innovative Education Company 2021 Forbes Best Startup Employers 2020, 2018, 2017, 2013 Most Innovative Company by Fast Company 2020 Best Machine Learning Startups for by Glassdoor 2018 Inc. Best Places to Work 2018 Entrepreneur Top Company Culture List University Program Awards: 2022 Handshake Early Talent Award 2022 Untapped Top Internship Programs 2022 OneReq Internship Program Trailblazer Award
Why Work With Us
Our global team works together to make language learning fun, free, and effective for anyone who wants to learn, wherever they are. Best of all, you get to work alongside Duo (literally)!
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