Senior Director of Engineering, New Subjects

Duolingo; New York (NY); On-site; USD 296,000 - 444,000; Full time

Job summary

Duolingo is seeking a Senior Director of Engineering based in New York, NY. This role involves co-leading the New Subjects pillar, driving product and technical strategy across Math, Music, and Chess. You will manage engineering teams while balancing product impact with strategic goals.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience leading large-scale engineering organizations, an ability to influence at the executive level, and a passion for building high-performance teams in an AI-focused environment.

Qualifications

• Experience leading large-scale engineering organizations (100+ engineers).
• Track record of driving impactful business outcomes.
• Ability to influence senior executives in ambiguous situations.

Responsibilities

• Drive product and technical strategy across Math, Music, and Chess.
• Lead multiple engineering directors in tackling technical challenges.
• Build a strong leadership bench capable of launching new products.

Skills

Leadership in large-scale consumer product engineering organizations

Driving measurable impact on business outcomes

Building high-performance, inclusive teams

Experience with AI-based product features

Job description

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.

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.

Salary Range

$296,000—$444,000 USD

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.

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