Senior Engineering Manager, Retention

Duolingo; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 204,000 - 306,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health benefits

Professional development opportunities

Flexible work environment

Job summary

A leading language education platform is hiring a Senior Engineering Manager to lead a high-impact team focused on learner retention and engagement. This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams, managing projects from inception to completion, and fostering talent development within the engineering team. Applicants should have at least 3 years of experience in leading engineering teams, demonstrate strong project execution skills, and possess the ability to work in a data-driven environment. The annual salary range is $204,000—$306,000 USD.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience leading software engineering teams.
• Proven track record of shipping multi-engineer projects.
• Strong skills in defining metrics and A/B testing.

Responsibilities

• Co-lead a cross-functional team on retention strategies.
• Drive execution from project specification to implementation.
• Attract and retain diverse engineering talent.

Skills

Team leadership

Project management

Data-driven decision making

Stakeholder management

Technical depth

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.

About the Role

We’re hiring a Senior Engineering Manager to lead a high‑impact product engineering team in the Retention area. You will co‑lead a cross‑functional team with a Product Manager co‑lead to improve learner habit formation and long‑term engagement, while owning the team's roadmap, execution, and outcomes. This role blends technical leadership, people management, and product strategy as you’ll set direction for complex systems, foster an inclusive, high‑performance culture, and create an environment for engineers to do impactful things. The role is based in Pittsburgh or New York.

🧠 You will

• Co‑lead a cross‑functional team with your product partner, aligning on strategy, priorities, and success metrics for retention and habit‑building features.
• Drive execution of projects from spec to implementation, experimentation/analysis, and ongoing ownership, while ensuring system reliability, scalability, and observability.
• Use data and rapid experimentation to inform decisions; partner with internal stakeholders to design A/B tests and translate insights into product improvements that measurably impact retention KPIs.
• Attract, grow, and retain diverse engineering talent; provide clear expectations, coaching, and career development, and build a healthy, inclusive team culture.
• Set engineering quality standards and processes that balance speed and long‑term maintainability; proactively manage tech debt, product quality, and operational excellence.
• Collaborate closely with product, design, research, and other engineering teams to deliver cohesive learner experiences across in‑app and out‑of‑app surfaces (e.g., notifications, emails, widgets).
• Define team OKRs, ruthlessly prioritize, and remove roadblocks so the team ships impactful work that moves company metrics.

✅ You have

• 3+ years of experience leading, managing, and building a team of software engineers, with demonstrated ability to hire, develop, and retain talent.
• A track record of shipping multi‑engineer, multi‑week+ projects with measurable business impact, balancing speed and quality.
• Strong product instincts and comfort in highly experimental, data‑driven environments; experience defining metrics and running A/B tests with analytics or data science partners.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across engineering, product, design, and data; clear written specs and status updates.
• Technical depth sufficient to guide architecture and implementation trade‑offs, evolve quality standards, and mentor engineers on best practices.
• The ability to work from or relocate to Pittsburgh, PA or New York, NY.

⭐ Exceptional candidates will have

• Experience leading teams focused on retention, engagement, growth, or habit‑formation features in consumer products.
• Experience setting team OKRs and operating cadences that consistently deliver outsized impact on company‑level metrics.
• Background managing teams with broad cross‑functional scope.

Salary Range

$204,000—$306,000 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 [e-mail].

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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