Staff AI Research Engineer

Duolingo; New York (NY); On-site; USD 221,000 - 331,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Job summary

Duolingo in New York is seeking an experienced AI Research Engineer to join our Speech team. You will help build and fine-tune speech models that improve education for hundreds of millions of learners worldwide.

The role spans feature engineering, data preparation, model training, deployment, and monitoring, with opportunities to mentor teammates and influence product decisions.

Qualifications

• Experience as AI research engineer in speech recognition or related fields.
• Experience training and fine-tuning large models.
• Advanced degree in CS/Engineering/ML or equivalent experience.
• Strong leadership and communication abilities.
• Deep understanding of ML concepts, frameworks, and practices.

Responsibilities

• Join a full-stack team of frontend, backend, and other AI researchers.
• Develop and train speech models and large-scale neural networks.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align model outputs with company goals.
• Participate in strategy and leadership discussions for Speech.
• Stay updated with ML developments in speech models and apply to projects.
• Mentor team members and support their professional growth.
• Ensure delivery of high-quality, scalable ML solutions.

Skills

AI research engineer

Speech modeling

Team leadership

Communication skills

ML frameworks

Education

Advanced degree in CS/Engineering/ML

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 are looking for an experienced AI Research Engineer to join our Speech team. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record as an AI research engineer, with experience across various machine learning techniques, and a particular focus on speech modeling: ASR, TTS, speech-to-speech models, audio tokenization, and more. They will have experience at all levels of the ML stack, including feature engineering, developing training data, fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, benchmarks and evaluations, deployment, and monitoring. On the Speech team, we’re training custom models to understand the speech of non-native learners, working closely to support product teams working on features like Video Call and the learning path.

You will

• Join a full-stack team of frontend, backend, and other AI Research engineers, fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment.
• Contribute to the development and training of speech models and large-scale neural network models.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand their needs, to align the models’ outputs with company objectives.
• Participate in and help drive strategic product and business decision making as a member of the Speech leadership group.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in machine learning, particularly in speech models, and apply this knowledge to drive advancements in our projects.
• Mentor team members, providing guidance and support in their professional development.
• Ensure the delivery of high-quality, scalable, and efficient machine learning solutions.

You have

• Proven experience as an AI research engineer, for example, in speech recognition, TTS, LLMs, or related fields.
• Strong background in training and fine-tuning large models in an applied setting.
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field with a focus on machine learning or artificial intelligence, or equivalent experience.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to manage and inspire a team.
• Deep understanding of machine learning concepts, frameworks, and best practices.

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

$220,800—$331,200 USD

Benefits:

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

Accommodations:

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].

Equal Employment Opportunity:

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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