VP of Learning Design

Duolingo; Lower Providence Township (PA); Hybrid; USD 330,000 - 550,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Hybrid (4+1) work model

Job summary

Duolingo is seeking a VP of Learning Design to lead the 40+ person Learning Experience organization, shaping how the company teaches across language, math, music, and chess. You will report to the VP of Learning Experience and develop its people and product capabilities.

Based in New York or Pittsburgh, this role emphasizes building a strong team, guiding cross-functional partners, and driving impact with AI-assisted learning.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a multidisciplinary organization through directors and other senior leaders.
• Strong people leadership with a track record of developing strong leaders and empowering teams.
• Grounding in learning design or learning science with ability to coach experts and connect principles to product decisions.
• Experience shaping consumer products and using AI to accelerate development or content generation.
• Excellent executive communication and judgment to influence senior leaders and navigate ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Help millions learn more effectively, identifying opportunities to improve how the company teaches and guiding LX leaders to turn those opportunities into better learning experiences.
• Build a high-performing LX organization and leadership team, owning organizational design, hiring, leadership development, performance management, succession planning, and team health.
• Ensure LX delivers on its commitments, allocating resources to high-impact work, holding leaders accountable, and helping them resolve obstacles.
• Strengthen product capabilities across LX, coaching teams to make sound product decisions, writing clear specs and roadmaps, presenting at Product Review, and using AI to ship small experiments independently.
• Represent LX in cross-functional forums, build strong partnerships, and help its leaders influence product decisions and resolve cross-team challenges.

Skills

Leadership

People development

Executive communication

AI in learning design

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Learning design background

Job description

Our mission at the company 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 the company, 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

Learning is at the heart of the company’s product, and AI is opening new ways to create, personalize, and evaluate learning experiences. We’re looking for a VP of Learning Design to lead our 40+ person Learning Experience (LX) organization day to day and help make every lesson more effective, motivating, and memorable for hundreds of millions of learners.

Reporting to the VP of Learning Experience, you’ll help shape how the company teaches, with your primary focus on building a strong organization and developing its people. You’ll lead through directors and other senior leaders, strengthen the team’s learning design and product capabilities, and ensure LX delivers strong results in partnership with Product, Design, Engineering, and Data across language, math, music, and chess.

This role is based in our New York or Pittsburgh office.

You will

• Help millions of people learn more effectively, identifying opportunities to improve how the company teaches and guiding LX leaders to turn those opportunities into better learning experiences.

• Build a high-performing LX organization and leadership team, owning organizational design, hiring, leadership development, performance management, succession planning, and team health.

• Ensure LX delivers on its commitments, allocating resources to the highest-impact work, holding leaders accountable for results, and helping them resolve obstacles.

• Strengthen product capabilities across LX, helping leaders coach their teams to make sound product decisions, write clear specs and roadmaps, present effectively at Product Review, and use AI to ship small experiments independently.

• Represent LX in key cross-functional forums, build strong partnerships, and help its leaders influence product decisions and resolve cross-team challenges.

You have

• Experience leading a multidisciplinary organization through directors and other senior leaders in a fast-moving, product-led environment.

• A passion for people leadership, with a track record of developing strong leaders, empowering teams to take ownership, and delivering results through others.

• Meaningful grounding in learning design, learning science, or a related discipline, with the judgment to coach experts and connect learning principles to product decisions.

• Experience shaping consumer products through the teams you lead, including using AI to accelerate product development or content generation.

• Excellent executive communication and judgment, with the ability to make difficult tradeoffs, influence senior leaders across functions, and lead through ambiguity and change.

• Ability to work from or relocate to New York, NY or Pittsburgh, PA on a hybrid (4+1) schedule.

Exceptional candidates will have

• Experience building AI-powered learning experiences or systems for generating and evaluating learning content at scale.

• Experience at a founder-led or rapidly scaling consumer technology company.

• Significant experience using the company, and opinions about how to make it better.

*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:

$330,000—$550,000 USD

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: the company 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.