Senior Director of Engineering, New Subjects

Duolingo
New York, NY
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior engineering leaders who have scaled consumer products and shaped technical strategy in AI-driven education platforms, based in New York with a hybrid work model.

Best fit for

  • Seasoned engineering executive with experience scaling multiple consumer products from early stage to mass adoption.
    — “Experience leading large-scale consumer product engineering organizations (100+ engineers)
  • Strategic thinker who partners with product leadership to define business direction, not just execute it.
    — “Product instincts and experience partnering closely with senior product leadership to define strategy
  • Leader with a track record of building high-performance teams that embrace AI-first product development.
    — “Experience building or scaling LLM-powered product features

Things to consider

  • Hybrid work requires 4+ days per week in-office in New York City.
    — “Ability to work from our New York, NY office on a 4+1 hybrid work schedule
  • Role involves making high-stakes investment decisions across multiple experimental product lines.
    — “You'll make decisions about which subjects to invest in

How to stand out

  • Quantify impact of previous initiatives that grew early products to significant scale.
    — “A track record of driving measurable impact on business outcomes
  • Demonstrate specific examples of building engineering cultures that embraced AI-first approaches.
    — “building engineering cultures that embrace AI-first ways of working
  • Highlight experience leading through multiple layers of leadership in high-growth environments.
    — “leading through multiple layers of leadership (senior directors, directors, EMs)
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • driving-measurable-impact-on-business-outcomes
  • building-and-scaling-high-velocity-engineering-organizations
Typical background
large-scale-consumer-product-engineering-organizationshigh-growth-product-experiences

Skills & requirements

Required

LeadershipProduct-strategyTechnical-excellenceTeam-buildingProject-management

Preferred

Ai-first-cultureLlm-powered-product-features

About the role

Original posting from Duolingo

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...

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.

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: $296,000—$444,000 USDTake 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 accommodations@duolingo.com.

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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Source: Duolingo careers

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