Director of Learning Design, Language Learning

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 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

As Director of Learning Design for Language Learning, you will set the pedagogical vision and execution strategy for Duolingo’s language-learning experiences — driving learning impact, curriculum quality, and innovation at global scale. You’ll lead a team of multi-disciplinary learning designers, and partner with product leadership to ship delightful, effective learning in the Duolingo style. This job is based in Pittsburgh.

🧠 You will...

• Ship effective learning at scale: partner with Product, Design, and Engineering to translate pedagogy into fun and motivating in‑app experiences that build listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills
• Lead and develop a world‑class team of learning designers, leveling up their craft, velocity, and effectiveness
• Drive an experiment‑led practice: help design outcome‑focused A/B tests, align on success metrics (e.g., CEFR-aligned progress, retention, speaking/writing gains), and assist with analyzing learning and engagement impact
• Establish content quality systems (guidelines, rubrics, review workflows) that ensure linguistic accuracy, difficulty calibration, and a high-quality bar across language courses
• Lead through example by using AI to improve your craft, and encouraging your team to do the same
• Explore the future of language teaching: develop and validate roadmaps for new skills, modes, and curricula that extend Duolingo’s impact

✅ You have...

• Depth in language learning design: extensive experience (typically 10+ years) designing language curricula or consumer learning products, with proven impact at scale
• People leadership: 5+ years leading multi‑disciplinary teams; experience managing managers and establishing high‑bar standards
• Product sense: an instinct for creating simple, delightful, and intuitive user experiences
• Operational rigor: proficiency in large-scale content operations, QA processes, and tooling to maintain quality across many languages, ideally including experience with human‑in‑the‑loop AI workflows
• Outstanding communication: clear, kind, and persuasive across audiences, including executive and cross‑functional

⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...

• Graduate degree in Applied Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, TESOL, Linguistics, Learning Science, Cognitive Science, HCI, or a relevant language field; familiarity with proficiency frameworks (e.g., CEFR, ACTFL) and assessment
• A track record of partnering with product, design, and engineering to ship lovable, effective features on mobile