Director of Learning Design, Language Learning

Duolingo • Pittsburgh, PA

56d • Onsite

About The Position

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.

Requirements

• 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

Nice To Haves

• 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

Responsibilities

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Industry: Publishing Industries
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees