Staff AI Research Engineer

Duolingo • Pittsburgh, NY

3d • $220,800 - $331,200

About The Position

Duolingo is seeking an experienced AI Research Engineer to join its Speech team. The role focuses on speech modeling, including automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), speech-to-speech models, and audio tokenization. The engineer will work across the machine learning stack, from feature engineering and training-data development to fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, benchmarks and evaluations, deployment, and monitoring.

The Speech team trains custom models to understand the speech of non-native learners and works closely with product teams on features such as Video Call and the learning path. The role joins a full-stack team and contributes to product and business decisions as part of the Speech leadership group. It also includes mentoring team members and ensuring machine learning solutions are high-quality, scalable, and efficient.

Requirements

• Proven experience as an AI research engineer, such as 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 focused 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.

Responsibilities

• Join a full-stack team of frontend, backend, and AI Research engineers, contributing to 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 and align model outputs with company objectives.
• Participate in and help drive strategic product and business decision-making as a member of the Speech leadership group.
• Stay current with developments in machine learning, particularly speech models, and apply that knowledge to advance projects.
• Mentor team members and support their professional development.
• Ensure delivery of high-quality, scalable, and efficient machine learning solutions.

Benefits

• Base salary is supplemented by equity compensation.
• Employee benefits are available; the posting refers candidates to the company benefits page for details.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior