Staff Technical Program Manager

Duolingo•Seattle, WA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

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... This is a high-impact, high-visibility Staff TPM role at the center of one of Duolingo's most strategic engineering initiatives: dramatically reducing the effort required to get results and doubling developer productivity across the organization. You'll lead this initiative in close partnership with the Developer Amplification (DevAmp) Area, a team dedicated to accelerating how engineers work through better tooling, streamlined processes, and modern engineering practices. AI is one important lever — but the goal is the outcome: step-change improvements in how fast and effectively Duolingo engineers can build. This role is for a builder and a change agent: someone who can define what "doubling productivity" means in practice, align leadership and engineering teams around it, and drive the transformation to completion. If you thrive in ambiguity, have a bias for outcomes, and can bring people along through significant organizational change, this role is for you.

Requirements

Proven experience as a TPM, Engineering Lead, or Engineering Manager.
B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or equivalent degree or experience.
Demonstrated experience leading large-scale technical transformation programs with measurable organizational impact — you've shifted how engineering organizations think and work, not just shipped projects.
Strong executive presence and influence in a matrix environment — able to build conviction among skeptics, align competing priorities across senior leadership, and drive decisions without direct authority.
Deep technical credibility — enough to challenge architectural assumptions, spot delivery risks early, and earn the trust of strong engineers.
Proven ability to build and implement detailed plans that account for ambiguity, dependencies, and technical complexity — and to re-plan quickly when things change, without losing team confidence or momentum.
A track record of standing up new programs or practices from scratch in ambiguous, high-visibility environments.
Ability to relocate to Seattle, WA.

Nice To Haves

Strong knowledge of software engineering, systems engineering, or similar hands-on technical experience, in addition to program management experience.
Strong conceptual fluency in LLM-based products, AI infrastructure, and developer AI tooling - enough to ask the right questions, challenge technical assumptions, and identify delivery risks.
Experience running programs that include machine learning, large datasets, or AI/ML infrastructure.
Experience working with AWS at scale.

Responsibilities

Define and drive the roadmap for doubling developer productivity across Duolingo — aligning engineering, product, and data science around a shared vision, sequencing the work, and holding teams accountable to measurable outcomes.
Lead organizational change management as engineering teams adopt new ways of working — building alignment, communicating progress to executives and ICs alike, and helping teams internalize new processes and tooling.
Partner closely with Developer Amplification (DevAmp) Area leads to accelerate developer productivity through AI-powered tooling, ensuring programs have clear goals, measurable impact, and sustained momentum across engineering squads.
Lead the delivery of strategic, high-impact cross-functional initiatives from conceptualization to launch, operating with significant autonomy across multiple workstreams.
Partner with engineering, product, data science, QA, and executive leadership to ensure communication and alignment; serve as the connective tissue between Duolingo strategy and day-to-day execution.
Leverage deep technical expertise to develop detailed plans with key milestones and goals, identify and mitigate risks, resolve dependencies, remove blockers, and ensure timely and smooth launches.
Establish and evangelize engineering practices that drive step-change improvements in developer productivity — coaching engineering leads and TPMs on new ways of working and how to measure their impact.
Drive decisions when difficult tradeoffs must be made, including those with cross-organizational or company-level impact; model how to navigate hard problems with analytical rigor and a calm, decisive presence.
Identify systemic issues impacting delivery efficiency company-wide and take swift, collaborative action to resolve them.
Guide and develop other TPMs and engineering leads, scaling best practices across teams and continuously improving how the organization operates.