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
Duolingo reaches hundreds of millions of learners worldwide, and the Efficacy Research Lab exists to answer a fundamental question: Does that learning actually last? This is one of the most important research programs in consumer education, with a scale, dataset, and real-world impact that few academic or industry environments can match
We’re looking for an exceptional research leader to guide the Lab through its next chapter, expanding its scope from Language into Math and future subjects. In this role, you will set the strategic vision for efficacy research at Duolingo, manage and develop a small team of researchers, and partner closely with senior leaders across the company. This is a hands-on leadership role: you’ll shape the agenda, lead high-impact work, and remain deeply involved in the science
This role is based in Pittsburgh or New York
Set the vision and strategic direction for Duolingo’s Efficacy Research Lab, with language learning as the primary focus and a growing mandate across Math and future subject areas
Lead the design and execution of rigorous efficacy research, from framing the right questions through study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and communication of results
Serve as a player-coach to a team of 3 researchers: setting priorities, providing scientific guidance, and contributing directly to the work where your expertise has the greatest leverage
Partner with Product, Learning Design, and company leadership to ensure efficacy research meaningfully informs product strategy and improves learner outcomes
In collaboration with Marketing and Communications, shape how Duolingo communicates learning outcomes externally, translating rigorous research into clear, credible narratives for learners, parents, educators, partners, and the press
Build and manage external research partnerships, from identifying collaborators and shaping proposals to overseeing execution and final deliverables
Represent Duolingo externally as a thought l