Duolingo for Schools · 1 month ago
Director of Learning Design, Immersive Language Learning
New York, NY
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
$190K/yr - $284K/yr
10+ years expDuolingo for Schools is on a mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. As the Director of Learning Design for Immersive Language Learning, you will lead a multidisciplinary team to create engaging and effective language learning experiences, leveraging storytelling and design to enhance real-world language gains.
Higher Education
Responsibilities
Ship effective immersive learning at scale: partner with Product, Design, and Engineering to translate pedagogy into creative storytelling 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
Leverage AI thoughtfully: oversee human‑in‑the‑loop workflows to generate high-quality learning content where Duolingo characters come to life and our distinctive brand voice is reflected
Establish content quality systems (guidelines, rubrics, review workflows) that ensure linguistic accuracy, high creative bar, cohesive storytelling, difficulty calibration, and high quality across languages
Drive an experiment‑led practice: foster an outcome-focused culture, confirm hypotheses via A/B tests, align on success metrics, and assist with analyzing learning and engagement impact
Explore what’s next: develop and validate roadmaps for novel immersive experiences that extend Duolingo’s impact
Qualification
Required
Depth in language learning design: typically 10+ years designing consumer language learning products with proven impact at scale
Creative instincts and taste: ability to shape narrative in immersive experiences and give specific, actionable creative feedback
People leadership: 5+ years leading multi-disciplinary teams; experience managing managers and setting high bars for craft and delivery
Product sense: intuition for simple, lovable mobile experiences and how story, pacing, and mechanics can drive motivation
Operational rigor: proficiency in large-scale content operations, QA processes, and tooling to maintain quality across multiple languages; ideally, experience with human-in-the-loop AI workflows
Outstanding communication: clear, kind, and persuasive across audiences, including executive and cross-functional
Preferred
Graduate degree in Education, HCI, Applied Linguistics, SLA, TESOL, Linguistics, Learning Science, Cognitive Science, or a relevant language field
Experience with storytelling, interactive fiction/branching narratives, or game narrative design, especially for educational purposes
Proficiency in one or more languages beyond English and comfort reviewing content across multiple languages
Benefits
Equity compensation
World-class benefits
Company
Duolingo for Schools
Duolingo for Schools is a free program that allows language teachers to assign their students language-learning assignments and monitor their progress in real-time.
11-50 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase