Senior Engineering Manager (AI Platform)

• As the manager and team lead of the new AI Tooling and Ecosystem Team, you will lead the development of the suite of tools and services that power Duolingo’s use of AI in the product
• You’ll lead a team of 5-6 engineers to design systems for managing datasets, evaluating the performance of AI models, and building AI workflows
• You will help shape how Duolingo builds features using AI, enabling teams to easily define quality metrics, combine human and AI feedback, and compare model performance
• Drive development of tools and services that empower Duolingo’s product teams to easily and effectively build AI-powered features and workflows
• Manage our shared systems and workflows for AI-related datasets, prompts, and evaluations (both human and LLM-as-a-judge)
• Build processes that allow teams to define success criteria for their AI use-case, identify the most appropriate models, and construct feedback loops for prompt optimization
• Streamline common AI development flows so that teams with varying levels of AI expertise can build out AI systems quickly
• Collaborate closely with the AI Core Infrastructure Team to ensure that AI workflows are reliable, measurable, and cost efficient
• Partner with AI, Product, Data Science, and Platform leaders to build out new AI tooling that supports common use-cases
• Own multi‑quarter roadmaps and cross‑functional alignment that increase AI feature velocity and measurable product impact across Duolingo

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision for employees as well as eligible partners and dependents
• Mental health benefits such as therapy sessions and coaching to support you to be your best self
• Fertility benefits to support your family planning journey
• Fully paid parental and adoption leave
• Fully paid subscription to Care.com and paid backup days for dependents and your fur family
• 401(k) with generous match and immediate vesting
• 20 days of paid time off, with two additional weeks off for winter break
• First-time home buyer bonus (in Pittsburgh)
• Competitive salaries and equity
• Yearly stipend for professional development
• Transportation reimbursement for however you get to work
• Lunch prepared daily by our in-house chefs
• Annual international retreat for all full-time employees
• Monthly events celebrating our team and their amazing work
• On-site gym and massages
• Game room for taking brain breaks- We’re looking for an engineering manager who has experience building AI products or infrastructure and is excited to play a central role in shaping the future of AI at Duolingo!
• Strong cross‑functional leadership and communication skills; proven ability to align AI, product, data science, and platform partners on strategy and execution
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field
• Experience leading, managing, and building a team of software and/or AI engineers, with demonstrated ability to hire, develop, and retain talent
• Familiarity with AI evaluation methods, especially approaches that combine human and LLM-as-a-judge evaluations
• A track record of building AI-related infrastructure or user-facing products powered by AI
• The ability to work from or relocate to Pittsburgh, PA or New York, NY
• Comfort leading through ambiguity and shaping new ways of working in a fast‑evolving AI landscape
• Hands‑on experience building evaluation systems and human‑in‑the‑loop data pipelines at scale
• A track record of developing internal tools on a platform or infrastructure team, providing tools and services via easy-to-use APIs, MCPs, and web GUIs
• Experience navigating build vs. buy decisions and shaping long-term roadmaps based on the needs of internal customers- Duolingo uses AI technology to assist in our hiring process. We want to be transparent about how we use this technology and your rights. We use Greenhouse Software’s Talent Matching feature to assist with reviewing applications for the skills and experience we have decided are important for this role
• Talent Matching reviews your resume and responses to application questions to determine the extent to which your qualifications match the job requirements selected for this role. These requirements and their desired weighting are established by our recruiters in collaboration with hiring managers
• All Talent Matching output is reviewed by our recruiting and hiring teams, who make the final decision on each application. Talent Matching does not automatically disposition any c…