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. 

Read our blog to learn more.

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About the role...

Join Duolingo as our Head of Talent Management & Rewards and help us build, grow, and retain the world-class team that’s changing how the world learns.

This is a unique opportunity to lead the newly integrated talent management structure, aligning talent and rewards strategy with the company’s evolving business and AI-driven transformation. This role will be responsible for unifying performance, development, and rewards practices to support a cohesive, agile, and forward-looking people strategy. The role requires an experienced, strategic HR leader who can connect enterprise-wide initiatives to individual growth and business performance outcomes.

This is a high-visibility, high-impact role reporting to the Head of People and based in Pittsburgh, PA. You’ll serve as a key advisor to our function heads and shape the employee experience across the talent management lifecycle.

 

  You will...

• Lead the Talent Management & Rewards pillar — integrating strategy across performance, development, and rewards.
• Manage and develop a high-performing team that includes many of our internal talent density-driving teams like Talent Partners, Total Rewards, and the Talent Programs PMO
• Define and evolve a cohesive talent philosophy that scales with our business and stays grounded in our principles.
• Partner with leaders across Duolingo to design talent systems that are rigorous, intuitive, and drive measurable results.
• Build with data. Continuously measure impact, tell clear stories, and iterate.
• Champion inclusion, transparency, and equitable practices across all talent and rewards programs.
• Represent the function in executive forums and company-wide initiatives, while also supporting board-level conversations with strategic insights and materials that showcase the impact of our people programs.

 

  You have...

• 15+ years of progressive experience in talent management, total rewards, and org development—ideally in a tech-forward or global environment
• A proven track record of leading through change and scaling talent systems in high-growth, dynamic environments.
• Experience managing senior leaders across multiple domains and uniting them behind a cohesive strategy.
• A builder’s mindset — able to define a vision, ship V1s, and refine through feedback and iteration.
• Clear, concise communication skills grounded in data and impact — you know how to "Show, Don’t Tell."
• A high bar for excellence — and a reputation for shipping work that’s intuitive, delightful, and polished.
• A love of learning and a belief in developing people for the long term.

 

  Exceptional candidates will have...

• Experience integrating Total Rewards and Talent Management into a single cohesive strategy.
• Experience working in a product-led or design-forward organization.
• Familiarity with AI tools and how to use them to automate and improve People processes.
• A deep appreciation for Duolingo’s quirky, mission-driven culture — and ideas for how to make it even better.

If you're excited to build the systems and experiences that grow great careers — and want to shape the future of how People work gets done — we’d love to hear from you.

 

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