Managing Editor
Duolingo · Tokyo, Japan
Experience: lead
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. About the role... We're looking for a Managing Editor, Character IP to lead Duolingo's manga and anime expansion in Japan. This isn't a role for someone who manages timelines and coordinates vendors from a distance. You'll get into the weeds — developing Duo's Japanese character voice, writing plots when needed, identifying the right manga artists, and building the studio and TV network relationships that turn a great concept into something millions of people actually watch. Our roadmap goes manga first, then anime, with a TV morning show slot (think Chiikawa) as the target format for animation. This role reports into the Director of Design Studio Brand team, with a dotted line to the Director of Country Marketing Japan and Korea team. 🧠 You will... Set and uphold Duolingo’s high quality bar across all creative projects in this pipeline Partner with Design Studio Creative Directors to define Duo's Japanese character profile — tone of voice, personality details, backstory — while staying true to his globally established character bible Write your own plots and lead original story development when needed Scout and brief manga artists and illustrators who match the look and feel we're going for Build and manage relationships with publishers and editors to get manga projects off the ground Select and manage anime production studios — handling contracts,