Senior Manager, Scaling Operations
Duolingo · New York, NY
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...
Scaling Operations is Duolingo’s 1-to-a-billion function. We turn promising ideas into reliable, scalable systems so teams can move faster without adding unnecessary complexity.
As a Senior Manager Scaling Operations, you’ll lead a small team and own operations for Duolingo’s contingent workforce and vendor procurement. You’ll define strategy, build the systems, and drive workforce planning in partnership with teams across Learning & Curriculum, Product, Engineering, Finance, and Legal. You’ll build centralized operations capability for contractor-heavy workflows across the company, improve the quality of AI-assisted work, automate staffing and assignment routing, and reduce manual effort for partner teams.
This role is based in Pittsburgh, PA or New York City, NY.
🧠 You will...
• Establish and implement a vision for freelance and vendor operations at the intersection of content systems and AI integration – defining success, setting roadmaps, and using AI and automation to deliver new learning content at scale while maintaining educational excellence;
• Design durable, tech-forward workflows that replace manual coordination with self-service tooling: centralized contractor management, self-serve task assignment, and structured QC and feedback loops.
• Identify the critical resources for scaling initiatives to succeed, both in terms of people and technology, and drive prioritization.
Manage a team of program managers.
✅ You have...
• People management experience. You have experience hiring and developing a team of program management staff.
• Program management experience. You have demonstrated strong operational leadership, such as experience running programs of large scale and complexity or building and scaling processes from the ground up.
• Collaboration skills. Partner with functions across the company—such as engineering, product management, content development, and executive leadership—to ensure alignment across teams and stakeholders.
• Tooling strategy experience. -savviness. You are curious about new technologies, and define the roadmap for you and your teams to increase efficiency with automation. You have strong, data-driven opinions about build vs buy tooling.
Strong communication skills. You have excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...
• Proven wins maturing a 0-to-1 operations function into a durable, instrumented system, including evaluation loops, anomaly detection, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Experience partnering deeply with engineering on internal tooling and operating systems; comfortable shaping roadmaps and trade-offs alongside a tech lead.
The offered salary is dependent upon several factors, including work experience, skills, and internal peer comparisons. The posted range is subject to change in the future. For this role, base salary is supplemented by equity compensation. We encourage you to talk with your recruiter for more information related to compensation for this role!
Salary Range:
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...
Scaling Operations is Duolingo’s 1-to-a-billion function. We turn promising ideas into reliable, scalable systems so teams can move faster without adding unnecessary complexity.
As a Senior Manager Scaling Operations, you’ll lead a small team and own operations for Duolingo’s contingent workforce and vendor procurement. You’ll define strategy, build the systems, and drive workforce planning in partnership with teams across Learning & Curriculum, Product, Engineering, Finance, and Legal. You’ll build centralized operations capability for contractor-heavy workflows across the company, improve the quality of AI-assisted work, automate staffing and assignment routing, and reduce manual effort for partner teams.
This role is based in Pittsburgh, PA or New York City, NY.
🧠 You will...
• Establish and implement a vision for freelance and vendor operations at the intersection of content systems and AI integration – defining success, setting roadmaps, and using AI and automation to deliver new learning content at scale while maintaining educational excellence;
• Design durable, tech-forward workflows that replace manual coordination with self-service tooling: centralized contractor management, self-serve task assignment, and structured QC and feedback loops.
• Identify the critical resources for scaling initiatives to succeed, both in terms of people and technology, and drive prioritization.
Manage a team of program managers.
✅ You have...
• People management experience. You have experience hiring and developing a team of program management staff.
• Program management experience. You have demonstrated strong operational leadership, such as experience running programs of large scale and complexity or building and scaling processes from the ground up.
• Collaboration skills. Partner with functions across the company—such as engineering, product management, content development, and executive leadership—to ensure alignment across teams and stakeholders.
• Tooling strategy experience. -savviness. You are curious about new technologies, and define the roadmap for you and your teams to increase efficiency with automation. You have strong, data-driven opinions about build vs buy tooling.
Strong communication skills. You have excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...
• Proven wins maturing a 0-to-1 operations function into a durable, instrumented system, including evaluation loops, anomaly detection, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Experience partnering deeply with engineering on internal tooling and operating systems; comfortable shaping roadmaps and trade-offs alongside a tech lead.
The offered salary is dependent upon several factors, including work experience, skills, and internal peer comparisons. The posted range is subject to change in the future. For this role, base salary is supplemented by equity compensation. We encourage you to talk with your recruiter for more information related to compensation for this role!
Salary Range:
63,200 —
44,800 USD
Benefits: Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits here .
Job Alerts: Sign up for job alerts here .
Accommodations: We will do everything we can within reason to make sure that your interview takes place in an environment that fairly and accurately assesses your skills. If you need assistance or accommodation, please contact accommodations@duolingo.com .
Equal Employment Opportunity: Duolingo is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Fraud Warning: Unfortunately, there is a rise in scammers pretending to be real Duolingo employees. Duolingo and our employees will never ask for your Social Security number, bank details, or passport info, and we’ll never ask you to deposit a check, purchase equipment, or exchange money during the interview process. Real Duolingo employees always use an email that ends in @duolingo.com or @recruiting.duolingo.com. Stay alert and double-check these details before sharing any information.
By applying for this position your data will be processed as per the Duolingo Applicant Privacy Notice .
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- Python (Python)
- Python Fundamentals · basic
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- Application setup · basic
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- Deployment checklist · advance
- Middlewares · basic
- Request & Response · basic
- System Designing (System Designing)
- Day-1 : What is system Designing ? · basic
- Day-2 : Vertical vs. Horizontal Scaling · basic
- Day-3:How to do vertical scaling ? · basic
- Day4:How to do horizaontal scaling ? · basic
- Day:5TCP vs UDP · basic
- Day6:IP & DNS · basic
- Day7:Client-Server Model · basic
- Day8:HTTP & HTTPS · basic
- Databases (SQL vs NoSQL) · medium
- Caching · medium
- Day9:Latency & Throughput · basic
- Load Balancing · medium
- Indexes & Query Optimization · medium
- CDN · medium
- Proxies · medium
- Message Queues · medium
- Horizontal vs Vertical Scaling · medium
- Database Replication · advance
- Database Sharding · advance
- Consistent Hashing · advance
- CAP Theorem · advance
- Rate Limiting · advance
- Service Discovery · advance
- Event-Driven Architecture · advance
- API Gateway · advance
- Distributed Consensus · expert
- Microservices · expert
- Observability · expert
- Idempotency · expert
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- Two-Phase Commit · expert
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- Designing for Failure · expert
- SQL (SQL)
- SQL Fundamentals · basic
- Database Operations · basic
- Table Operations · basic
- CRUD Operations · basic
- Filtering & Operators · basic
- SQL Functions · basic
- GROUPING Data · basic
- Joins · medium
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- Subqueries · medium
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- Views · medium
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- Normalization · advance
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- Backup & Recovery · advance
- Questions · interview questions
- Django (Django)
- What is Django · basic
- Installing Django · basic
- Features of Django · basic
- MVT Architecture · basic
- Django vs Flask · basic
- Creating Project & Creating App · basic
- Django Project Structure · basic
- URL Routing · basic
- Views · basic
- Templates · basic
- Static & Media Files · medium
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- Model Relationships · medium
- Migrations · medium
- Django Admin · medium
- Forms · medium
- Authentication · medium
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- Middleware · medium
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- Class Based Views Deep Dive · advance
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- File Handling · advance
- Django REST Framework (DRF) · advance
- Advanced ORM · advance
- Caching · advance
- Asynchronous Django · advance
- Background Tasks · advance
- Interview Questions · interview-questions
- JavaScript (JavaScript)
- JS Introduction · basic
- Variables & Data Types · basic
- Operators · basic
- Control Flow · basic
- Functions · basic
- Scope & Execution · basic
- Closures · basic
- Objects · basic
- Arrays · basic
- Strings · basic
- DOM Manipulation · basic
- Browser APIs · medium
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- Fetch & APIs · medium
- ES6+ Features · medium
- OOP in JavaScript · medium
- Prototype & Inheritance · advance
- Advanced Functions · advance
- Memory Management · advance
- Error Handling · advance
- Modules · advance
- Advanced Async Concepts · advance
- Functional Programming · advance
- JavaScript Internals · advance
- Performance Optimization · advance
- Angular (Angular)
- Angular Fundamentals · basic
- Project Structure · basic
- Components & Templates · basic
- Data Binding · basic
- Directives · basic
- Pipes · basic
- Component Communication · basic
- Lifecycle Hooks · basic
- Routing Basics · basic
- Routing · basic
- API Calls · basic
- Forms · medium
- Routing · medium
- Services & Dependency Injection · medium
- RxJS & Observables · medium
- Authentication & Security · medium
- Component Interaction · medium
- State Management Basics · medium
- Error Handiling · medium
- Perfomance Basic · medium
- Real World Features · medium
- Advanced Angular Architecture · advance
- Change Detection · advance
- Advanced RxJS · advance
- State Management · advance
- Dynamic Rendering · advance
- Perfomance Optimization · advance
- Modern Angular · advance
- STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) (Situation Based Questions)
- Node.js — Server-side JavaScript (nodejs)
- Getting started · basic
- JavaScript on the server · basic
- CommonJS modules · basic
- ES modules (ESM) · basic
- npm & package management · basic
- Asynchronous JavaScript in Node · basic
- The event loop · basic
- Essential core utilities · basic
- process & configuration · basic
- File system basics · basic
- HTTP & HTTPS servers · medium
- Streams · medium
- Events & EventEmitter · medium
- Advanced filesystem · medium
- crypto · medium
- Compression & encoding · medium
- Child processes · medium
- net, dgram & DNS · medium
- readline, timers & scheduling · medium
- Testing & diagnostics (intro) · medium
- Worker threads · advance
- cluster & multi-process scaling · advance
- Performance & tuning · advance
- Debugging & observability · advance
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- Native addons & N-API · advance
- Architecture patterns · advance
- Graceful shutdown · advance
- 100 Questions · interview questions
- MongoDB — Documents & data modeling (MongoDB)
- Introduction · basic
- Shell, Compass & tools · basic
- Databases & collections · basic
- CRUD operations · basic
- Indexes deep dive · medium
- Explain plans & performance · medium
- Aggregation framework · medium
- Schema design patterns · medium
- Mongoose basics · medium
- Mongoose advanced · medium
- Drivers & connection · medium
- Operators for updates & arrays · medium
- Replication & read preferences · advance
- Write concern & read concern · advance
- Multi-document transactions · advance
- Change streams · advance
- Sharding (overview) · advance
- Atlas Search & full-text · advance
- GridFS & large files · advance
- Backup, restore & ops · advance
- AWS Crash Course (AWS)
- What is Cloud ? · basic
- What is AWS ? · basic
- If not cloud ? · basic
- Cloud Computing · basic
- AWS Pricing · basic
- AWS Shared Responsibility Model · basic
- AWS Management Console · basic
- AWS SDKs · basic
- AWS IAM · medium
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- Policies · medium
- AWS Organizations · medium
- AWS Cognito · medium
- AWS Directory Service · medium
- AWS KMS (Key Management Service) · medium
- AWS Secrets Manager · medium
- AWS Shield · medium
- AWS WAF · medium
- AWS Inspector · medium
- AWS GuardDuty · medium
- EC2 · advance
- Launching EC2 Instances · advance
- EBS Volumes · advance
- Security Groups · advance
- Key Pairs · advance
- Elastic IP · advance
- User Data Scripts · advance
- Auto Scaling · advance
- Load Balancers · advance
- ALB · advance
- NLB · advance
- Serverless Compute ,AWS Lambda, Lambda Layers · advance
- Event-Driven Architecture · advance
- ECS · advance
- EKS · advance
Benefits: Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits here .
Job Alerts: Sign up for job alerts here .
Accommodations: We will do everything we can within reason to make sure that your interview takes place in an environment that fairly and accurately assesses your skills. If you need assistance or accommodation, please contact accommodations@duolingo.com .
Equal Employment Opportunity: Duolingo is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Fraud Warning: Unfortunately, there is a rise in scammers pretending to be real Duolingo employees. Duolingo and our employees will never ask for your Social Security number, bank details, or passport info, and we’ll never ask you to deposit a check, purchase equipment, or exchange money during the interview process. Real Duolingo employees always use an email that ends in @duolingo.com or @recruiting.duolingo.com. Stay alert and double-check these details before sharing any information.
By applying for this position your data will be processed as per the Duolingo Applicant Privacy Notice .