Staff Technical Program Manager

This is a high-impact, high-visibility Staff TPM role at the center of one of Duolingo’s most strategic engineering initiatives: dramatically reducing the effort required to get results and doubling developer productivity across the organization. You’ll lead this initiative in close partnership with the Developer Amplification (DevAmp) Area, a team dedicated to accelerating how engineers work through better tooling, streamlined processes, and modern engineering practices. AI is one important lever - but the goal is the outcome: step-change improvements in how fast and effectively Duolingo engineers can build. This role is for a builder and a change agent: someone who can define what “doubling productivity” means in practice, align leadership and engineering teams around it, and drive the transformation to completion. If you thrive in ambiguity, have a bias for outcomes, and can bring people along through significant organizational change, this role is for you.

You will…

• Define and drive the roadmap for doubling developer productivity across Duolingo - aligning engineering, product, and data science around a shared vision, sequencing the work, and holding teams accountable to measurable outcomes.
• Lead organizational change management as engineering teams adopt new ways of working - building alignment, communicating progress to executives and ICs alike, and helping teams internalize new processes and tooling.
• Partner closely with Developer Amplification (DevAmp) Area leads to accelerate developer productivity through AI-powered tooling, ensuring programs have clear goals, measurable impact, and sustained momentum across engineering squads.
• Lead the delivery of strategic, high-impact cross-functional initiatives from conceptualization to launch, operating with significant autonomy across multiple workstreams.
• Partner with engineering, product, data science, QA, and executive leadership to ensure communication and alignment; serve as the connective tissue between Duolingo strategy and day-to-day execution.
• Leverage deep technical expertise to develop detailed plans with key milestones and goals, identify and mitigate risks, resolve dependencies, remove blockers, and ensure timely and smooth launches.
• Establish and evangelize engineering practices that drive step-change improvements in developer productivity - coaching engineering leads and TPMs on new ways of working and how to measure their impact.
• Drive decisions when difficult tradeoffs must be made, including those with cross-organizational or company-level impact; model how to navigate hard problems with analytical rigor and a calm, decisive presence.
• Identify systemic issues impacting delivery efficiency company-wide and take swift, collaborative action to resolve them.
• Guide and develop other TPMs and engineering leads, scaling best practices across teams and continuously improving how the organization operates.

• Proven experience as a TPM, Engineering Lead, or Engineering Manager.
• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or equivalent degree or experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale technical transformation programs with measurable organizational impact - you’ve shifted how engineering organizations think and work, not just shipped projects.
• Strong executive presence and influence in a matrix environment - able to build conviction among skeptics, align competing priorities across senior leadership, and drive decisions without direct authority.
• Deep technical credibility - enough to challenge architectural assumptions, spot delivery risks early, and earn the trust of strong engineers.
• Proven ability to build and implement detailed plans that account for ambiguity, dependencies, and technical complexity - and to re-plan quickly when things change, without losing team confidence or momentum.
• A track record of standing up new programs or practices from scratch in ambiguous, high-visibility environments.

• Ability to relocate to Seattle, WA.

• Exceptional candidates will have…

• Strong knowledge of software engineering, systems engineering, or similar hands-on technical experience, in addition to program management experience.
• Strong conceptual fluency in LLM-based products, AI infrastructure, and developer AI tooling - enough to ask the right questions, challenge technical assumptions, and identify delivery risks.
• Experience running programs that include machine learning, large datasets, or AI/ML infrastructure.
• Experience working with AWS at scale.

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 finding innovative solutions to complex technical problems, running countless experiments (300+ at a time!) with our massive user base to make data-driven decisions, and educating our users and employees alike. You’ll have limitless learning opportunities, mentorship and collaboration with world-class minds, and a variety of projects with large scopes - while doing work that’s both fun and meaningful.

Join our life-changing mission to develop education for our half a billion (and growing!) learners around the world.