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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Backend Engineer - **Company:** Duolingo, Inc. - **Location:** New York, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $182,800.0 - $247,300.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Java (Programming Language), Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Databases, Data Structures, Software Debugging, Python (Programming Language), Machine Learning, Prometheus, Software Engineering, Systems Integration, Datadog, Grafana, Backend, Kotlin, Information Technology - **Published:** August 27, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.dice.com/job-detail/6382eb50-8405-4f4b-8a0c-e283e6b6ed9f ## About the Role We're looking for backend engineers who have experience building and operating reliable, scalable systems. Your background may be in product engineering, infrastructure, platform engineering, or a combination of these. What matters most is strong backend fundamentals, sound systems thinking, and the ability to take ownership of complex technical problems from design through production., * A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field * Strong competencies in data structures, algorithms, and software design * Experience programming in Java, Python, or Kotlin * Solid understanding of one or more database technologies ☆ Exceptional candidates will have... * Industry experience building high-traffic APIs using public cloud providers * Experience with industry observability technology, such as OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Prometheus, or DataDog. ## Description Duolingo Score is how we reflect a learner's real language proficiency back to them. As the team lead / backend engineer on this small, high-impact team, you'll help make learners care about their score as much as they care about their streak. You'll partner closely with the Score Pillar's product and design team and our iOS and Android engineers, working on the systems that power score calculation, proficiency modeling, and how score surfaces across the app - including integrations with external platforms like LinkedIn, so learners can showcase their proficiency beyond Duolingo. Time Spent Learning: The Time Spent Learning team is dedicated to motivating learners to spend more time engaging meaningfully with the Duolingo app. Our mission is to grow genuine, sustained learning time by designing and iterating on the mechanics that motivate consistent, high-effort practice so learners make real progress toward fluency each day. As a small, cross-functional team of product, design, and engineering, we own a metric that shapes learning outcomes for millions of users and get to shape the Duolingo experience. Ads: Duolingo's Monetization pillar builds the systems that fund our mission - from subscription packaging and advertising to ML-powered personalization. As a Backend Engineer on the Ads team, you'll work on a product engineering team responsible for growing and scaling Duolingo's ads business: high-quality ads that delight learners, fit seamlessly into the product experience, and meaningfully contribute to our bottom line. The team owns ad serving, mediation and demand, in-product ad formats and surfaces, and more. You'll work cross-functionally with product, design, data science, machine learning, and ad operations. Observability: The Observability team builds infrastructure and tools that give engineers confidence and clarity at Duolingo scale. We create monitoring, alerting, and debugging experiences that help teams ship faster and respond to incidents effectively. In this team, you'll build instrumentation frameworks, deploy telemetry infrastructure, design dashboards, and connect signals to catch issues before they impact learners. We're looking for engineers passionate about developer experience and reliability. You will... * Collaborate on software projects with product design and backend aspects * Develop, release, and maintain backend services and/or infrastructure * Lead individual project priorities, milestones, and ensure we're always shipping ## Related Videos - [Software Engineering Social Connection: Yubo’s lean approach to scaling an 80M-user infrastructure](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1583-software-engineering-social-connection-yubo-s-lean-approach-to-scaling-an-80m-user-infrastructure) - [Inside Bitpanda's Tech Stack: Scaling a European Fintech Leader - Markus Dorner](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1979-inside-bitpanda-s-tech-stack-scaling-a-european-fintech-leader-markus-dorner) - [5 steps for running a Kubernetes environment at scale](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/88-5-steps-for-running-a-kubernetes-environment-at-scale) - [Debugging in the Dark](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1658-debugging-in-the-dark) - [Kotlin Multiplatform - True power of native code reuse](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/4-kotlin-multiplatform-true-power-of-native-code-reuse) - [Why Kotlin is the better Java and how you can start using it](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/661-why-kotlin-is-the-better-java-and-how-you-can-start-using-it) ## Related Articles - [What’s the Difference Between Frontend and Backend Development?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/240-what-s-the-difference-between-frontend-and-backend-development) - [20 Essential Tools For Backend Development](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/218-20-essential-tools-for-backend-development) - [Fully Remote Software Engineer Jobs](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/447-fully-remote-software-engineer-jobs) - [The Most Popular IT Jobs on the Market](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/376-the-most-popular-it-jobs-on-the-market) - [Find a Developer Job: 12 Best Job Sites For Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/165-find-a-developer-job-12-best-job-sites-for-developers) - [Is Software Engineering Over-Saturated?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/418-is-software-engineering-over-saturated)