Lead Technical Recruiter

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...

We're looking for a Lead Recruiter to own product hiring at Duolingo — partnering directly with our Chief Product Officer to build and shape the Product org from the ground up. This isn't just executing on a req list. You'll help define what great looks like, influence how we think about product talent, and build the processes and relationships that make hiring a competitive advantage. If you love blending strategy with hands-on execution, operating at the intersection of recruiting and business, and leaving your fingerprints on a world-class team, this is the role for you.

 

  You will...

• Own full-cycle recruiting for Product roles at all levels — ICs to senior leaders — building deep pipelines and consistently closing top talent.
• Be a true partner to the CPO, shaping hiring strategy, prioritizing roles, and helping define what great Product talent looks like at Duolingo.
• Lead and influence without direct authority, working across recruiting, sourcing, and business stakeholders to align processes, calibrate expectations, and drive outcomes.
• Drive sourcing strategy (roughly 25–30% of your time), going beyond inbound to build proactive outreach for senior and hard-to-fill roles.
• Use data to tell the story — diagnosing pipeline health, surfacing insights to leadership, and making decisions that balance speed with quality.
• Champion the candidate experience from first touch to offer close, making sure every interaction reflects Duolingo's brand and values.
• Build the infrastructure — whether that's interview frameworks, leveling guidance, or hiring playbooks — that scales beyond you.

 

✅  You have...

• Ability to work onsite in Pittsburgh, PA, Monday–Thursday, with Friday optional
• 7+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with meaningful depth in Product hiring
• Experience partnering closely with senior leaders (VP/C-suite) to shape org strategy, not just fill seats
• A track record of hiring across levels — from PMs to Directors to VPs — with strong judgment on what "great" looks like at each
• Comfort operating in ambiguity, with the ownership mindset to create structure where it doesn't exist
• Strong data fluency — you know how to use pipeline metrics to drive conversations and influence decisions

 

⭐  Exceptional candidates will have...

• Experience leading or mentoring a recruiting team, even informally
• Deep market knowledge of the Product talent landscape, including how to position Duolingo competitively
• A history of building repeatable hiring systems that improve quality and efficiency at scale
• And, of course… an impressive Duolingo streak.