Head of Efficacy Research

Our mission at Duolingo is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. Its a big mission and thats where you come in!

At Duolingo youll join a team that cares about educating our users experimenting with big ideas making fact-based decisions and finding innovative solutions to complex problems. Youll have limitless learning opportunities and daily collaborations with world-class minds while doing work thats 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...

Duolingo reaches hundreds of millions of learners worldwide and the Efficacy Research Lab exists to answer a fundamental question: Does that learning actually last This is one of the most important research programs in consumer education with a scale dataset and real-world impact that few academic or industry environments can match.

Were looking for an exceptional research leader to guide the Lab through its next chapter expanding its scope from Language into Math and future this role you will set the strategic vision for efficacy research at Duolingo manage and develop a small team of researchers and partner closely with senior leaders across the company. This is a hands-on leadership role: youll shape the agenda lead high-impact work and remain deeply involved in the science.

This role is based in Pittsburgh or New York.

You will...

• Set the vision and strategic direction for Duolingos Efficacy Research Lab with language learning as the primary focus and a growing mandate across Math and future subject areas.
• Lead the design and execution of rigorous efficacy research from framing the right questions through study design data collection analysis interpretation and communication of results.
• Serve as a player-coach to a team of 3 researchers: setting priorities providing scientific guidance and contributing directly to the work where your expertise has the greatest leverage.
• Partner with Product Learning Design and company leadership to ensure efficacy research meaningfully informs product strategy and improves learner outcomes.
• In collaboration with Marketing and Communications shape how Duolingo communicates learning outcomes externally translating rigorous research into clear credible narratives for learners parents educators partners and the press.
• Build and manage external research partnerships from identifying collaborators and shaping proposals to overseeing execution and final deliverables.
• Represent Duolingo externally as a thought leader in learning science and efficacy research.

You have...

• Research leadership and scientific credibility. PhD in education learning sciences cognitive science educational psychology psychometrics or a related field plus 12 years of relevant experience. You have led ambitious research programs evaluating the effectiveness of educational products or interventions and have a strong record of peer-reviewed publications and/or other influential research outputs.
• Expertise in rigorous applied research. You can define a research agenda design and evaluate studies using methods such as randomized controlled trials quasi-experimental designs and large-scale observational analyses and deliver findings that drive consequential decisions.
• Industry judgment and pragmatism. You know how to apply high scientific standards in a product environment. You understand the tradeoffs between ideal and feasible research designs and can deliver credible decision-useful insights on business and product timelines. Meaningful industry experience is required.
  Deep understanding of learning. You have deep expertise in how people learn and can connect measured outcomes to the mechanisms that drive them making you a trusted partner to product and learning teams.
• Exceptional communication and influence. You communicate clearly and persuasively across audiences from researchers and executives to external stakeholders and can translate complex findings into actionable recommendations and compelling public narratives.
• Advanced quantitative and technical skills. You bring deep expertise in statistics and quantitative methods are fluent in R or Python and are comfortable working with SQL and large-scale datasets.
• People leadership. You have experience managing and developing researchers setting a high bar for quality and helping a small team do its best work.
• Operational strength. You are highly organized and able to lead multiple research initiatives simultaneously across internal and external stakeholders.

Exceptional candidates will have...

• Experience leading efficacy research across multiple subject areas such as language math or science.
• Experience in EdTech and/or consumer technology.
• Experience working with large-scale behavioral data in a product or consumer technology environment.
• Experience serving as an external representative for a research organization including with press partners or academic audiences.

Take a peek at how we care for our employees holistic well-being with our benefitshere.

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.

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.

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