AI Research Engineer, New PhD Graduate

Duolingo

Posted 21 days ago

Full Time

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

In Person

Smart Summary

Responsibilities

You will identify, prototype, and implement scalable AI solutions to address complex educational challenges. Additionally, you will collaborate cross-functionally and share research findings with both internal teams and the broader scientific community.

Qualifications

You have a PhD in computer science or a related technical field and a portfolio of impactful work, such as publications or open-source projects. You are a creative problem-solver with strong debugging and critical thinking skills, and you are able to relocate to Pittsburgh, PA or New York, NY.

Must Have Skills for ATS

Python

SQL

Machine Learning

Deep Learning

Computer Vision

Natural Language Processing

Reinforcement Learning

C++

Java

Job Description

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...

🧠  You will...

  • Solve our most ambitious problems with the right tool for the task
  • Collaborate cross-functionally to bring your ideas to life in the product
  • Identify problems, prototype solutions, evaluate their return on investment, and then implement the best solution at scale to improve the lives of our millions of learners each day
  • Share your findings both within Duolingo as well as to the broader research community

✅  You have...

  • You have an Ph.D. in computer science or related technical field (or expect to by August 2027)
  • A portfolio of impactful work, in the form of (for example) publications, open-source projects, or AI internships
  • Ability to relocate to Pittsburgh, PA or New York, NY
  • A creative, interdisciplinary, and entrepreneurial approach to R&D
  • Strong debugging and critical thinking skills

❤️  Why you'll love working here...

  • Language learning opportunities
  • Catered in-house lunches and breakfast
  • Company-wide Hackathon
  • PTO and company holidays
  • Frequent company-wide dinners, monthly celebrations, social clubs, and so much more!

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: $137,700—$186,300 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.

Duolingo

Duolingo is the most downloaded education app in the history of the App Store. Our mission is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. Learning a new language is hard, but staying motivated is often the hardest part. That’s why we use fun, bite-sized, game-like lessons designed to keep you engaged and to drive real learning outcomes. Our approach is grounded in efficacy: we continuously test and improve our methods to ensure learners make meaningful progress. We also believe in democratizing education by offering an effective, high-quality free product. Developing a great free product is essential to our mission, ensuring that anyone with a smartphone can access learning that works. When it comes to utilizing AI tools, we have a golden rule: we use it when it clearly improves outcomes for learners. We don’t use it as a shortcut or a replacement for people, but as a tool to enhance learning experiences and efficacy. Duolingo has been named to: Fast Company’s Most Innovative Education Company (2026, 2022), Apple Design Award (2023), TIME100 Most Influential Companies (2023), Fast Company Best Workplaces for Innovators (2022), among others.
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