Senior Director of Performance Marketing

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 Senior Director of Performance Marketing to lead the team that drives Duolingo’s paid user acquisition across 100+ markets and our language, chess, and math products. You’ll own the strategy, the budget, and the people, and you’ll be accountable for proving what our spend actually buys.

🧠 You will...

• Lead and grow a team of performance marketers, including managers, and set a high bar for craft, rigor, and ownership
• Own the global paid acquisition budget and portfolio across Google, Apple Search Ads, Meta, TikTok, AppLovin, DSPs, and China platforms, deciding where to scale, hold, or pull back as efficiency changes
• Set the measurement standard for the team: incrementality testing, saturation modeling, and LTV and ROI frameworks that Finance trusts
• Translate channel performance into annual and in year investment plans, and defend them with executive leadership
• Build creative production that scales, combining agency, UGC, creator, and in house work with testing infrastructure that finds winners fast
• Manage agency and ad tech partners, holding them accountable to goals, pacing, and quality
• Flex spend with the organic calendar, including product launches, seasonal swings, and viral moments, in partnership with Social, Brand, and Country Marketing
• Partner closely with Marketing Analytics, Finance, Product, Engineering, and Creative

✅ You have...

• 12+ years in performance marketing or paid UA, including 5+ years leading teams with managers reporting to you
• A track record of owning a large, multichannel mobile acquisition budget at a top subscription or high engagement consumer app
• Deep experience building and defending incrementality tests, saturation analysis, and LTV/ROAS models, not just reporting on them
• The judgment and integrity to recommend cutting spend when returns don’t support it
• Fluency with mobile attribution (MMPs, SKAN, privacy constrained measurement)
• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering on measurement and attribution infrastructure, onboarding and landing experiences for paid users, and tests that connect acquisition to retention.
• Clear, fast written communication, from channel tactics to executive and board level ROI discussions

⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...

• Experience running UA in China or other walled garden ecosystems
• Experience scaling creator or UGC programs alongside performance creative
• Experience managing acquisition across multiple products or apps
• A passion for Duolingo’s mission

Please include a link to your portfolio showcasing relevant work samples. A portfolio submission is mandatory for consideration of your candidacy.

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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:

$236,800—$355,200 USD

Benefits: Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits here.

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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.

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