--- title: 'People Relations Business Partner at Duolingo' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/people-relations-business-partner-duolingo-new-york-svchhrgh68ht' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-20' --- # People Relations Business Partner at Duolingo - **Company:** Duolingo - **Location:** New York, NY / Pittsburgh, PA - **Compensation:** $163k–$245k - **Posted:** 2026-10-15 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-20 - **Apply:** https://careers.duolingo.com/jobs/8891322002?gh_jid=8891322002 ## 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](https://blog.duolingo.com/?utm_source=greenhouse.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=generalblog_gh_091224) to learn more. About the role... We’re hiring a People Relations Business Partner to lead Duolingo’s approach to employee relations, leaves of absence, and workplace accommodations. You will serve as a trusted advisor to Duos, managers, and People Business Partners, bringing sound judgment and consistency to complex employee matters. You’ll manage employee relations cases, own our leave and accommodations programs, and use insights across this work to strengthen our practices and employee experience as Duolingo grows globally. 🧠  You will... - Employee Relations - Manage Employee Relations Cases: Lead employee relations matters from intake through resolution, including employee concerns, workplace conflicts, conduct issues, and other sensitive situations. - Conduct Investigations: Lead fair, thorough, and timely workplace investigations, documenting findings and partnering with Legal and People Business Partners on appropriate next steps. - Advise Managers & PBPs: Provide practical guidance on employee concerns, performance and conduct matters, policy interpretation, and complex workplace situations. - Build ER Practices: Develop tools, guidance, documentation standards, and case management practices that support consistent and thoughtful decision-making. - Partner Across the Business: Work closely with People Business Partners, Legal, and other People teams to navigate complex or high-risk employee matters. Leaves & Accommodations - Own the Programs: Lead Duolingo’s global leave of absence and workplace accommodations programs, including program strategy, employee experience, policies, processes, and continuous improvement. - Lead Accommodations: Manage workplace accommodation requests from intake through implementation and follow-up, partnering with Duos and managers to identify effective, reasonable solutions. - Navigate Complex Leaves: Serve as the internal expert and escalation point for complex leave matters, partnering with external administrators, Benefits, Legal, managers, and People Business Partners. - Support Return to Work: Guide complex return-to-work situations and transitions between leave and workplace accommodations. - Manage Vendor Performance: Establish clear expectations for external leave and accommodations partners and hold them accountable for service, accuracy, timeliness, and employee experience. - Support Our Global Workforce: Partner with regional People Business Partners and Legal to navigate leave and accommodation matters across geographies and local requirements. Insights & Program Improvement - Surface Trends: Analyze employee relations, leave, and accommodation activity to identify recurring themes, emerging risks, and opportunities for improvement. - Look Beyond the Case: Connect patterns across individual cases to broader questions about management practices, workload, role design, policies, benefits, accessibility, and the employee experience. - Turn Insight Into Action: Partner with People leadership, PBPs, Benefits, and Legal to translate what we’re learning into practical improvements. - Measure Effectiveness: Develop meaningful measures of program health, including timeliness, consistency, outcomes, employee experience, and vendor performance. People Team Support - Support PBP Priorities: Provide coordination and project support across select People Business Partner priorities, including documentation, reporting, research, and process work. - Drive Follow-Through: Help keep defined PBP workstreams organized and moving, bringing strong attention to detail, judgment, and execution. ✅  You have... - 5+ years of experience across employee relations, workplace accommodations, leave management, HR, or related areas, including experience independently managing complex employee matters. - Experience conducting workplace investigations and navigating sensitive employee relations matters from intake through resolution. - Strong working knowledge of workplace accommodations and leave practices, including the ADA, FMLA, and interactive process. - Experience advising managers and People partners on complex employee situations and translating policies and legal requirements into practical guidance. - Strong judgment and the ability to navigate sensitive or ambiguous situations with consistency and discretion. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including clear, objective case documentation. - Strong case management and organizational skills, with careful attention to confidentiality and follow-through. - Ability to identify patterns across individual cases and translate them into broader organizational insights. - Comfort working across teams, functions, and geographies in a fast-moving environment. ⭐  Exceptional candidates will have... - Global Experience: Experience supporting employee relations, leaves, or accommodations across multiple countries or regions. - Investigations Expertise: Significant experience independently conducting complex workplace investigations. - Program Building: Experience building or scaling employee relations, leave, or accommodations practices. - Vendor + System Management: Experience overseeing case management, external leave or accommodations administrators and using performance data to improve service. - Systems & Insights: Experience using case management systems and employee data to identify trends and inform organizational decisions. 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: $163,200—$244,800 USD Benefits: Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits [here](https://careers.duolingo.com/#benefits). Job Alerts: Sign up for job alerts [here](http://my.greenhouse.io/users/sign_in?job_board=duolingo). 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](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTX9GKeRMOMA9Vtm0vfGibrYPYz8ysl0Dg8KSXgj_PxeT5ChsdnNZZWtpxu4t7xillTPGnngnKCjIbV/pub). ## About Duolingo ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Duolingo is a gamified language-learning platform that makes education free, fun, and accessible to everyone, and is the most downloaded education app in history. - **Entity Type**: Public (NASDAQ: DUOL) - **Headquarters**: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (with offices in New York, NY and Seattle, WA) - **Founded**: 2011 - **Founders**: Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker ## Core Business - **Primary Industry/Industries**: Education technology (EdTech), language learning, digital assessment - **Target Customers**: B2C (individual learners of all ages, globally), B2B/B2G (institutions through the Duolingo English Test) - **Mission**: “To develop the best education in the world and make it universally available.” [investors.duolingo.com](https://investors.duolingo.com/company-strategy-overview-0) ## Products & Services - **Duolingo (main app)**: The core language-learning app offering 98 courses across nearly 40 languages. Freemium model (free with ads/limited hearts; paid Super Duolingo removes ads and adds unlimited hearts). Uses bite-sized, game-like lessons. - **Duolingo English Test (DET)**: A web-based, high-stakes English proficiency exam accepted by 6,100+ institutions, including 98 of the top 100 U.S. universities. Provides a certified Duolingo Score. - **Duolingo Math**: An app for elementary math and brain training (mental math). - **Duolingo ABC**: An app teaching reading fundamentals to preschool through second-grade children. - **Duolingo Score**: An in-app proficiency estimate (0–129) that aims to become the universal standard for language ability. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Approximately $16 B as of early 2025. [blog.duolingo.com](https://blog.duolingo.com/handbook/) - **Key Metrics (as of Q4 2025)**: - 52.7 million daily active users (DAUs) - 133.1 million monthly active users (MAUs) - 12.2 million paid subscribers - 90%+ annual employee retention rate [investors.duolingo.com](https://investors.duolingo.com/company-strategy-overview-0) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Publicly traded; major institutional shareholders. Key partners include universities and institutions that accept the Duolingo English Test. - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew to 850+ employees (up from ~800 in early 2025). - Massive AI investment: published 20,500 skills in language courses in Q1 2026 alone (up from 7,100/quarter in 2025). - Launched Video Call feature for real-time AI conversation practice with character Lily. - Expanding beyond language into Math and ABC apps. - DET acceptance grew to 6,100+ institutions. ## Competitive Advantages - **Freemium model at massive scale**: Free product drives 500 M+ learners, generating unmatched data for efficacy improvements, while paid subscriptions fund the mission. - **Gamification & design mastery**: “Make It Fun” principle turns learning into an addictive game, driving daily habit formation. - **AI & data flywheel**: Runs 1,000+ A/B tests per quarter; uses learner data to continuously improve content, personalization, and outcomes. - **Long-term thinking**: Culture of “Take the Long View” prioritizes retention and product quality over short-term tricks. - **The Green Machine**: A proven, experiment-driven approach to building products that has produced consistent innovation. - **Strong brand & quirky culture**: Wholesome but unhinged brand identity creates viral moments and deep user loyalty. ## Strategic Focus - **Current priorities**: Growing users (reducing friction in free experience) and teaching better (AI-driven features, new subjects). - **Becoming the proficiency standard**: Push the Duolingo Score as the universal metric for language ability, supported by the DET. - **Expanding subjects**: Math, reading (ABC), and future courses beyond language. - **AI investments**: Continue using AI/automation to rapidly create and improve course content (skills, Video Call, etc.). - **Long-term**: Build a “100‑year company” that transforms global education. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Unique, quirky, and not copied from a tech playbook – built “from scratch by a few dozen nerds in an office above a sports bar.” Core principles: Take the Long View, Raise the Bar, Ship It, Show Don’t Tell, Make It Fun. [handbook.duolingo.com](https://handbook.duolingo.com/) - **Work environment**: Hybrid – in-office Tuesday–Thursday (Pittsburgh, New York, Seattle), remote optional Monday and Friday. Offices designed to be “quirky and welcoming.” [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/duolingo) - **Engineering excellence**: Lean, scrappy teams with high autonomy. Emphasis on rapid experimentation and “The Green Machine.” High bar for hiring but also “genuinely kind” people. 90%+ annual retention indicates strong employee satisfaction. - **Impact**: Work on a product that reaches over half a billion learners worldwide, with a mission-driven focus on global education. - **Perks**: Not fully detailed in provided sources, but the culture emphasizes long-term growth, continuous learning, and a supportive environment for generalists. ## Sources 1. [handbook.duolingo.com](https://handbook.duolingo.com/) – The Duolingo Handbook (company values, culture, Green Machine) 2. [careers.duolingo.com](https://careers.duolingo.com/) – Official careers page (mission, principles) 3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/duolingo) – Duolingo profile on Built In (offices, hybrid policy, tech stack, employee count) 4. [investors.duolingo.com](https://investors.duolingo.com/company-strategy-overview-0) – Company Strategy Overview (mission, pillars, key metrics, growth signals) 5. [blog.duolingo.com](https://blog.duolingo.com/handbook/) – Inside the Duolingo Handbook (valuation ~$16B, principles, culture details) ## Other roles at Duolingo - [Senior Engineering Manager, Data Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-engineering-manager-data-platform-duolingo-new-york-1ba8rxxn7grr) — New York, NY / Pittsburgh, PA - [Senior Director of Performance Marketing](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-of-performance-marketing-duolingo-new-york-a2pzwr5e629h) — New York, NY - [Data Scientist, Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-intern-duolingo-new-york-xgnvfwrp93qy) — New York, NY / Pittsburgh, PA - [Data Scientist, Intern (PhD)](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-intern-phd-duolingo-new-york-7tq8b7teattk) — New York, NY / Pittsburgh, PA - [Product Manager, MBA Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-mba-intern-duolingo-pittsburgh-bq0vs0arhajj) — Pittsburgh, PA - [General Manager, India](https://feeny.ai/job/general-manager-india-duolingo-bengaluru-hqmk6q413rc6) — Bengaluru, India - [AI Research Engineer, New PhD Graduate](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-research-engineer-new-phd-graduate-duolingo-new-york-pz5zwfgse33n) — New York, NY / Pittsburgh, PA - [Staff Technical Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-technical-program-manager-duolingo-new-york-q5dakapaqwrm) — New York, NY - [Illustrator, Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/illustrator-intern-duolingo-detroit-zc5qv10mka9h) — Detroit, MI - [Proctor Quality and Learning Manager, Scaling Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/proctor-quality-and-learning-manager-scaling-operations-duolingo-london-c6yexd9a0bhn) — London, United Kingdom