Senior Manager, Scaling Operations

About the role Scaling Operations is Duolingo’s 1-to-a-billion function. We turn promising ideas into reliable, scalable systems so teams can move faster without adding unnecessary complexity. As a Senior Manager Scaling Operations, you’ll lead a small team and own operations for Duolingo’s contingent workforce and vendor procurement. You’ll define strategy, build the systems, and drive workforce planning in partnership with teams across Learning & Curriculum, Product, Engineering, Finance, and Legal. You’ll build centralized operations capability for contractor-heavy workflows across the company, improve the quality of AI-assisted work, automate staffing and assignment routing, and reduce manual effort for partner teams. This role is based in Pittsburgh, PA or New York City, NY. You will Establish and implement a vision for freelance and vendor operations at the intersection of content systems and AI integration - defining success, setting roadmaps, and using AI and automation to deliver new learning content at scale while maintaining educational excellence. Design durable, tech-forward workflows that replace manual coordination with self-service tooling: centralized contractor management, self-serve task assignment, and structured QC and feedback loops. Identify the critical resources for scaling initiatives to succeed both in terms of people and technology, and drive prioritization. Manage a team of program managers. You will manage a team of program managers. You have People management experience. You have experience hiring and developing a team of program management staff. Program management experience. You have demonstrated strong operational leadership, such as experience running programs of large scale and complexity or building and scaling processes from the ground up. Collaboration skills. Partner with functions across the company—such as engineering, product management, content development, and executive leadership—to ensure alignment across teams and stakeholders. Tooling strategy experience. -savviness. You are curious about new technologies, and define the roadmap for you and your teams to increase efficiency with automation. You have strong, data-driven opinions about build vs buy tooling. Strong communication skills. You have excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. Exceptional candidates will have Proven wins maturing a 0-to-1 operations function into a durable, instrumented system, including evaluation loops, anomaly detection, and AI-assisted workflows. Experience partnering deeply with engineering on internal tooling and operating systems; comfortable shaping roadmaps and trade-offs alongside a tech lead. We post a multi-level salary range for all of our roles. Salary Range: $163,200 - $244,800 USD 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. By applying for this position your data will be processed as per the Duolingo Applicant Privacy Notice. 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. #J-18808-Ljbffr