Backend Software Engineer (Senior/Staff/Senior Staff)

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 finding innovative solutions to complex technical problems, running countless experiments (300+ at a time!) with our massive user base to make data-driven decisions, and educating our users and employees alike. You’ll have limitless learning opportunities, mentorship and collaboration with world-class minds, and a variety of projects with large scopes — while doing work that’s both fun and meaningful. 

Join our life-changing mission to develop education for our half a billion (and growing!) learners around the world.

About the role

As a Backend Engineer you will work on building the APIs that power our products and give our learners a best-in-class experience.

Our microservices infrastructure is composed of hundreds of endpoints serving hundreds of millions of requests per day. You will partner with your team members on identifying requirements and designing services that are fast, resilient and cost effective. You will have ownership over the entire lifecycle of your services and associated infrastructure, and ensure they are always operating well.

Below you can find more information about teams we're hiring for:

• In the Data Platform Area, you'll build tooling and infrastructure at scale to support Duolingo’s key data workflows from data visualization to A/B testing and AI.

Learning Scaling Area:

• The Learning Scaling Area’s mission is to ensure that all of Duolingo’s learners have access to high quality educational content. We leverage pedagogical experts and AI to create content for over 100 courses. You will be responsible for building and improving the infrastructure and tooling that drives content creation.

Learning R&D Area:

• The Learning R&D Area works on improving the learning experience of our users with new bets, technologies, and features, that fill the learning gaps in our product. Our goal is to make Duolingo the best way to level up your language skills, regardless of your proficiency level.

Content AI Platform Area:

• The Content AI Platform team builds impactful foundational systems used across Duolingo. In this role, you will develop state of the art platforms and infrastructure that are used by various functions to create learning content with AI and provide an excellent learner experience at scale.

  You will...

• Collaborate on software projects with product design and backend aspects
• Develop, release, and maintain backend services and/or infrastructure
• Lead individual project priorities, milestones, and ensure we're always shipping

  You have...

• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related technical field
• Strong competencies in data structures, algorithms, and software design
• Experience programming in Java, Python or Kotlin
• Solid understanding of one or more database technologies

  Exceptional candidates will have...

• Industry experience building high-traffic APIs using public cloud providers

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

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 your recruiter.

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.