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Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Duolingo Seattle, WA Full-time Software Engineering Posted Jun 9, 2026
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What it’s like to work at Duolingo

AI-Powered Language Learning · Pittsburgh

4.2
Employee Rating
3.8
Work-Life Balance
61
Open Roles
product-impactlearningsocial-impactship-fastequity

What employees love

  • World's #1 education app with 800M+ users — genuine social impact at massive scale
  • Strong product culture with collaborative teams and daily communal lunches

What could be better

  • Compensation ~80% of FAANG levels — the mission is expected to compensate the gap
  • 3-day in-office requirement is strictly enforced — not a flexible hybrid policy
View full Duolingo culture profile →

About the Role

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.


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

Observability Team:

The Observability team builds infrastructure and tools that give engineers confidence and clarity at Duolingo scale. We create monitoring, alerting, and debugging experiences that help teams ship faster and respond to incidents effectively. In this team, you'll build instrumentation frameworks, deploy telemetry infrastructure, design dashboards, and connect signals to catch issues before they impact learners. We're looking for engineers passionate about developer experience and reliability.

🧠 You will...

✅ You have...

⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...


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:
$182,800$247,300 USD

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 accommodations@duolingo.com.

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.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the work-life balance like at Duolingo?
Duolingo has a work-life balance score of 3.8/5 based on employee reviews. This is about average for the AI/tech industry.
What is Duolingo’s culture like?
Duolingo is characterized by these culture values: product-impact, learning, social-impact, ship-fast, equity. Based on employee reviews, the company has an overall rating of 4.2/5. World's #1 education app with 800M+ users — genuine social impact at massive scale
How many open roles does Duolingo have?
Duolingo currently has 61 open roles across departments including engineering, product, sales, and more. Roles are refreshed daily from their careers page.
Is this role remote-friendly?
This role is located in Seattle, WA. Check the job description above for specific location and remote work details.
Apply for this role at Duolingo →