Performance Marketing Lead

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.

About the role...

We’re looking for a Performance Marketing Lead to own paid user growth at Duolingo. You’ll help lead the strategy and team that bring new learners to Duolingo across 100+ markets and multiple products, including language, chess, and math. You’ll be accountable for growing high quality new users efficiently and proving the impact of that spend. You’ll partner with the Performance Marketing leadership team to shape where we invest next.

🧠 You will...

• Own Duolingo’s paid user growth goals, setting the strategy for acquiring new users who stay and learn.
• Lead and develop a team of performance marketers, setting a high bar for craft, rigor, and ownership.
• Run user acquisition across platforms such as Google UAC, Meta, TikTok, AppLovin, and programmatic partners, plus channels in China. You’ll decide where to scale, hold, or pull back as efficiency changes.
• Measure what user growth spend actually drives, using incrementality testing, saturation analysis, and new user quality metrics such as retention.
• Build creative testing at scale with agency, creator, UGC, and in house partners, and use results to shape what gets made next.
• Manage and hold agency and ad tech partners accountable for goals, pacing, and quality of execution.
• Flex spend with the organic calendar, partnering with Social, Brand, and Country Marketing around product launches, seasonal swings, and viral moments.
• Partner with Product and Engineering on measurement infrastructure, onboarding for paid users, and tests that connect acquisition to retention.
• Turn performance into clear recommendations for marketing leadership, including what isn’t working.

✅ You have...

• 8+ years of experience in performance marketing or paid user acquisition, with a focus on large scale, global mobile acquisition campaigns.
• 3+ years leading teams of performance marketers.
• A track record of owning a large, multichannel performance budget and taking channels from test to scale.
• Hands on experience with incrementality tests, saturation analysis, and LTV and ROAS models.
• Deep knowledge of the mobile user acquisition ecosystem, including attribution technologies and iOS privacy frameworks such as SKAN.
• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering teams on performance marketing.
• The judgment to recommend cutting or reallocating spend when returns don’t support it.
• Clear, concise written communication, from channel detail to leadership level recommendations.

⭐ Exceptional candidates will have...

• Experience leading user acquisition for a top subscription based mobile app or a high engagement consumer app with millions of daily users.
• Experience running acquisition in China or other markets with distinct ad ecosystems.
• Experience growing users across multiple products or apps.
• Experience scaling creative through UGC agencies, creator marketplaces, or creator networks.
• A passion for Duolingo’s mission to make education universally accessible.

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!

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

Job Alerts: Sign up for job alerts here.

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.