VP of Finance

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 VP of Finance to join Duolingo’s Senior Leadership Team and manage our Financial Planning & Analysis and Strategic Finance functions. 

Reporting to the CFO, the VP of Finance will serve as a source of financial integrity across Duolingo. This leader will co-own Duolingo’s financial operating cadence — including annual and long-range planning, forecasting, and business reviews — and partner closely with Investor Relations, Treasury, and Corporate Development. They will also collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Growth, Marketing, and Operations to ensure decisions are grounded in sound economic principles and long-term value creation. The VP of Finance will also be at the forefront of enabling Finance with the thoughtful integration of AI, data science and automation. 

This role will be based in our New York City office on a hybrid (4+1) schedule. 

🧠  You will...

• Co-own Duolingo’s financial operating cadence, including annual planning, long-range planning, forecasting, and company-wide business reviews.
• Partner closely with the CFO, Board of Directors, and senior leadership to provide rigorous financial insight that shapes company-wide strategy and resource allocation.
• Establish and uphold rigorous financial principles across the company, ensuring teams make decisions grounded in strong unit economics and long-term value creation.
• Serve as a key voice in communicating Duolingo’s financial performance and long-term strategy to the Board and investors, partnering closely with Investor Relations on earnings materials, guidance, and external messaging.
• Define and refine the KPIs that drive operating discipline, ensuring alignment between financial performance, product strategy, and long-term mission impact.
• Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing FP&A and Strategic Finance team (~10 people), raising the bar for analytical rigor and operational excellence. 
• Operate cross-functionally by design — partnering deeply with Product, Growth, Marketing, Controllership, Investor Relations, and Corporate Development — to ensure aligned priorities and data-driven decision-making.
• Drive finance modernization, including the thoughtful integration of AI, data science and automation — leveraging quantitative and statistical methods to enhance forecasting accuracy, reporting efficiency, and insight generation.
• Work from our New York City office on a hybrid (4+1) schedule.

✅  You have...

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, or a related field.
• 15+ years of progressive finance experience in FP&A, Investment Banking, Corporate or Strategic Finance, including 5+ years leading and managing teams, ideally within a consumer technology, SaaS, subscription or marketplace business.
• Deep expertise in financial modeling, long-range planning, and capital allocation — including familiarity with data science and quantitative methods — with the ability to translate complex data into clear strategic insight.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to distill complex financial topics into clear, compelling narratives for executives, the Board, and investors.
• A strategic and business-minded perspective, capable of balancing financial rigor with bold, long-term thinking.
• A low-ego, high-EQ leadership style that builds trust across functions, earns credibility through impact, and operates both at strategic altitude and in the details.

⭐  Exceptional candidates will have...

• MBA or advanced degree in finance or a related field.
• Experience in a global publicly-traded company, with exposure to earnings preparation and investor relations, and with increasing levels of executive responsibility. 
• Deep understanding of subscription economics, consumer product metrics, and global business models.
• Experience enabling Finance departments through AI, data science and advanced analytics, or automation.