Senior Narrative Designer

Duolingo Duolingo · Consumer · New York, NY +2 · Design Studio

This role is for a Senior Narrative Designer at Duolingo, focusing on creating character experiences for new learning subjects like Math and Music. The designer will write dialogue, integrate character personality into lessons, and shape character behavior across different surfaces. Collaboration with Product, Design, and Engineering is key. Experience in interactive products and game design, particularly narrative system design, is highly valued.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own and evolve a character experience within a New Subjects area (e.g., Math, Music)
  2. Write dialog and UI strings that capture our characters’ established style and tone
  3. Integrate character personality into lessons and core product moments
  4. Shape how characters behave across surfaces, balancing systems that guide their performance
  5. Partner with Product, Design, and Engineering to define and iterate on character-driven features

Skills

Required

  • Excellent creative writing skills and expertise in crafting character-rich dialog
  • Strong ability to mine the zeitgeist for themes (and memes!) to keep content fresh and fun
  • Deep experience collaborating with engineering, art, and product management partners
  • Experience working on interactive products or systems (not just linear content)

Nice to have

  • Game design experience, especially a deep understanding of narrative system design