Staff Program Manager Brand Campaigns

About the role

You will own the end-to-end planning and execution of complex, multi-quarter brand programs that span marketing, product, and creative teams at Duolingo. You will translate ambiguous strategic direction into clear, scalable execution plans that enable cross-functional teams to deliver integrated campaigns on schedule. In this role, you will design operating models, manage dependencies, and remove blockers before they impact delivery quality. You will also partner with senior stakeholders to align goals, define success metrics, and maintain decision logs that keep programs moving forward. You will build and refine processes that allow the organization to move fast without sacrificing rigor or quality. This position requires you to manage and develop a bench of freelance program managers so that your impact scales as program complexity grows. You will operate with significant autonomy while communicating crisp status and recommendations to executive leadership.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define end-to-end plans and timelines for multiple complex, cross-functional brand programs, owning scope, milestones, owners, and success metrics from inception to launch.

Build integrated program plans and detailed timelines that map dependencies, critical paths, and resource constraints across teams and partners.

Proactively surface risks, manage dependencies, and drive mitigation plans so that programs stay on track and quality standards are maintained.

Run structured operating rituals such as kickoffs, status updates, reviews, executive briefings, and retrospectives that drive decisions and create clear next steps.

Align stakeholders across internal teams including Product, Engineering, Creative, Design, Analytics, Legal, and external partners and agencies around shared goals and trade-offs.

Create lightweight, reusable processes, templates, and tools that teams actually adopt to raise the bar on documentation, visibility, and execution at scale.

Track performance against program goals and partner with analytics and insights teams to synthesize learnings and feed them into future planning and operating models.

Coach teams on program management best practices and elevate execution across adjacent workstreams even when you do not directly own those workstreams.

Manage and hire a bench of freelance program managers, defining work scopes, setting standards, and ensuring seamless integration with internal teams.

Partner closely with Brand and Marketing to orchestrate multi-workstream campaign operations while preserving creativity and coordinating cross-channel deliverables and external partners to hit dates and quality bars.

Develop and maintain a clear decision log that captures rationale, assumptions, and trade-offs to ensure continuity and learning across programs.

Champion data-informed decision making by defining key performance indicators, monitoring results, and using insights to refine plans and recommendations.

Establish repeatable workflows for campaign planning that balance structure and agility, enabling teams to move quickly while maintaining alignment.

Serve as the central point for cross-functional coordination, translating executive priorities into actionable plans that distributed teams can execute.

Requirements

Experience in program or project management leading high-impact, cross-functional programs end-to-end in consumer tech or a comparable fast-paced environment, including multi-workstream initiatives with senior stakeholders.

Proven mastery of integrated campaign planning and timelining, with strong ability to manage multiple concurrent programs, dependencies, and change while maintaining clarity and calm.

Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to simplify complexity, drive decisions, and influence across levels without formal authority.

Demonstrated strength in creating structure in ambiguity and designing systems and rituals that scale execution without adding unnecessary overhead.

A data-informed mindset, including the ability to define success metrics, use results to shape next steps, and make recommendations grounded in evidence.

Deep proficiency with project and task management tools such as Asana, Jira, and Google Workspace, along with a documentation-first approach to work.

Experience orchestrating cross-channel marketing or product launch workflows and managing external agencies and partners in a fast-paced environment.

Strong judgment around prioritization, trade-offs, and decision-making in environments with competing demands and tight timelines.

Practical notes

This role is based in New York City, with 10-15% travel for shoots, partner meetings, and company events. You will also manage and develop a bench of freelance program managers who can help scale your impact.