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Salary: USD 163,200 - 244,800 / annual
Duolingo is seeking a People Relations Business Partner to lead the company's employee relations, leaves of absence, and workplace accommodations programs. This is a strategic HR role that combines case management, program ownership, and organizational insights.
In this role, you will:
**Employee Relations:** Manage employee relations cases from intake through resolution, including employee concerns, workplace conflicts, and conduct issues. Lead fair and thorough workplace investigations, documenting findings and partnering with Legal and People Business Partners on next steps. Provide practical guidance to managers and People Business Partners on employee concerns, performance matters, policy interpretation, and complex workplace situations. Develop tools, guidance, documentation standards, and case management practices that support consistent decision-making. Work closely with People Business Partners, Legal, and other teams to navigate complex or high-risk matters.
**Leaves & Accommodations:** Own Duolingo's global leave of absence and workplace accommodations programs, including strategy, employee experience, policies, processes, and continuous improvement. Manage workplace accommodation requests from intake through implementation and follow-up. Serve as the internal expert and escalation point for complex leave matters, partnering with external administrators, Benefits, Legal, managers, and People Business Partners. Guide complex return-to-work situations and transitions between leave and accommodations. Establish clear expectations for external leave and accommodations partners and hold them accountable for service, accuracy, timeliness, and employee experience. Partner with regional People Business Partners and Legal to navigate matters across geographies and local requirements.
**Insights & Program Improvement:** Analyze employee relations, leave, and accommodation activity to identify recurring themes, emerging risks, and opportunities for improvement. Connect patterns across individual cases to broader questions about management practices, workload, role design, policies, benefits, accessibility, and employee experience. Partner with People leadership, PBPs, Benefits, and Legal to translate insights into practical improvements. Develop meaningful measures of program health, including timeliness, consistency, outcomes, employee experience, and vendor performance.
**People Team Support:** Provide coordination and project support across select People Business Partner priorities, including documentation, reporting, research, and process work. Help keep defined PBP workstreams organized and moving with strong attention to detail, judgment, and execution.
**Requirements:**
- 5+ years of experience across employee relations, workplace accommodations, leave management, HR, or related areas, including independent management of complex employee matters
- Experience conducting workplace investigations and navigating sensitive employee relations matters from intake through resolution
- Strong working knowledge of workplace accommodations and leave practices, including the ADA, FMLA, and interactive process
- Experience advising managers and People partners on complex employee situations and translating policies and legal requirements into practical guidance
- Strong judgment and ability to navigate sensitive or ambiguous situations with consistency and discretion
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including clear, objective case documentation
- Strong case management and organizational skills, with careful attention to confidentiality and follow-through
- Ability to identify patterns across individual cases and translate them into broader organizational insights
- Comfort working across teams, functions, and geographies in a fast-moving environment
**Preferred Qualifications:**
- Global experience supporting employee relations, leaves, or accommodations across multiple countries or regions
- Significant experience independently conducting complex workplace investigations
- Experience building or scaling employee relations, leave, or accommodations practices
- Experience overseeing case management, external leave or accommodations administrators, and using performance data to improve service
- Experience using case management systems and employee data to identify trends and inform organizational decisions
