Meghan Walker
Meghan Walker
Director of Business & Design Recruiting - Duolingo
For Meghan Walker, recruiting began with an unexpected discovery during college.
An English literature major, Meghan was not entirely sure where her career would lead. During her final two years at university, she worked as a student employee in the HR department, where her focus area was talent acquisition.
That experience changed everything.
“It was the first time I had really done something that I was excited about,” she says.
After graduation, Meghan landed an internship with a local grocery store in Pittsburgh. That internship became the launchpad for her talent career, eventually turning into a full-time role.
Twelve years later, after working across multiple industries, Meghan still sees that early experience as the moment she “fell backwards” into recruiting—and found a career she genuinely loved.
Leaders Who Saw Her Potential
Looking back, Meghan credits several leaders with shaping the way she approaches talent acquisition today.
Early in her career at Giant Eagle, one leader on the talent branding side took Meghan under her wing.
That mentor saw potential in Meghan before Meghan fully saw it in herself and challenged her to think differently about what was possible in talent acquisition and talent branding.
At Wayfair, another manager helped Meghan grow through a major career transition.
Coming from healthcare into retail, Meghan initially felt out of her depth. But that leader pushed her, challenged her, and helped her expand her confidence and capabilities over three years.
At Duolingo, Meghan credits Renee Davis as a guiding light in her career.
Renee helped open Meghan’s eyes to the operational side of talent, encouraged her to build Duolingo’s first sourcing function, and pushed her into leadership when Meghan was not yet sure if that was the path she wanted.
“I’m so thankful that she did,” Meghan says.
Keeping Recruiting Human in an AI-Driven World
Meghan believes AI has changed recruiting quickly and significantly.
The function has become more operational, more data-driven, and more efficient. AI now creates opportunities to automate repetitive work and give recruiters more time to focus on the human parts of the job.
But Meghan believes talent leaders must be intentional.
“There’s a difference between what we can automate and what we should automate,” she says.
For her, moments that require trust, judgment, empathy, and relationship-building should remain deeply human.
AI can reduce administrative burden, but the time saved should be reinvested into stronger candidate relationships, better hiring manager partnerships, and more thoughtful decision-making.
Advice for Talent Leaders Heading into 2026
Meghan’s advice for talent leaders is to protect the human element of recruiting as the function becomes more tech-enabled.
The best recruiters and recruiting leaders will not simply move faster. They will build trust, tell compelling stories, and make thoughtful decisions.
She also believes leaders must balance results with how those results are achieved.
Recruiting is high-pressure, but Meghan believes great leaders invest deeply in their people while still driving outcomes.
“Empathy is underrated in recruiting leadership,” she says. “You can drive results and lead with empathy. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.”
For Meghan, the future of recruiting belongs to leaders who can combine efficiency with empathy, structure with flexibility, and technology with human connection.
By building strong teams, embracing innovation thoughtfully, and keeping people at the center of the work, Meghan Walker represents the kind of talent leader helping shape the next era of recruiting.
