AI Strategy & Operations Manager - Frontier Lab Impact

DoorDash; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 124,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

DoorDash’s AI Research Lab seeks an Associate Manager, Strategy & Operations to translate frontier AI into shipped products and scalable infrastructure. You will work across research, product, and operations to move from discovery to deployment.

You’ll partner with merchants, sales, and engineering teams to define AI bets, drive revenue initiatives, and build KPI‑driven programs. The role combines entrepreneurial leadership with rigorous execution in a fast‑growing environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience in finance, management consulting, business operations, business analytics, or high‑growth/early‑stage startup environments.
• Exceptional communicator and operator who can partner directly with in‑field merchants, sales, and support teams to uncover workflow pain points, translate them into AI‑native product opportunities, and drive adoption across internal stakeholders.
• Strong analytical thinker who thrives in ambiguity and 0‑to‑1 environments—able to extract clear, actionable recommendations and measurement frameworks out of fast‑moving, frontier‑AI research and bring structure to unstructured problems.
• Hands‑on experience leveraging AI tooling (Claude Codex, Codex, Cursor, etc.) in day‑to‑day work to accelerate discovery, prototype workflows, build eval datasets, and test hypotheses faster than traditional product cycles allow.
• Direct experience productizing LLM/ML systems (shipping features, building eval datasets, or running model‑performance feedback loops) is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Reimagine core experiences through AI, such as the merchant journey, by partnering directly with in‑field merchants, sales, support, product, and engineering teams.
• Own revenue‑driving AI initiatives, operating as the accountable business owner for high‑priority AI bets and ensuring clear linkage between technical progress and financial outcomes.
• Lead business planning cycles, developing go‑to‑market strategies for AI‑powered products and capabilities, overseeing execution through structured project plans, resource allocation, and KPI tracking.
• Develop new business metrics and measurement frameworks, including: defining what should be measured and why; establishing performance thresholds using data‑driven benchmarking; localizing metrics across geographies and market types.
• Drive AI adoption across DoorDash by enabling non‑technical teams with enterprise tools, workflows, and experimentation sandboxes that integrate AI into daily operations.
• Build scalable AI foundations, including evaluation datasets, guardrails, monitoring systems, and strategies for custom foundation models that ensure safety, reliability, and long‑term leverage.
• Operationalize frontier technologies from external partners, translating research breakthroughs into revenue‑generating product capabilities and production systems.
• Lead rapid experimentation cycles, validating product‑market fit, measuring business impact, and ensuring AI initiatives translate into tangible outcomes.

Skills

Finance

Management consulting

Business operations

Business analytics

High-growth startups

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Claude Codex

Codex

Cursor

Job description

DoorDash’s AI Research Lab seeks an Associate Manager, Strategy & Operations to translate frontier AI into shipped products and scalable infrastructure. You will work across research, product, and operations to move from discovery to deployment.

You’ll partner with merchants, sales, and engineering teams to define AI bets, drive revenue initiatives, and build KPI‑driven programs. The role combines entrepreneurial leadership with rigorous execution in a fast‑growing environment.