Engineering Manager, Personalization

DoorDash, Inc.; San Francisco, Sunnyvale (CA, CA); On-site; USD 194,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with employer matching

16 weeks of paid parental leave

wellness benefits

commuter benefits match

paid time off and paid sick leave as 0

medical, dental, and vision benefits

11 paid holidays

disability and basic life insurance

family-forming assistance

mental health program

Job summary

DoorDash, Inc. is seeking an Engineering Manager with an ML background to lead the Personalization engineering team responsible for ML ranking and recommendation systems that maximize value for consumers, merchants, and DoorDash.

You will guide a team of world-class ML engineers, define the personalization strategy and roadmap, and collaborate with Product, Design, and Business stakeholders to deliver impactful, real-time personalization across platforms.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of industry experience.
• Minimum of 2 years of leadership experience.
• Broad knowledge of machine learning with strong ML modeling foundation.
• Extensive experience in building user-facing product and working directly with product managers.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to partner with teams spanning many disciplines.
• Ability to guide and grow an excellent engineering team in a rapidly changing business environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of ML engineers delivering end-to-end personalization experience.
• Define personalization strategy and technology roadmap.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and Business stakeholders to define roadmap and vision.
• Drive innovation and adoption of cutting-edge ML technologies.
• Scale the team by developing internal talent and attracting top external talent.

Skills

Machine learning

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Product collaboration

Education

B.S., M.S., or PhD. in Computer Science

Job description

DoorDash is looking for an Engineering Manager with an ML background to lead the Personalization engineering team. This team is responsible for building ML ranking and recommendation systems to maximize the value for consumers, merchants, and DoorDash.

Our Personalization team is a part of our Core Consumer org which owns the top of the conversion funnel from the initial landing page all the way to checkout across platforms. Personalization is at the center of the team’s mission. As DoorDash expands into new verticals and experiences like grocery, reservations, and going out, the challenge of helping consumers easily find what they want grows exponentially, so the opportunity is massive!

In 2027, we’re reimagining personalization from the ground up: an intent agent that predicts, at app open, what each consumer is here for; semantic understanding of every entity we rank; a blender that blends content from different verticals and business lines, like reservations, going out, and ads; and real-time ranking that adapts as consumer signals happen.

About the Role

You will lead a team of world-class ML engineers redefining the personalization experience for DoorDash through cutting-edge technologies. You will also be the key player in defining DoorDash’s personalization strategy and technology roadmap.

You’re excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Build an intent agent that makes granular predictions of what each consumer is here for the moment they open the app, and shapes the experience around it
• Leverage cutting-edge LLM and Deep Learning (GNN, MTL, Transformers) to augment DoorDash’s personalization stack, starting with semantic understanding of every entity we rank, so our models understand what consumers want and what we offer, not just what they clicked before
• Extend the blender to blend content from different verticals and business lines, like reservations, going out, and ads, balancing value for consumers, merchants, and DoorDash
• Take personalization to real-time ranking that reacts to consumer signals as they happen
• Lead and grow a team of exceptional machine learning engineers delivering on end-to-end personalization experience with state-of-the-art ML approaches
• Work with Product, Design, and Business stakeholders directly across DoorDash to define the roadmap and vision for the team and deliver immense impact
• Encourage innovation, implementation of cutting-edge technologies, outside-of-the-box thinking and teamwork
• Build an outstanding team by coaching and empowering engineers through delegation, and applying your technical expertise to hold your team to the highest engineering standards
• Scale the team by developing internal talent and attracting top external talent

We're excited about you because you have…

• B.S., M.S., or PhD. in Computer Science or equivalent
• 7+ years of industry experience
• Minimum of 2 years of leadership experience
• Broad knowledge of machine learning with strong ML modeling foundation
• Extensive experience in building user-facing product and working directly with product managers
• Strong communication skills and the ability to partner with teams spanning many disciplines
• Ability to guide and grow an excellent engineering team in a rapidly changing business environment

Nice to have

• Experience leading the successful application of machine learning to real-world ranking and recommendation problems
• Experience with LLM-powered agents, semantic representations of users and content, multi-objective blending, or real-time ML systems

Compensation

The successful candidate’s starting pay will fall within the pay range listed below and is determined based on job-related factors including, but not limited to, skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. Base salary is localized according to an employee’s work location. Ranges are market-dependent and may be modified in the future.

In addition to base salary, the compensation for this role includes opportunities for equity grants. Talk to your recruiter for more information.

• 401(k) plan with employer matching
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave
• wellness benefits
• commuter benefits match
• paid time off and paid sick leave in compliance with applicable laws (e.g. Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act)
• medical, dental, and vision benefits
• 11 paid holidays
• disability and basic life insurance
• family-forming assistance
• mental health program

To learn more about our benefits, visit our careers page here .

See below for paid time off details:

• For salaried roles: flexible paid time off/vacation, plus 80 hours of paid sick time per year.
• For hourly roles: vacation accrued at about 1 hour for every 25.97 hours worked (e.g. about 6.7 hours/month if working 40 hours/week; about 3.4 hours/month if working 20 hours/week), and paid sick time accrued at 1 hour for every 30 hours worked (e.g. about 5.8 hours/month if working 40 hours/week; about 2.9 hours/month if working 20 hours/week).

The national base pay range for this position within the United States, including Illinois and Colorado.

$193,800 - $285,000 USD

About DoorDash

At DoorDash, our mission to empower local economies shapes how our team members move quickly, learn, and reiterate in order to make impactful decisions that display empathy for our range of users—from Dashers to merchant partners to consumers. We are a technology and logistics company that started by enabling door-to-door delivery, and we are looking for team members who can help us go from a company that is known as the place you order food to a company that people turn to for any and all goods.

DoorDash is growing rapidly and changing constantly, which gives our team members the opportunity to share their unique perspectives, solve new challenges, and own their careers. We're committed to supporting employees’ happiness, healthiness, and overall well-being by providing comprehensive benefits and perks including premium healthcare, wellness expense reimbursement, paid parental leave and more.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We’re committed to growing and empowering a more inclusive community within our company, industry, and cities. That’s why we hire and cultivate diverse teams of people from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We believe that true innovation happens when everyone has room at the table and the tools, resources, and opportunity to excel.

Statement of Non-Discrimination: In keeping with our beliefs and goals, no employee or applicant will face discrimination or harassment based on: race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, age, gender, marital/domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability status, or veteran status. Above and beyond discrimination and harassment based on “protected categories,” we also strive to prevent other subtler forms of inappropriate behavior (i.e., stereotyping) from ever gaining a foothold in our office. Whether blatant or hidden, barriers to success have no place at DoorDash. We value a diverse workforce – people who identify as women, non-binary or gender non-conforming, LGBTQIA+, American Indian or Native Alaskan, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, differently-abled, caretakers and parents, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. Thank you to the Level Playing Field Institute for this statement of non-discrimination.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and any other state or local hiring regulations, we will consider for employment any qualified applicant, including those with arrest and conviction records, in a manner consistent with the applicable regulation.

If you need any accommodations, please inform your recruiting contact upon initial connection.

Notice to Applicants for Jobs Located in NYC or Remote Jobs Associated With Office in NYC Only

We used Covey as part of our hiring and/or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT in NYC. As part of the hiring and/or promotion process, we provided Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound from August 21, 2023, through December 21, 2023. We resumed using Covey Scout for Inbound again on June 29, 2024, and ceased using Covey Scout for Inbound on April 30, 2026.

The Covey tool has been reviewed by an independent auditor. Results of the audit may be viewed here: https://getcovey.com/nyc-local-law-144 .