Principal Software Engineer, Ads

Fairygodboss; New York (NY); On-site; USD 268,600 - 395,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with employer matching

16 weeks of paid parental leave

Wellness benefits

Paid time off and sick leave

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

Mental health program

Job summary

DoorDash is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the technical direction for the Ads platform. This individual contributor role requires extensive experience in leading architectural strategies and collaborating across teams.

The ideal candidate will have over 12 years of experience in distributed systems and a strong technical background. Compensation ranges from $268,600 to $395,000, plus equity opportunities and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of industry experience leading high-impact platform initiatives.
• Ability to drive multi-year technical roadmaps with clear ownership.
• Demonstrated expertise in distributed systems at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead as the technical lead for the Ads organization.
• Drive alignment across different engineering teams.
• Define patterns for designing and operating large-scale systems.

Skills

Architectural vision

Distributed systems

Cross-functional influence

Technical leadership

Education

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

Job description

About the Team

DoorDash Ads has become one of the fastest growing parts of DoorDash and a core pillar of the company's growth. Our Ads platform serves two core customer groups, Restaurant and CPG advertisers, and is rapidly expanding from enterprise into mid-market and SMB. The business is scaling fast, and we're building the infrastructure to match it. We are evolving from a first-generation platform into a sophisticated, full-funnel advertising system. The architectural decisions made now will define how DoorDash Ads scales across restaurants, retail, and grocery for the next decade.

About the Role

As a Principal Engineer on Ads, you will serve as the technical leader for the Ads platform organization, setting architectural direction and driving the long term technical strategy for the systems that power our entire advertising business. This is an individual contributor role with organization-wide technical authority and director level scope. You will define what we build, how we build it, and the engineering culture that outlasts any single project. You will partner closely with Machine Learning, Product, Data Science, and Infrastructure stakeholders to align on roadmap, scale foundational systems, and deliver high-impact outcomes that improve advertiser ROI, platform reliability, and consumer experience.

You're excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Lead at scale. Serve as the technical lead for the Ads organization, providing architectural vision and direction across the full ads stack.
• Influence across the organization. Drive alignment across ML, Infrastructure, Product, Data Science, and partner engineering teams. Mentor engineers across the Ads org to raise the bar on technical excellence and systems thinking.
• Shape engineering culture. Define the patterns, principles, and standards for how the Ads org designs, ships, and operates large scale distributed systems.
• Solve genuinely hard problems, hands on. Dig into the most complex distributed systems challenges in ads and write code that moves the needle.

We're excited about you because you have…

• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• 12+ years of industry experience, with a proven track record of leading large scale, high impact platform initiatives across multiple teams and systems.
• Demonstrated ability to define and drive multi year technical roadmaps as an organization level technical lead, with clear ownership of architectural decisions and their long term consequences.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems at scale, including real time serving infrastructure, high throughput data pipelines, and low latency systems under strict SLA requirements.
• Meaningful experience in ads infrastructure or adjacent domains.
• Ability to operate at director level scope - driving technical strategy, communicating across executive stakeholders, and shaping organizational priorities - while remaining deeply hands‑on.
• Exceptional technical intuition paired with strong cross functional influence and alignment skills.
• Humility and a growth mindset; you lead through expertise and collaboration, not hierarchy.

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.

Benefits

DoorDash cares about you and your overall well-being. That’s why we offer a comprehensive benefits package to all regular employees, which includes a 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). DoorDash also offers medical, dental, and vision benefits, 11 paid holidays, disability and basic life insurance, family‑forming assistance, and a mental health program, among others.

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).

Salary Range

$268,600 – $395,000 USD

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.