Senior Manager, New Verticals - Search Strategy & Operations

DoorDash USA; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Paid parental leave

Healthcare benefits

Job summary

DoorDash is seeking a senior leader to head the Search effort for New Verticals (Grocery, Convenience, Alcohol, and Retail). You will define, execute, and optimize product initiatives to help customers find what they want quickly and confidently, working with product, engineering, and data science.

You will build and manage a small team, report into a Director, and operate in a hybrid model with limited in-person days.

Qualifications

• 8-12+ years of experience across tech, operations, strategy, or consulting.
• 2+ years of experience managing high-performing teams.
• Ability to solve problems from first principles.
• AI native mindset with capability to automate repeatable tasks using AI tools.
• Comfort with both high-level strategy and detailed execution.
• BS/BA degree; MBA is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Define, execute, and optimize product initiatives for search across New Verticals.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Data Science to launch experiences that improve search relevance and conversion.
• Dive into data to measure impact and identify opportunities.
• Lead a small cross-functional team and report to a Director on New Verticals Strategy & Operations.
• Operate in a hybrid model with occasional in-person collaboration.

Skills

Leadership

Team Leadership

First principles

AI native

SQL

Excel modeling

Customer focus

Analytical thinking

ML concepts

Strategic thinking

Education

BS/BA degree

MBA

Tools

Claude

Cursor

Gemini

Copilot

Job description

About the Team

New Verticals is a lean team in growth mode at DoorDash that is building and scaling new categories for our customers, leveraging the DoorDash platform. New Verticals includes over 100K grocery, convenience, alcohol, retail and DashMart businesses. The Shopping Experience team supports our New Verticals platform, with a focus on making the end-to-end DoorDash customer experience faster, easier and more delightful than shopping in store.

About the Role

Search is critical to delivering a seamless customer experience. We’re looking for someone to join and lead our Search team across New Verticals (Grocery, Convenience, Alcohol, and Retail). You will be responsible for defining, executing and optimizing product initiatives aimed at ensuring customers can quickly and confidently find what they’re looking for. You will work closely with product, engineering, and data science to launch experiences that make shopping 10x better for our customers. You’ll dive deep into data to understand consumer behavior, measure impact, and identify opportunities to improve search relevance and conversion across the app. You’ll report into a Director on our New Verticals Strategy & Operations team and manage a small team. We operate in a hybrid model so we spend a few days a quarter in person together, but all our offices are open should you choose to go in more regularly!

You’re excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Build. You’ll have your fingerprints all over DoorDash’s New Verticals business, across grocery, convenience, retail, alcohol and more. You’ll do whatever it takes to launch, get 1% better every day, and scale something completely new. This means everything from high-level strategy to nitty-gritty operational details.
• Strategize. From first principles, you’ll develop the optimal strategy for best serving our customers.
• Experiment. You’ll transform strategies into operational experiments that create measurable and actionable outcomes, informing your larger initiative implementation plans.
• Analyze. You’ll assess the operational and financial impacts of your decisions, and iterate based on data.
• Lead and collaborate. You’ll work with a cross-functional team, including Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Design to build this new line of business for DoorDash.

We’re excited about you because…

• You have 8-12+ years of experience. You’ve succeeded in high-performance cultures (whether in tech, operations, strategy, consulting, banking, or a related experience).
• You are a leader. You have 2+ years of experience managing high-performing teams.
• You solve problems from first principles. You’re excited to solve problems in innovative ways, and you resist “this is how it’s always been done” thinking.
• You’re AI native. You root cause problems with a systems first approach and can identify how to automate repeatable tasks using AI tools like Claude, Cursor, Gemini or Copilot.
• You’re equally comfortable operating at 10,000 feet and 1 foot. You don’t hesitate to get in the weeds and operate at the lowest level of detail, but you’re just as comfortable thinking long-term and inspiring a team. No job is beneath you.
• You’re customer focused. You are able to identify consumer pain points, lead with the consumer front of mind and build a strategy to enhance our consumer experience.
• You’re analytical. You let data win arguments, and you’re comfortable pulling your own data in SQL or modeling in Excel. You can use this ability to support product use cases and troubleshoot issues.
• You aren’t afraid to dive into technical concepts. You’re eager to understand how things work under the hood, from ML models to engineering architecture. You can collaborate seamlessly with technical teams to translate complex concepts into clear business strategies and customer outcomes.
• You’re unafraid of ambiguity. Rapid change and learning is exciting to you, and you thrive in ambiguous, startup environments
• You are an owner. You're always looking for opportunities to better your work product and own the outcome – both the good and the bad
• You have completed your BS/BA Degree, ideally a business or engineering focused concentration. An MBA is a plus!

We expect this position to be filled by 11-14-2026

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.

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).

The national base pay range for this position within the United States, including Illinois and Colorado is $170,000 - $250,000 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.