Senior Manufacturing Engineer - DoorDash Air

DoorDash, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

DoorDash Air seeks a Manufacturing Engineer to help build the first mass-production drone assembly line. You’ll apply DFA and PFMEA to new designs, define layout, and specify tooling that turns prototypes into repeatable production.

You’ll work on the shop floor with suppliers and contract manufacturers, tackle fit and tolerance issues, tooling gaps, and throughput bottlenecks, staying hands-on in a fast-moving startup environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering.
• 5+ years manufacturing/mechanical engineering experience.
• Experience in high-volume electromechanical, aerospace, robotics, or consumer hardware production.
• Hands-on DFA/DFM experience.
• Experience PFMEA for new product introduction.
• Experience with factory/line layout and throughput optimization.
• Experience designing or sourcing assembly tooling, fixtures, and jigs.
• Willingness to travel up to 20%.

Responsibilities

• Own DFA/DFM implementation to optimize manufacturability, cost, and quality.
• Develop PFMEA for new products and ongoing production.
• Design and iterate factory/line layouts and workstation setups for throughput.
• Specify and source assembly tooling, fixtures, and jigs with vendors.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with design, supply chain, and production.
• Create MBOM, work instructions, and manufacturing standards that scale.

Skills

DFA

PFMEA

DFM

Factory layout

Throughput optimization

Cross-functional collaboration

Travel up to 20%

Education

Bachelor's in Mechanical/Industrial Engineering

Job description

About The Team

The DoorDash Air team is bringing drone delivery to reality. To make this happen, we’re building a strong electrical team to design high reliability, high power density converters, and fault‑tolerant controls electronics. Come join us to build a new class of aircrafts and deploy at scale.
DoorDash Labs, established in 2018, serves as the innovation hub for DoorDash, focusing on developing automation and robotics solutions to enhance last‑mile logistics. The team's mission is to create technologies that support and augment human networks, aiming to improve efficiency for Dashers, merchants, and consumers alike. We’re ruthlessly focused on business impact. We are a highly senior team composed of former pioneers from a variety of different robotics industries. As of 2025, DoorDash has completed 10B lifetime deliveries. We’re focused on how to do the next 10B even better.

About The Role

We're hiring a Manufacturing Engineer to help build the process and tooling behind how our autonomous food delivery platform gets made. You'll work hands‑on to bring up our first high‑volume drone assembly line—applying DFA and PFMEA to new designs, building out layout and workstations, and specifying the tooling and fixtures that turn a prototype into a repeatable build. You'll spend your time on the shop floor and with suppliers and contract manufacturers, solving the real problems that come up when a line moves from prototype to production: fit and tolerance issues, process failures, tooling gaps, throughput bottlenecks. This is for someone who wants to be in the weeds of execution, who thrives in a fast‑moving startup environment, and gets energy from solving hard, hands‑on manufacturing problems. You'll get in at the ground floor with the chance to shape how the next generation of food delivery vehicles gets built.

You’re Excited About This Opportunity Because You Will…

• Be our first manufacturing engineer for DoorDash Air's first mass‑production drone assembly line — from pilot build through full‑rate production
• Apply Design for Assembly (DFA) principles in partnership with hardware and electrical engineering to make sure new drone platforms are optimized for manufacturability, cost, and quality before they hit the line
• Own Process FMEA (PFMEA) development, proactively identifying and mitigating failure modes in assembly, test, and inspection before they hit yield or reliability
• Design and iterate on factory/line layout, workstations, and material flow to support a scalable, efficient production system
• Specify, source and/or design, and qualify assembly tooling, fixtures, and jigs, working directly with equipment vendors
• Partner cross‑functionally with design, supply chain, internal production, and CMs to troubleshoot build issues and drive continuous improvement
• Create the manufacturing processes, Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM), work instructions,, and standards that scale as DoorDash Air ramps production volume

We’re excited about you because…

• You have a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related engineering field
• You have 5+ years of manufacturing/mechanical engineering experience, ideally in high-volume electromechanical, aerospace, robotics, or consumer hardware production
• Hands‑on experience applying Design for Assembly (DFA) / Design for Manufacturability (DFM) principles
• Experience authoring and driving Process FMEA (PFMEA) for new product introduction and ongoing productionExperience with factory/line layout design, optimizing workstations for throughput, ergonomics, and quality
• Experience specifying, designing, and/or sourcing assembly tooling, fixtures, and jigs
• Comfortable operating in a fast‑paced, ambiguous environment — building process and infrastructure from scratch
• Strong cross‑functional collaboration across engineering, supply chain, and production
• Familiarity with aerospace structures and electronic systems integration (composites, electro‑mechanical sub‑assemblies, PCBAs,
• Able to travel up to 20% of the time to support CM and supplier evaluations/support

Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis

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.

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).

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

$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 alike. 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.

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