Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Consumer

DoorDash Mexico; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 243,000 - 357,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with employer matching

16 weeks paid parental leave

Wellness benefits

Job summary

DoorDash is seeking a Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer for Core Cx in San Francisco. You will define the personalization strategy for the consumer shopping journey and implement ML solutions to improve search, discovery, and recommendations across restaurant, grocery, and retail.

You will lead architectural decisions, collaborate with business, product, and engineering teams, and advance the state of the art in AI-driven personalization with scalable ML infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of industry experience building ML models with business impact
• Experience shipping ML solutions to production
• Proficiency with AI coding tools in the full software lifecycle

Responsibilities

• Drive the engineering vision, strategy, and execution for an organization of 150+
• Grow and nurture impactful product engineering teams; scale via internal leadership development
• Mentor the organization on architectural patterns and investments for future needs
• Partner with Business, Product, and other Engineering teams to transform DoorDash from local commerce to agentic commerce

Skills

ML engineering

Production ML

LLM fine-tuning

Roadmap planning

leadership

Cross-functional

AI tooling

Education

B.S./M.S. in CS or equivalent

Tools

Claude Code

Job description

About the Team

The Consumer Engineering Team is responsible for helping consumers discover and order everything they love globally. Our work spans the entire consumer journey across homepage, search, store discovery, item exploration, checkout and post checkout. We aim to craft a hyper-personalized, delightful and frictionless experience for millions of our customers.

About the Role

As a Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer on Core Cx, you will set the personalization (P13n) strategy for the entire consumer shopping journey and bring that strategy to life. You will use our robust data and machine learning infrastructure to implement new ML solutions to make the consumer search experience more relevant, seamless, and delightful across restaurant, grocery, retail and all business at DoorDash . You will modernize the recommendation system leveraging AI. You will demonstrate a strong command of production level machine learning, experience with solving end-user problems, and collaborate well with multi-disciplinary teams.

You’re excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Drive the engineering vision, strategy, and execution for an organization of 150+
• Grow, build, and nurture impactful business-focused product engineering teams. Scale the team by developing leaders internally and attracting world-class talent
• Mentor and guide a fast-growing organization in setting the right architectural patterns, working with various vendors in the space, and making judicious investments in the right areas anticipating what the company needs a few years down the road.
• Partner with Business, Product, and other Engineering teams to transform DoorDash from local commerce to agentic commerce

We’re excited about you because you have…

• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or equivalent.
• 10+ years of industry experience developing machine learning models with business impact, and shipping ML solutions to production.
• Proficiency in using AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code) in the full software development lifecycle, including designing, generating code, testing, monitoring and releasing software
• Proven ability to drive multi-quarter technical roadmaps as a technical lead, with clear ownership of architectural decisions.
• Deep expertise in deep learning, and fine-tuning. Hands-on experience optimizing LLM systems (e.g., fine-tuning, advanced prompting strategies, structuring JSON/tool-calling outputs).
• Strong technical intuition paired with the ability to influence and align cross-functional stakeholders.
• Humility and growth mindset, leading 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.

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.

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.

$242,800—$357,000 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.