Software Engineer, Robotics Infrastructure - Autonomy & Robotics, DoorDash Air

DoorDash, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 247,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Parental leave (16 weeks)

Wellness benefits

Commuter benefits match

Paid time off & sick leave

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Holidays

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Family-forming assistance

Mental health program

Job summary

DoorDash Labs, the autonomous robotics group within DoorDash, is hiring a Robotics Infrastructure Engineer. You will own and build the onboard infrastructure that enables aerial autonomy development, focusing on process management, health monitoring, parameterization, and robust CI/CD for real-time systems.

This role involves cross-compiling for Jetson targets, ROS2 middleware, and developing tooling to support SIL/HIL workflows while maintaining fault-tolerant, non-restartable software at

Qualifications

• > BS/MS/PhD in CS, EE, ME, Robotics, or related field
• < You have prior robotics infra experience
• < Experience with robotics middleware (ROS2, LCM, eCal, Apex.AI)
• < Build systems and package managers (CMake, Bazel, Nix, Conan)
• < NVidia Jetson and JetPack experience
• < Robotics logging/visualization tools (RViz, Foxglove, Rerun, Plotly)
• < Strong C++ and Python, systems-level debugging
• < You own and define critical infrastructure layers

Responsibilities

• Develop and own onboard components: process management, health monitoring, configuration management, and message passing
• Own the build system (C++, Python) and middleware layer (ROS2), including cross-compilation for Jetson targets
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines and regression testing infrastructure
• Build and manage parameterization system: schema definition, validation, migration, deployment
• Create robotics logging, plotting, and debugging tools to improve team productivity
• Collaborate with simulation team to support SIL/HIL development workflows
• Define reliability standards for onboard software: watchdogs, failover, graceful degradation

Skills

C++

Python

Systems debugging

Robotics concepts

Build systems

Software engineering

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS, EE, ME, Robotics, or related field

Tools

ROS2

LCM

eCal

Apex.AI

CMake

Bazel

Nix

Conan

NVidia Jetson

JetPack

RViz

Foxglove

Rerun

Plotly

LLVM

Job description

About the Team

DoorDash Labs is an independent team within DoorDash. We explore robotics and automation to transform last mile logistics in the long term. If you have a passion for applying robotics solutions in a service used by millions of people, then we want to talk to you!

About the Role

We're hiring a Robotics Infrastructure Engineer in our Autonomy Software team. In this role, you'll own, build, and manage the infrastructure that makes aerial autonomy development possible. You'll work on the onboard systems that keep a drone alive (process management, health monitoring, parameterization) and the development environment that makes the team fast (build systems, CI/CD, logging, debugging, regression testing). This is not cloud infrastructure. This is real-time, fault-tolerant, onboard software for vehicles that cannot gracefully restart at 50 meters altitude.

You're excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Play an integral role on a small and focused team
• Develop and own critical onboard components: process management, health monitoring, configuration management, and message passing
• Own the build system (C++, Python) and middleware layer (ROS2), including cross-compilation for Jetson targets
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines and regression testing infrastructure
• Build and manage the parameterization system, including schema definition, validation, migration, and deployment
• Build robotics logging, plotting, and debugging tools that make the entire team more productive
• Work closely with the simulation team to support SIL/HIL development workflows
• Define reliability standards for onboard software: watchdogs, failover, and graceful degradation

We're excited about you because…

• You have prior experience at a robotics company in a similar infrastructure role
• You have experience with robotics middleware (ROS2, LCM, eCal, Apex.AI)
• You have experience with build systems and package managers (CMake, Bazel, Nix, Conan)
• You have experience with NVidia Jetson and JetPack
• You have experience with robotics logging and visualization (RViz, Foxglove, Rerun, Plotly)
• You have strong C++ and Python skills, and you're comfortable with systems-level debugging
• You love diving into build system and compiler internals (LLVM, linker behavior, optimization passes)
• You want to own and define a critical layer of infrastructure, not just contribute to one
• You get excited about rendering and plotting robot internals, and you treat observability as a first-class problem
• You're driven by a passion for delivering outstanding customer experiences
• You have a proactive approach to development, often crafting new tools
• BS/MS/PhD in CS, EE, ME, Robotics, or related field

Nice to have experience includes:

• • Experience designing fault-tolerant systems for safety-critical applications (aerospace, automotive, medical)
  • Contributions to open-source robotics tooling
  • Experience with deterministic replay or time-travel debugging for robotics
  • Familiarity with DO-178C or similar certification-aware development processes
  • Experience with Nix for reproducible robotics builds
  • You have informed opinions on process supervision (systemd vs custom vs supervisord) and can articulate the tradeoffs
  • You've debugged DDS/middleware issues under real-time constraints on embedded hardware

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 if working 20 hours/week).

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

$168,000 — $247,000 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 Regarding Use of AI and Automated Tools: To streamline our hiring process, DoorDash utilizes an automated recruitment tool called Metaview.

How it works: Metaview assists our recruiting team by evaluating job related qualifications and characteristics in connection with hiring. The tool is designed and used to support - rather than replace - human decision‑making; trained personnel make final decisions with meaningful human review and oversight, and DoorDash does not use Metaview or other AI-enabled tool in a manner that has the effect of subjecting applicants or employees to discrimination based on any protected characteristic or proxy or for engaging in any protected activity under applicable law.

Data Retention, Privacy & Bias Audit: Data collected during this process is retained in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy https://help.doordash.com/en-us/legal/article/ax-privacy-notice and applicable state laws. In compliance with New York City Local Law 144, the independent bias audit summary for Metaview is publicly available for review at https://trust.warden-ai.com/metaview/application-review.