Software Engineer, Unified Gateway

DoorDash; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 131,000 - 192,000; Full time

Job summary

DoorDash is seeking a Backend Engineer in Seattle, WA, to build and maintain the Unified Gateway API platform that fronts our traffic, translating REST/JSON into gRPC and handling authentication, routing, and resilience at scale.

You will design robust systems, improve reliability and security, drive API management practices, and champion platform adoption across product teams while leveraging AI coding tools in the full software lifecycle.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of backend, infrastructure, or platform engineering.
• Experience with gRPC, REST APIs, Protobuf, and service-to-service patterns.
• Knowledge of Kotlin (or JVM) for high-scale, resilient systems; Vert.x a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design and build robust, scalable systems with engineering excellence and long-term maintainability in mind.
• Improve performance, reliability, scalability, and security across the gateway and its request-processing pipeline.
• Drive best practices in API management, service discovery, load balancing, and fault tolerance.
• Champion adoption of the Unified Gateway platform across product teams.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues in our high-throughput production environment.
• Evaluate and integrate new technologies to enhance the platform's capabilities.
• Leverage the latest AI coding tools and best practices in the full software development lifecycle.

Skills

Backend engineering

gRPC

REST APIs

Protocol Buffers

Kotlin

JVM

Reactive programming

Distributed systems

API gateway

AI coding tools

Tools

Vert.x

OpenAPI

Job description

About The Team

Help us build the world's most reliable, on-demand logistics engine for last-mile delivery! We're bringing on experienced engineers to help us create and maintain a 24x7, no downtime, global infrastructure system that powers DoorDash's three-sided marketplace of consumers, merchants, and dashers.

About The Role

As a member of the Unified Gateway team, you'll build and maintain the API Gateway platform that sits at the front door of DoorDash's traffic — an HTTP-to-gRPC reverse proxy that accepts REST/JSON requests, translates them into Protocol Buffer messages, calls downstream gRPC services, and translates the responses back to clients. The platform empowers product engineers to declaratively define, test, deploy, and operate their API endpoints without standing up and managing their own edge services. It centrally handles authentication, authorization, request and response mapping, header propagation, encryption, and resilience, and powers experiences across DoorDash, Wolt, and Deliveroo spanning iOS, Android, and Web. By providing this robust platform, we deliver significant improvements in:

• Velocity: Product engineers can iterate faster and deliver features more quickly.
• Scalability: The platform is designed to handle increasing demand and traffic seamlessly.
• Reliability: A safe programming model, centralized management, and standardized practices enhance system stability and reduce errors.
• Cost Efficiency: Consolidating resources and streamlining processes optimizes operational costs across DoorDash.

You are excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Design and build robust, scalable systems with engineering excellence and long-term maintainability in mind.
• Improve performance, reliability, scalability, and security across the gateway and its request-processing pipeline.
• Drive best practices in API management, service discovery, load balancing, and fault tolerance.
• Champion adoption of the Unified Gateway platform across product teams.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues in our high-throughput production environment.
• Evaluate and integrate new technologies to enhance the platform's capabilities.
• Leverage the latest AI-assisted development tools and best practices.

We're excited about you because…

• You have 2+ years of experience in backend, infrastructure, or platform engineering.
• You have experience with gRPC, REST APIs, Protocol Buffers, and service-to-service communication patterns.
• You have deep knowledge of best practices in Kotlin (or another JVM language) for building high-scale, resilient systems; familiarity with asynchronous/reactive frameworks such as Vert.x is a plus.
• You have experience working on high-throughput, mission-critical production systems.
• You have a strong understanding of distributed systems concepts, including consistency, fault tolerance, load balancing, and resilience patterns.
• You are comfortable with API gateway and proxy concerns — authentication and authorization, request routing, and schema/contract management (e.g., OpenAPI).
• You value solving problems at the platform level, building abstractions that make life easier for hundreds of engineers.
• You have proficiency in using AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) in the full software development lifecycle, including designing, generating code, testing, monitoring and releasing software.

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. 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.

• 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.

$130,600—$192,000 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.

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.

Notice to Applicants for Jobs Located in NYC or Remote Jobs Associated With Office in NYC Only

We used Covey as part of our hiring and/or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT in NYC. As part of the hiring and/or promotion process, we provided Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound from August 21, 2023, through December 21, 2023. We resumed using Covey Scout for Inbound again on June 29, 2024, and ceased using Covey Scout for Inbound on April 30, 2026.

The Covey tool has been reviewed by an independent auditor. Results of the audit may be viewed here: https://getcovey.com/nyc-local-law-144.