Sr. UTM Engineer

DoorDash, Inc.; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); On-site; USD 199,000 - 292,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

401(k) plan with employer matching

Paid parental leave

Wellness benefits

Paid time off & sick leave

Job summary

DoorDash, Inc. is seeking a Senior UTM Engineer for the DoorDash Air program in San Francisco, CA.

You will design and deploy interoperable services that must pass conformance tests, and develop path planning and airspace deconfliction algorithms for safe, efficient routes in dynamic environments. You will collaborate with systems engineering, operations, and external bodies while translating complex state into actionable insights for stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience across the full lifecycle of distributed systems in safety-critical domains.
• Experience building production services that interoperate with external or open-source systems.
• Hands-on experience with path planning, routing, or deconfliction in dynamic environments.
• Strong software fundamentals with C++, Python, Go and real-time/fault-tolerant design.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deploy interoperable services that pass conformance tests with external systems.
• Develop novel path planning and airspace deconfliction algorithms for safe routes.
• Build evaluation tools to monitor airspace efficiency and system performance.
• Create integrations connecting the deconfliction stack to existing DoorDash systems and stakeholders.

Skills

Distributed systems

Path planning

Airspace deconfliction

Interoperable services

C++

Python

Go

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/EE/Aerospace/Robotics

Tools

Real-time systems

Job description

# Sr. UTM Engineer - DoorDash AirApply To JobJob ID: **3513177**DoorDash, Inc.San Francisco, CA## **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 Senior UTM Engineer who will build core components of DoorDash Air's internal route planning and airspace deconfliction stack — the systems that decide where our aircraft can safely fly, coordinate that with other operators and airspace authorities, and keep our internal stakeholders and external systems talking to each other in terms they understand. This is a role for someone who has already lived through the full lifecycle of a distributed, interoperable, uptime-critical system in a field where getting it wrong has real consequences — aviation, finance, communications, healthcare, or similar — and wants to bring that judgment to a fast-moving aerial delivery network.## **You’re excited about this opportunity because you will...*** Design, build, and deploy interoperable services that must pass rigorous, often open-source, conformance and integration testing against external systems and partners.* Develop novel path planning and airspace deconfliction algorithms that find safe, efficient routes through real-world, dynamic environments.* Build tools that help our teams and systems evaluate and optimize airspace efficiency and utilization.* Design integrations that connect the deconfliction stack to existing DoorDash systems, translating mission and airspace status into terms internal stakeholders can act on.* Collaborate closely with systems engineering, commercial operations, and flight operations to ship features that hold up in real-world flight.* Represent DoorDash Air externally — engaging with peer companies, working groups, and standards bodies to improve interoperable deployments industry-wide and help shape the## **We’re excited about you because...*** Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.* You have 5+ years of experience across the full lifecycle — design, build, deployment, and operation — of distributed systems in aviation, finance, communications, healthcare, or another field where interoperability, uptime, and (ideally) safety criticality are core drivers of the work.* You've built and shipped production services that had to interoperate with systems you didn't control, including passing external or open-source conformance/certification testing.* You have hands-on experience with path planning, routing, or deconfliction problems in real-world, dynamic environments — or the algorithmic depth to pick this up quickly (graph search, optimization, or motion planning fundamentals).* You're comfortable building evaluation and analysis tooling, not just the systems being evaluated — you like giving other teams visibility into system performance and efficiency.* You can design clean integrations across organizational boundaries and translate technical system state into language that commercial, operations, and non-engineering stakeholders understand.* You communicate well with non-technical stakeholders and are comfortable representing your work and your company outside of it — in standards working groups, industry forums, or direct collaboration with peers at other companies.* You have strong software engineering fundamentals and experience with the languages and paradigms common to safety- and uptime-critical distributed systems (e.g., C++, Python, Go, or similar, plus familiarity with real-time or fault-tolerant system design).* BS/MS/PhD in CS, EE, Aerospace, Robotics, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.### **Nice to have:*** Experience with airspace management, air traffic control, or UAS traffic management (UTM) concepts and systems.* Experience contributing to or engaging with technical standards bodies or open-source interoperability efforts.* Familiarity with certification-aware development processes (e.g., DO-178, ARP4761) common to safety-critical aerospace software.* Experience with real-time or embedded systems, or with systems that must degrade gracefully under partial failure.**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.$198,600—$292,000 USD