Staff Machine Learning Engineer - DashPass

DoorDash USA; Sunnyvale, San Francisco (CA, CA); On-site; USD 137,100 - 201,600; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with employer matching

16 weeks of paid parental leave

Wellness benefits

Paid time off

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits

Job summary

A leading delivery technology company is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to design and develop large-scale ML systems aimed at personalizing the DashPass subscriber journey. This role involves building and deploying ML systems, optimizing incentive frameworks, and collaborating across multiple teams to enhance subscriber growth metrics. Candidates should possess an advanced degree in Computer Science and extensive industry experience in production-scale ML systems, along with excellent communication skills.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of industry experience building production-scale ML systems.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and drive complex projects.
• Strong understanding of statistics and machine learning fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to causal inference modeling for subscriber acquisition strategies.
• Build and deploy ML systems to improve subscriber outcomes.
• Partner with Product and Data Science teams to design experiments.

Skills

Strong programming skills in Python

Strong understanding of probability theory

Experience with ML frameworks such as TensorFlow

Strong programming skills in Java or C++

Excellent communication skills

Education

M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

XGBoost

Job description

San Francisco, CA; Sunnyvale, CA

About the Team

DashPass is DoorDash’s subscription loyalty program that delivers lower delivery fees and a host of additional benefits and value to a large subscriber base of both paid and sponsored subscriptions. DashPass subscribers enjoy lower delivery fees, faster ETAs, 3rd party partnerships, and special discounts and promotions to get maximum value of their membership.

Several teams are part of the DashPass org including Growth, Habituation, Member Experience, Exclusive Offers, and Partnerships. All of these teams require personalized targeting of offers and promotions to entice active Doordash consumers to sign up for DashPass and actively engage with their subscription in a personalized way, as well as reduce churn by offering personalized incentives to DashPass subscribers to keep using their subscription.

We are forming a new team that will leverage AI and advanced ML to power decision making in real-time – from personalized sign up promotions to progressive reward systems, and to pre-cancel offers that retain subscribers.

DashPass is continuously building new benefits and offerings to drive more value for our subscribers, and personalization is our next big bet to help efficiently grow our subscriber base to 2030 and beyond.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to drive the design and development of large-scale ML/optimization systems to target personalization efforts across the DashPass Subscriber journey.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to Causal inference modeling to measure the incremental impact of DashPass Subscriber acquisition and retention strategies.
• Incentive optimization frameworks that personalize progressive rewards to improve spend efficiency.
• Budget allocation and forecasting models that identify optimal spend across acquisition, referrals, and retention.
• Partner closely with Product, Data Science, and Engineering teams to design experiments, model frameworks, and production ML systems that directly impact DashPass subscriber growth metrics.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers and cross‑functional partners — leading through influence, not management.
• Build and deploy 0→1 ML systems that improve subscriber outcomes and marketplace health.
• Set best practices for model training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.

This is a highly impactful IC role for someone who enjoys combining economic intuition, large‑scale ML modeling, and system design to solve complex real‑world optimization problems.

Qualifications

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or a related field.
• 8+ years of industry experience building production‑scale ML systems.
• Strong understanding of probability theory, statistics, and machine learning fundamentals.
• Strong programming skills in Python, Java, or C++, and experience with ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or XGBoost.
• Interest in building and leading a new team that has broad impact across a wide range of problem spaces to support a critical business line.
• Proven ability to lead cross‑functional initiatives and drive complex technical projects end‑to‑end.
• Excellent communication skills — able to explain technical concepts to product, business, and engineering audiences.
• Experience in subscriptions growth or marketplace systems is a plus.

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.

Benefits

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 if working 20 hours/week).

National base pay ranges for this position within the United States, including Illinois and Colorado:

$137,100 - $201,600 USD

$167,800 - $246,800 USD

$203,500 - $299,300 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 with door‑to‑door delivery, and we are looking for team members who can help us go from a company that is known for delivering 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.

We provide