Staff Software Engineer — Event Streaming Platform Architect

DoorDash; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with employer matching

Paid parental leave (16 weeks)

Wellness benefits

Commuter benefits match

Paid time off & holidays

Job summary

DoorDash is seeking a Staff Software Engineer in the New York area to set the technical direction for our event streaming platform. You will own the hardest architectural problems, drive strategy across Storage, SRE, and Data Platform, and raise the bar for streaming infrastructure used by hundreds of teams.

You will work deeply on Kafka internals and object-store-backed streaming, leading multi-region, cost-conscious designs while mentoring senior engineers and shaping the platform roadmap

Qualifications

• 8+ years designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
• Experience operating event streaming systems at scale (e.g., Kafka) and understanding internals.
• Strong engineering skills in Java, Go, or similar; deep concurrency and reliability knowledge.
• Proven ability to lead cross-team initiatives and influence technical direction.
• Solid Linux, networking, storage, and JVM-based system fundamentals.
• Experience with object-store-backed streaming and multi-region architectures is a plus.
• Proficiency with AI coding tools in the software lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Set multi-year tech vision and architecture for the event streaming platform across teams.
• Lead large, ambiguous streaming initiatives end-to-end to reduce cost and overhead.
• Delve into internals of Kafka and modern streaming systems to unblock the org.
• Make architecture decisions with broad blast radius including replication, topology, and cost.
• Debug and resolve hardest distributed-systems issues in production under Tier-0 constraints.
• Raise engineering standards through reviews, mentorship, and platform patterns.
• Collaborate with leadership to shape roadmaps and translate business needs into platform strategy.

Skills

Distributed systems

Kafka

Go/Java

System design

Linux fundamentals

Networking

Leadership

JVM

AI coding tools

Tools

Kafka

Pulsar

Cruise Control

Job description

DoorDash is seeking a Staff Software Engineer in the New York area to set the technical direction for our event streaming platform. You will own the hardest architectural problems, drive strategy across Storage, SRE, and Data Platform, and raise the bar for streaming infrastructure used by hundreds of teams.

You will work deeply on Kafka internals and object-store-backed streaming, leading multi-region, cost-conscious designs while mentoring senior engineers and shaping the platform roadmap