About the Role

As a Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer on Core Cx, you will set the personalization (P13n) strategy for the entire consumer shopping journey and bring that strategy to life. You will use our robust data and machine learning infrastructure to implement new ML solutions to make the consumer search experience more relevant, seamless, and delightful across restaurant, grocery, retail and all business at DoorDash . You will modernize the recommendation system leveraging AI. You will demonstrate a strong command of production level machine learning, experience with solving end-user problems, and collaborate well with multi-disciplinary teams.
You're excited about this opportunity because you will...

• Drive the engineering vision, strategy, and execution for an organization of 150+
• Grow, build, and nurture impactful business-focused product engineering teams. Scale the team by developing leaders internally and attracting world-class talent
• Mentor and guide a fast-growing organization in setting the right architectural patterns, working with various vendors in the space, and making judicious investments in the right areas anticipating what the company needs a few years down the road.
• Partner with Business, Product, and other Engineering teams to transform DoorDash from local commerce to agentic commerce

We're excited about you because you have...

• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or equivalent.
• 10+ years of industry experience developing machine learning models with business impact, and shipping ML solutions to production.
• Proficiency in using AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code) in the full software development lifecycle, including designing, generating code, testing, monitoring and releasing software
• Proven ability to drive multi-quarter technical roadmaps as a technical lead, with clear ownership of architectural decisions.
• Deep expertise in deep learning, and fine-tuning. Hands-on experience optimizing LLM systems (e.g., fine-tuning, advanced prompting strategies, structuring JSON/tool-calling outputs).
• Strong technical intuition paired with the ability to influence and align cross-functional stakeholders.
• Humility and growth mindset, leading through expertise and collaboration, not hierarchy.

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.

$242,800-$357,000 USD