Principal Engineer, AI/ML Platform

About the Team

AI/ML Platform at DoorDash is building the foundation for the most advanced AI driven logistics and commerce platform in the world. Our mission is to define the technical backbone that powers all machine learning and generative AI workloads across DoorDash, from marketplace ranking to next generation AI native product experiences. We own the end to end ML lifecycle and evolving GenAI platform capabilities, enabling teams across DoorDash to build and ship high impact experiences for consumers, merchants, and dashers at global scale.

About the Role

As Principal Engineer, you will define the architectural north star for the full ML and GenAI stack and set the long term technical strategy across AI platform teams. You will translate company level AI ambitions into clear architectural direction and cohesive standards spanning distributed training, high performance inference, and generative AI systems.

Beyond strategy, you will serve as a technical role model for the organization, setting a high bar for engineering rigor, clarity of thinking, and long term design quality. You will step in to unblock teams, clarify architectural direction, and provide decisive guidance during moments of ambiguity. Success means delivering a cohesive, scalable, and developer friendly AI platform that accelerates research to production velocity and enables AI capabilities across every product line. You must be located in San Francisco, Sunnyvale or Seattle for this hybrid position. You will report directly to the Director of Engineering, Machine Learning. 

You’re excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Set the long term AI architecture for DoorDash, connecting company level strategy to concrete platform roadmaps and technical execution.• Operate at every altitude, from executive level AI vision and cross org alignment to deep dives into distributed systems performance, training bottlenecks, and production debugging.• Lead the integration of GenAI capabilities including model gateway and routing, fine tuning frameworks, vector infrastructure, RAG pipelines, LLM evaluation systems, guardrails, and agent platform foundations into a unified ML platform.• Raise the engineering bar by mentoring senior engineers, driving architectural rigor, and ensuring reliability, scalability, and cost efficiency at global scale.

We’re excited about you because…

• You have 12+ years of experience building and scaling distributed systems and ML infrastructure, with deep expertise in large scale training systems, high throughput inference, and production LLM architectures.
• You bring significant hands-on experience with modern LLM systems, including fine tuning, LLM evaluation frameworks, guardrails, and cost efficient model serving at scale.
• You have built or architected agentic systems in production, including multi step reasoning pipelines, tool use frameworks, memory systems, and agent platforms.
• You can translate company level AI strategy into executable platform architecture, while also diving into code to debug complex distributed systems, model performance bottlenecks, and inference failures.
• You have led multi team technical initiatives, influenced senior leadership, and consistently raised the technical standards of organizations operating at global scale.

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

We use 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 provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound from August 21, 2023, through December 21, 2023, and resumed using Covey Scout for Inbound again on June 29, 2024.

The Covey tool has been reviewed by an independent auditor. Results of the audit may be viewed here: Covey

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.

$282,100—$414,800 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.

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.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and any other state or local hiring regulations, we will consider for employment any qualified applicant, including those with arrest and conviction records, in a manner consistent with the applicable regulation.

If you need any accommodations, please inform your recruiting contact upon initial connection.