Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer

About the role

The Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer leads the Ads & Promos Delivery team’s AI‑first ranking systems, setting technical vision, driving cross‑team alignment, and turning cutting‑edge research into real‑time, low‑latency ad relevance models that impact revenue across DoorDash’s global markets.

About the company

DoorDash is a technology and logistics company that started with door‑to‑door food delivery and is expanding to become a platform for any goods, with a mission to empower local economies and a fast‑growing, constantly evolving culture.

Requirements

• 5+ years building, deploying, and scaling ML/AI models for large‑scale, user‑facing or data‑intensive products
• Proficiency with AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) throughout the software development lifecycle
• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Deep expertise in at least one area: deep learning, LLMs, information retrieval, ranking/relevance, recommendation systems, NLP, or content understanding
• Strong programming skills in Python, Java, or C++ and hands‑on experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, or XGBoost
• Extensive experience across the full ML lifecycle: data analysis, feature engineering, iterative model development, rigorous offline and online evaluation, monitoring and improvement
• Strong collaboration and communication skills in fast‑paced, cross‑functional environments
• Product‑mindset and impact‑driven attitude toward applying cutting‑edge ML techniques
• Bonus: experience designing and deploying LLM‑based systems, including prompt engineering and retrieval‑augmented generation architectures
• Bonus: experience solving large‑scale personalization problems (user modeling, retrieval, ranking, relevance)
• Bonus: contributions to the ML community via open‑source projects, publications, or applied research