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6 questions with DoorDash’s New VP of Engineering, Liangxiao Zhu

April 15, 2022

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DoorDash

Welcome Liangxiao to DoorDash!

Liangxiao is a powerhouse of knowledge, skills, perseverance, and empathy. Her extensive technical experience coupled with her ability to distill complex problems into simple and straightforward solutions is nothing short of extraordinary. Based in the Seattle office, Liangxiao came to DoorDash after having spent almost 10 years at Meta where she most recently led efforts around Payments. This included enabling ad billing for businesses, creating a system to support creators in monetizing their videos and posts and enabling Donation, a product for people around the world to contribute funds to causes that are important to them. She also launched Facebook Pay to empower everyone around the world to participate in the digital economy. Before leading on Payments, she spent nearly seven years building out the Meta ads product platform. This included building products that helped SMBs to connect with their customers online to support large enterprises in measuring and tracking global campaigns. 

For Liangxiao, DoorDash is the ultimate platform that has the power to connect people and businesses to everything they need locally at the touch of a button. She’s excited to build upon its existing products and lead DoorDash into new verticals in order to continue to transform and propel the future of local commerce. 

To get to know her better, here are six questions with Liangxiao:

  1. Why DoorDash and why now? 

There are three reasons why I chose DoorDash. First, I’m a strong believer in empowering local commerce. There’s so much potential in terms of how best to grow this sector but more importantly, the possibilities are endless when it comes to powering the local economy that supports people and gives back to businesses. Secondly, when I met with our company’s leaders, it was clear from the beginning that they had a strong vision and strategy for where they wanted to see DoorDash grow. This was very appealing to me. It showed me their confidence and enthusiasm in this space and the company. It was inspiring to see the clarity in which they created strategies, execution plans, and how they measured success. Lastly, I gravitate towards a work environment that is built on the value of bias for action- whether you’re building something from scratch or if you’re scaling a product. DoorDash is building so many cool products and I’m excited to be here to help teams build transformational products, have fun along the way, and to help streamline cross-functional alignment so that we can move effectively. 

  1. What excites you most about building and nurturing engineering teams? 

I’ve been lucky enough to have had many opportunities in building and scaling teams. At first, I was very reluctant to become a manager but one of my bosses saw potential in me and put me forth to take over his role as he was exiting the company. I learned from there that I enjoy connecting and nurturing talent. I like helping people find their passion, create a vision for themselves, and supporting them along the journey whatever that may be. I also find myself seeking out opportunities that can help further build diverse teams including being a site leader, leading on diversity and inclusion efforts, or mentoring other managers. 

  1. Can you tell us more about your grassroots D&I efforts and how have you rallied people within those organizations to become champions and allies? 

Growing up as an Asian American, I was taught to listen and follow leaders and authority figures. Furthermore, as a woman, I felt that I could never speak up until I was 100% confident in my opinions. The combination of my upbringing and a lack of confidence really slowed down my early career progression. It was only after I overcame these hurdles that I knew I wanted to help people like me grow in their own journey. 

Previously at Meta, I led the Seattle/Bellevue office’s D&I efforts. We started by creating different working groups to focus on building a diverse environment where people can find various communities that could nurture their talent and needs while working in a corporate environment. We also created trainings to educate people to be allies, learn how to amplify good ally behaviors, and so much more.

  1. What is a motto that you live by? 

"Opportunities don’t happen. You create them" -  I believe that everything is possible as long as you make it a priority and have the courage to go for it. You need to be optimistic about the future in which you are creating. You have to develop the steps on how to get there and of course hold yourself accountable to achieve these goals.

  1. Outside of work, tell us about yourself! 

I have two boys so I spend a lot of time with them. I love to cook and garden. It brings me a lot of peace, joy, and patience! 

  1. What is your favorite thing to order on DoorDash? 

Sushi and organic milk

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