Page 14 – DoorDash

In 2018, Dhruv Upadhyay wanted to join a company with an interesting consumer-facing product in a fast-paced environment. He also wanted to work on projects where he could feel the impact he was making. As an avid user of DoorDash, Dhruv was intrigued at the opportunities to implement business initiatives and incentives as an iOS engineer on DoorDash’s Affordability team, a sub-team interacting with Consumer behavior.

Throughout his interview process with DoorDash, Dhruv had opportunities to ask technical questions, speak with fellow engineers, and learn about working as part of the team. With that feedback and after a variety of interviews with other organizations, he was confident DoorDash could be the place where he’d have truly unlimited potential to own his career growth. In his first week with the company, Dhruv was filled with nervousness, excitement, and a ton of information.

“DoorDash did an amazing job in educating new hires about our company, the various engineering teams, and what it’s like to be a Dasher — the drivers who use our platform to make deliveries,” Dhruv said. “As part of our company culture, we’re highly encouraged to participate in the WeDash program, making actual deliveries using the platform. By doing so, we can help discover friction points and opportunities to improve how deliveries are made.”

In his time at DoorDash, Dhruv has worked on meaningful cross-functional projects while helping deploy new features alongside other engineers, designers, and product managers. He’s worked on initiatives such as DashPass, our monthly subscription service, and the DashPass and Chase partnership, an incentive that rewards certain Chase credit card customers.

“I really believe that the emphasis on teamwork at DoorDash has allowed me to grow as an engineer as I’ve been able to learn something new from each person I’ve worked with.

One of the best aspects about our engineering culture is the freedom we’re given. Software engineers are given full ownership of the features we work on, and we are able to come up with implementation plans as we best see fit as well as suggest modifications to the overall feature during meetings with product managers and designers.”
_{– Dhruv Upadhyay, Software Engineer at DoorDash}

For Dhruv, seeing the impact he’s made and continuing to find new opportunities at DoorDash has kept him coming back for more and kept him engaged in his work.

“I think it goes back to the opportunities and the work that I do. It’s very gratifying,” Dhruv said. “You want to work on things you can be proud of. I think that’s the biggest thing whenever we launch a new feature and see the data come in, it’s really exciting to see something I’ve worked on and can be proud of. And then culturally, we have internal celebrations when we launch new features and it’s nice seeing how the whole team shows appreciation for all the work that’s been done.”

After three years at DoorDash, Dhruv’s advice for anyone looking to join our growing company focuses on encouragement to own their work-life integration.

“I was trying to make a good first impression and everything early on, so I was definitely suffering a bit from imposter syndrome and focused on work over trying to find a balance in life. But I think over time I was able to find a sweet spot in staying focused on work, but also making sure I’m able to take time off, take recharge days, or take PTO when needed,” Dhruv said.

“My team had a recharge day earlier this month for the whole team, which was pretty cool to see because that shows they really care about the employees being able to take time off and not burning out. It was definitely harder when I first started, but I think I’ve found a nice balance now. So I’d say just make sure you communicate with your manager and the rest of your team honestly about your workload and how you’re feeling.”

If you’re ready for a new challenge, ready to experience the opportunities Dhruv has, and want to help our international business grow, click here to learn about open positions at DoorDash.

Originating from El Salvador, Sara Mejia moved to Mexico City in search of new opportunities. Little did she know, she’d stumble upon what she calls the best decision of her professional career in joining DoorDash.

Almost 16 years removed from her first job in the training operations industry, Sara has worked in various positions, from sales to launching programs. But since the beginning, her heart has always been in training.

Sara came to DoorDash last year as part of our training operations team, where she has owned her career development and worked toward enhancing the training opportunities offered in Mexico City.

“I’ve had the opportunity to showcase what I’m capable of and focus my development on different areas. My supervisors have been enablers of my success and my No. 1 cheerleaders,” Sara said. “I feel at the right place here. At DoorDash, I know that I am heard. Sometimes, you go somewhere and you give feedback or your point of view, and it gets swept under the rug.

“Here, everyone has been very transparent,” she continued. “We live the ‘one team, one fight,’ value. In operations, in HR, recruitment, we’re all on the same page and we’re pushing for the same objective. It’s truly been the best year of my career.”

Outside of the high-growth potential of working on the Mexico City team, the perks and benefits at DoorDash were a clear differentiator for Sara.

“The benefits offered at DoorDash are not the norm here in Mexico,” Sara said. “Having personal days, seeing how DoorDash values mental health with psychological support, and the fact that they also offer grocery vouchers are some benefits we’ve never experienced.”

And when it comes to work-life integration and flexibility in working hours, Sara sees DoorDash as a company that truly wants to see her at her best, not just at work, but with her family as well.

“We work hard, we work fast, but we also are encouraged to own the time we have outside of work. When your shift is over, go get some rest, log off and enjoy your time away,” Sara said. “Work-life balance is not something I’ve experienced before. Our leaders are respectful when we’re away, when we take time off. Obviously there are exceptions, but it’s not the norm. Coming to DoorDash has been one of the best experiences ever and I couldn’t be more proud to be part of the team.”

If you’re ready to experience career growth and new opportunities in Mexico City, check out our open positions today.

DoorDash is a data-driven company. We’ve always focused on the lowest level of details in order to create the best experience for the end user — whether that’s our partner merchants, their customers, or Dashers who fulfill deliveries through our platform.

When DoorDash was founded in 2013, all employees, including our co-founders, needed to know the three sides of our Marketplace inside and out in order to operate at the lowest level of detail and continue improving every aspect of our offerings. Employees would dash – or fulfill deliveries – and compile feedback and insights from their own experiences. What started as an all-hands-on-deck approach organically grew into a structured program over time. By 2015, we formalized this feedback model into WeDash.

Read more about Co-Founder and Head of Consumer Engineering, Andy Fang’s personal experience as part of the WeDash program in his recent interview with Financial Times.

To this day, that perspective, understanding, and appreciation of the experiences gained while participating in the WeDash program remains. The WeDash program empowers our team members by bringing each of us closer to the experiences of the merchant, consumer, and Dasher communities.

What is the WeDash program?

Through the flagship WeDash program, our salaried U.S., Canada, and Australia employees collectively use our Dasher app to complete deliveries and support existing merchants, giving them consistent and direct exposure to the technology we build to support our three-sided Marketplace. WeDash is a culture-driving initiative that also offers opportunities for our employees and teams to build trust and relationships through in-person collaboration.

More recently, we expanded the program to include WeSupport, in which employees shadow Customer Experience agents as they solve customer support cases in real time. WeSupport offers our employees an ongoing opportunity to peek behind the curtain and shadow our customer support teammates as they work to resolve issues and hear directly from our customers.

Participating in our WeDash program allows employees to look deeper into how the products we build empower local economies, which in turn helps us build a better platform.

How WeDash reflects the culture at DoorDash

The WeDash program centers on our Customer obsessed mindset and allows us to demonstrate Bias for action in identifying, understanding and escalating the toughest challenges faced by our merchants, Dashers, and consumers. It allows us to Be an owner of the products and logistical infrastructure that powers our platform, Operate at the lowest level of detail, and constantly Think outside the room as our teams work to solve these challenges.

No matter what team you sit on or which city you work from, the common language spoken at DoorDash is dashing. From team members meeting each other for the first time via a dash or our employees using their existing meetings to chat and dash together, WeDash has been a significant connector among our teams in our flexible work environment. Thanks to this program, our people have developed a true sense of connection, understanding, and pride in our business.

Whether employees are dashing and discovering local merchants in a new city, providing feedback to solve an issue they witnessed first-hand, or if our CEO is sharing feedback from his WeDash experiences to address specific areas of opportunity, these collective experiences get our people closer to our customers and help in making DoorDash 1% better every day.

If you are the kind of person who is excited about taking ownership and helping us grow our business through experiences like the WeDash program, we’re hiring. You can find and apply to one of our open roles here.

At DoorDash, we are proud to offer a safe space for all employees to be their true, authentic selves. During Pride Month and year-round, we celebrate the progress that has been made for LGBTQ+ people and acknowledge the work that still needs to be done. We’re working to empower the LGBTQ+ community by amplifying LGBTQ+ voices, supporting nonprofits serving LGBTQ+ people, and highlighting LGBTQ+ employee, Dasher, merchant, and community stories.

To celebrate Pride Month at DoorDash, our Pride@ Employee Resource Group is hosting a variety of events, including Pride Month Trivia hosted by Bar None Events, Drag Bingo hosted remotely by Astala Vista, a panel discussion featuring LGBTQ+ DoorDash merchants, a movie night celebration, and a clothing drive at three office locations in New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco to collect new, like-new and gently used items for local LGBTQ+-affiliated organizations.

“Being co-chairs and members of the Pride@ ERG has meant that we are able to amplify voices within the community to help make DoorDash a more inclusive workplace.”
_{– Miranda Burbridge and Tara Scuderi, Co-Chairs of the Pride@ ERG}

According to lgbtmap.org, only nine percent of trans youth say their communities are very accepting. Our Pride@ ERG is hosting a letter writing event, where employees will join together via Zoom and create affirming handwritten notes for trans youth and adults. These letters will be shipped with packages from Point of Pride that include free chest binders and femme shapewear. Point of Pride is a nonprofit dedicated to providing financial aid and direct support to trans people in need of health and wellness care. In addition to the collective writing exercise, DoorDash will donate $25,000 to Point of Pride to help the most vulnerable members of our community feel seen and supported through access to life-saving health and wellness services.

Making room at the table is an everyday commitment at DoorDash, and we’re proud to continue to count LGBTQ+ people as our friends, colleagues, and family members.

Learn more about how we’re making room at the table and find open roles here.

Before sharing updates on our Flexible Workplace Model, which applies to US corporate employees, we want to acknowledge, recognize, and share our deep gratitude to the DoorDash employees who, due to their roles and responsibilities, have continued to operate in-person as essential workers. This work is invaluable to the success of our stakeholders, and their efforts play a vital role in moving the DoorDash business forward on behalf of local economies every day.

At DoorDash, we foster a culture of innovation, tackling new challenges across our business to quickly build, test, and learn. This outlook is shared in everything we do, from how we build new products to building the best organization to support our people and the work we do together.

Following our commitment last summer to offer flexibility in how we work, we listened to our employees and updated our approach to what we feel is right for our business: the Flexible Workplace Model.

“In many ways, whether COVID-19 occurred or not, we would be evolving how we work. As a growing organization with offices across the world and teams distributed across cities, we will continue to iterate. And as with all things at DoorDash, we will always aim to improve and keep getting better.”
_–_{Tony Xu, Co-Founder and CEO of DoorDash}

Our working model is built on a few guiding principles: the value of in-person connections, our shared customer obsession, and the advantages we’ve had in attracting and retaining amazing people. We truly believe that what is uniquely DoorDash is not a one-size-fits-all approach, rather a nimble model that is right for groups of employees who are innovating without the hindrance of geography.

DoorDash’s Flexible Workplace Model will give teams the ability to decide how they want to leverage in-person and remote work. We know that some teams will greatly benefit from more time together in-person, solving complex problems, learning within a community, and celebrating wins together. Rather than requiring employees to work in an office for a set number of days, we recognize that elements of both in-person and remote work will differ depending on how distributed each team is, and the nature of each team’s work.

In the last two years, we’ve expanded our global footprint and hired incredible talent to accelerate our growing business and vision. We will continue to recruit in, near, and outside of our Hubs – offices with 100+ people, where teams are building strategic functions and initiatives, and where most employees live today – to ensure that we are hiring the next generation of builders for DoorDash.

Our vision for the future ahead

DoorDash’s mission to grow and empower local communities comes to life when we invest in bringing people together, physically and virtually. We’ll build around that by reimagining our offices and introducing compelling and collaborative in-person experiences that meet our various teams’ needs.

“Relationships are foundational to building trust, which is required to build an enduring culture and organization. To me, building relationships is a must in enabling us to create a place that can achieve excellence, have fun, and endure.”
_–_{Tony Xu, Co-Founder and CEO of DoorDash}

Human connection is vital to our future. We value the social, emotional, and intellectual connections that take place face-to-face, and we will continue to succeed by focusing on driving impact, which is built upon the trust that our teams have forged. We’ve found that when we are thoughtful and intentional about our interactions – virtually or in-person – our culture is stronger, and we are better together.

If you’re interested in learning more about what life is like at DoorDash – whether it’s near one of our Hubs or fully remote, click here to view open job opportunities.

As part of our efforts to create a workplace that engages people of all backgrounds while fostering an environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion, our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play a vital role in building and driving the culture that our people experience. Because of their significance in shaping what life at DoorDash is like, we are proud to announce that leadership positions across our eight official ERGs — Women, Pride, Parents, AAPI (Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander), Black, Unidos, Indigenous, and Veterans — will now receive compensation for their time and invaluable contributions.

“Employee Resource Groups are deeply important to the foundation of our culture. This work takes thought, effort, and dedication as our leaders tackle business problems and help their communities thrive. Investing in underrepresented talent is critical to us serving our employees and customers better and creating a truly equitable workplace.”
_–_{Vanessa Chui, Manager of Employee Connections at DoorDash}

In continuing to build and shape our company’s culture, we understand the deep investment our teams have made in making our cornerstone programs something that we’re extremely proud of. Since ERGs launched at DoorDash, over 50 percent of our employees have joined a virtual Slack community, connecting employees all over the world. While 90% of significant US employers have ERGs, recent studies show that at most, only roughly 6% of ERG employee leaders are compensated for their time.

“A big part of why I love working at DoorDash is the sense of belonging I’ve found here – especially through my involvement with the Women@ ERG! It’s what motivated me to take on a more active role as Community Engagement Lead,” said Nikhita Pai, Senior Program Manager of Learning and Development at DoorDash. “While being in this position has given me so much fulfillment and joy, it involves intentional work, effort, and time that I set aside outside of my day-to-day responsibilities. It has meant the world to be seen, recognized, and compensated for that labor and is further proof that DoorDash truly cares about its employees. I am so proud to be a culture carrier for a company that invests in its people and is committed to pay equity. I’ve never felt happier at work and am honored to be in a position where I can help others feel the same!”

The leaders of our ERGs help drive our company culture, serving as educational resources and communities for all employees. Thanks to a strong employee-driven culture, ERGs have played a critical role in helping our employees be seen and heard no matter where they sit in our organization.

“As the Executive Sponsor of the Veterans@ DoorDash ERG, I’m incredibly proud of the engagement and new programs we’ve built to support the veteran community. From implementing an employee Walk for Warriors event, with funds raised going to the Wounded Warrior Project, to hosting their first ever Hire Heroes event, targeting veterans entering the workforce after their service, the work our ERGs do is invaluable to our company and community. Compensating leaders of all our ERGs helps them transform such initiatives, from ideas to reality.”
_{– Tom Pickett, Executive Sponsor of the Veterans@ DoorDash ERG and Chief Revenue Officer of DoorDash}

From our Parents@ ERG joining together during the baby formula shortage to connect those in need to those with excess supply, to our Pride@ ERG contributing significant efforts to help us achieve the designation of being a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign, our employee-led groups have created dedicated moments and programs to support and positively impact our people.

The success of our ERGs has even led to the creation of a new program called DoorDash Connections, which personalizes the candidate experience and provides better insight into what Life at DoorDash is like by connecting prospective candidates with ambassadors from our ERGs through Zoom calls.

“In today’s market, candidates are increasingly looking for a company with a good culture, a focus on DEI, and support for those in traditionally marginalized communities. With DoorDash Connections, we have an incredible opportunity to engage candidates earlier on and provide insight into those areas,” said Theresa Avila, Lead Recruiter at DoorDash. “A call with an ERG member could make a huge difference in someone’s decision to join DoorDash, and we’ve already seen early success with one candidate speaking with someone from our Women@ ERG, then signing their offer immediately after that conversation. We’re very excited to see this program grow.”

Leadership roles across our ERGs will continue to open opportunities and provide a platform for our employees who identify as people of color, women, nonbinary, and those from other underrepresented identities to demonstrate leadership skills, propel their professional development, and earn additional compensation.

Systemic change takes thought, effort, dedication, and it does not go unnoticed. At DoorDash, we believe in our people and will continually look for ways that we can empower and support them.

Join our growing team by checking out open roles on our careers site and learn more about how we’re making room at the table as part of our inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report.

Read more about how our ERG’s have driven the culture at DoorDash thus far this year:

Everything we do at DoorDash is in the spirit of bringing communities together, one doorstep at a time. From broadening food access via Project DASH to our work supporting merchants — including the $1 million Restaurant Disaster Relief Fund and our Main Street Strong Accelerator program — these efforts help tackle the problems faced in our local communities.

In recognition of this work, we’re proud to share that DoorDash was recently named one of the TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2022.

Reaching more people in rural and low-income communities

In 2021, we increased affordability and accessibility for more consumers, communities, and Dashers across our platform. We expanded our footprint in low-income and rural communities to reach more people in need of food and local goods, while offering the flexibility to earn and re-invest those earnings.

Approximately 37% of DoorDash users within the U.S. were located in low-income communities, and another 30% were located in rural communities — increasing choice and convenience for people in more areas.

There are tens of millions of people that are good candidates for flexible earning opportunities like dashing. Over the course of 2021, DoorDash provided opportunities for over six million individuals, including those who live in rural areas that have historically lagged behind urban areas in economic growth. In rural communities within the U.S., Dashers earned over $3.1 billion in 2021. Further, in low-income communities within the U.S., Dashers earned over $4.3 billion, contributing meaningfully to these local economies.

Broadening access in local communities

Since 2018, DoorDash’s flagship social impact program, Project DASH has helped broaden access to food through local deliveries. During the pandemic, access to food and supplies became even more challenging for seniors, the immunocompromised, and those facing mobility or transportation challenges.

Through Project DASH, we provided an estimated 31 million meals to people in need, and powered more than 1.6 million deliveries of groceries, household goods, school supplies, and more. We are committed to working with existing and new partners to grow this work sustainably in the coming years in order to increase its reach and the number of communities it serves.

Just getting started

Looking forward, we are working to operate DoorDash with less relative environmental cost, while building programs that work for merchants, Dashers, consumers, and the environment. In 2021, we became net-zero across our scope 1 and 2 emissions globally by investing in clean energy purchases and carbon removal. You can read more about how we’re working to reduce the environmental impact of delivery in our Earth Day blog post, here.

While we are proud of the results we’ve driven thus far, we recognize there is still much to be done to support our stakeholders. We’re committed to embodying our values, working to be 1% better every day, and continuing to expand the initiatives we operate to serve and empower more communities.

To learn more about our impact efforts over the last year, you can view our first ESG Report here.

Fresh out of college in 2018, William Ma had big ambitions for his first job. He wanted to join a company that had big upside, a proven team culture, and he wanted to be somewhere he could make an impact early on. After a slew of internships at various tech companies, William landed as a software engineer at DoorDash on the Drive team, which focuses on providing delivery as a service, allowing merchants to request dashers to deliver their goods.

“I had worked with a few people at my internships who had joined DoorDash and they talked about the team culture and how much of an impact I could make,” William said. “I thought that was a great opportunity for me to be focused and really see fast growth in my career.”

Shortly into his tenure, William joined six other engineers on the Drive team and relished the opportunity to take ownership of projects, both large and small.

“I earned the trust of my team in that first year. I was thrown into really impactful work early on, learned while I was building, and gained more experience than anywhere I’d worked before. The features we built in other companies were much smaller in scope than the things I’ve done here. Here, you get a better understanding of how the system works, how to improve processes, and you gain huge learning opportunities. With the growth and development of Drive, I’ve picked up many skills, led multiple projects, and worked with a tight-knit group to push out features as fast as possible. And the work hasn’t really stopped as our team has grown to 60 engineers over the last four years.”
_{– William Ma, Software Engineer}

The work is fast-moving for William and his team. There’s an urgency to build new products, get them out, test, and improve the next iteration. As a veteran at DoorDash, William has embraced the ability to balance and own his work-life integration.

“As someone who’s been here for a bit, I see it as a little bit of a wave pattern. We’re encouraged by our managers and leadership to take the time we need. There’s also an understanding of when it’s crunch time and when we need to launch everything,” William said. “I definitely think there’s support to take time away from work and avoid suffering from burnout.”

Over the years, the work has become more distributed across the country as the Drive team has grown and embraced the benefits of our Flexible Work model.

“For the most part, our work is done remotely. So the times when we go into the office, we’re typically gathering for an event, setting aside dedicated time for our teams to connect, or really just spending time in-person when others are also going into the office as well,” William said. “The workplace model has been really good for me. It’s allowed me to travel a little, doing month-long stints in different states or cities. I’ve worked in Seattle, in Denver, and done many things I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do if we were required to be in the office a dedicated amount of time each week.”

Across engineering and the business, DoorDash is continuing to hire in many areas. From William’s experiences, he’s had a first-hand look at what success looks like at DoorDash.

“I think having ownership in your career and really caring about the product are the biggest things,” said William. “For me, I really enjoy the product direction DoorDash is taking. They make a lot of sense, and I believe that the things we are working on will have a lot of success. We know there will be times where we find ourselves working extra hours to hit our deadlines, and other times where we will have to choose a faster option. However, the upside is that there are so many opportunities to grow here with plenty of projects needing owners.”

If you’re ready for a new challenge and want to help our international business grow, click here to learn about job opportunities on DoorDash’s engineering team.