Head of Safety, Robot Operations

About DoorDash Labs

DoorDash Labs is an independent robotics and automation team within DoorDash, focused on transforming last-mile logistics at scale. Our work reaches millions of people — and we're building the operational foundation to make that possible safely.

The Role

As the Head of Safety, Robot Operations, you will lead the safety vision for one of the world's most advanced autonomous delivery operations. You will continue to  build on world-class safety culture across our fleet, depots, field operations—ensuring that safety is embedded into each process robot deployment, service management, under the roof and out on road operations. 

This is a strategic leadership role responsible for operating mechanisms, governance, audits, standards, and continuous improvement systems that enable safe, scalable, and compliant autonomous robot operations. You will partner closely with Operations, Engineering, Product, Hardware, Reliability, and Legal to proactively identify risks, prevent incidents, and continuously raise the safety bar as we scale.

What You'll Do

Culture: Safety is the foundational pillar of our operations. You will continue to sharpen the strong safety-first culture where every operator is empowered and accountable for safe operations.

Strategic Roadmap: Define and execute the long-term safety strategy for Dot Operations. Develop safety management systems, policies, standards, SOPs, and governance mechanisms. Partner with Engineering and Product teams to identify operational safety risks and influence safer robot, hardware, and software designs. Engage with regulators, represent DoorDash externally. 

Day to Day Execution: Lead incident investigations, root cause analyses, corrective actions, and lessons-learned programs to eliminate repeat events. Develop leading safety metrics, dashboards, KPIs, and own executive reporting mechanisms. Lead emergency response, crisis management, and business continuity preparedness.

Compliance: Strengthen comprehensive audit programs to evaluate operational safety, process compliance, and facility readiness. Own operational risk assessments for new products, launches, depots, and markets. Develop and execute simulated SEV0 incident exercises to validate response playbooks, decision-making, communication protocols, escalation paths, and recovery mechanisms. 

Team: Build and mentor a high-performing safety organization capable of supporting rapid global scale. Stregthene training and certification programs for operators, technicians, and frontline leaders. Drive continuous improvement initiatives that improve both safety performance and operational efficiency.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 12+ years of experience leading safety programs within technology harnessed operations like logistics, robotics, automotive, autonomous systems, aviation, warehouse or other high-reliability environments.
• Proven experience building enterprise-scale safety management systems from the ground up.
• Strong understanding of operational risk management, hazard identification, incident investigation, and preventive controls.
• Experience leading safety audits, compliance reviews, and operational governance programs.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior executives and cross-functional engineering and operations organizations.
• Strong analytical mindset with experience using data to identify trends, predict risk, and improve safety outcomes.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills with the ability to build trust across all organizational levels.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Safety, Industrial Engineering, Operations, or a related technical discipline.
• Thrive in a high speed, ambiguous, dusty, technology environment. 

Preferred

• Experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, industrial automation, or advanced mobility.
• Professional certifications such as CSP, CIH, CHST, Six Sigma, or equivalent.
• Experience implementing ISO-based safety management systems (e.g., ISO 45001) or comparable operational excellence frameworks.
• Experience scaling safety programs across multiple sites or international operations.
• Familiarity with human factors engineering, safety-by-design principles, and high-reliability organization (HRO) practices.
• Master's degree in Engineering, Safety, Operations, or Business.

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.

$155,800—$229,100 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.

Notice Regarding Use of AI and Automated Tools: To streamline our hiring process, DoorDash utilizes an automated recruitment tool called Metaview.

How it works: Metaview assists our recruiting team by evaluating job related qualifications and characteristics in connection with hiring. The tool is designed and used to support - rather than replace - human decision-making; trained personnel make final decisions with meaningful human review and oversight, and DoorDash does not use Metaview or other AI-enabled tool  in a manner that has the effect of subjecting applicants or employees to discrimination based on any protected characteristic or proxy or for engaging in any protected activity under applicable law.

Data Retention, Privacy & Bias Audit: Data collected during this process is retained in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy https://help.doordash.com/en-us/legal/article/ax-privacy-notice and applicable state laws. In compliance with New York City Local Law 144, the independent bias audit summary for Metaview is publicly available for review at https://trust.warden-ai.com/metaview/application-review.