Head of Safety, Robot Operations

The posting, as DoorDash wrote it

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.

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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 .