About the Team

Come help us build the world's most reliable on-demand, logistics engine for delivery! We are looking to hire an experienced Taxonomist to partner with our Retail New Verticals team to develop and improve models that power DoorDash's three-sided marketplace of consumers, merchants, and dashers. You will have the opportunity to work within the Data Science organization while being part of a founding team chartered to build one of the most strategic initiatives for the company. Our team focuses on personalization, search, and substitutions that together play a major role in powering a delightful consumer experience, with an accurate product catalog and taxonomy acting as the foundation on top of which we build product features and machine learning applications. 

About the Role

DoorDash’s vision is to empower and grow local economies. To achieve this goal, we must deeply understand local businesses, the products and services they sell, and the consumers who interact with them. Understanding DoorDash’s ecosystem and business is crucial to building and mapping complex taxonomies and relationships of entities within local economies. This includes the design, implementation, and governance of large taxonomies to accelerate product development and deliver delightful experiences to the consumers. The Taxonomist is solely responsible for our Retail Product Categories, Brands, and Manufacturer taxonomies. This role will work closely with Data Science, Engineering, Product, and Strategy & Operations. The role will also partner to develop cross-vertical ontology solutions with our Restaurant Taxonomist. 

You’re excited about this opportunity because you will…

• Design and maintain taxonomies that spans a spectrum of consumer goods including food items, grocery, alcoholic beverages, and medications
• Utilize industry best practices for taxonomy development and maintenance
• Manage metadata schema and attributes
• Create a better product category navigation experience for our customers 
• Partner with machine learning experts, product developers, strategy & operations, and sales & marketing teams to meet business goals within the context of information architecture
• Have a seat at the table to influence product experiences through consumption of the New Verticals knowledge graph
• Help mature our retail taxonomy and ontology and build bridges between the Retail and Restaurant sides of our business
• Partner on customer solutions such as:
•  Reducing irrelevant out of stock grocery item suggestions
• Jump starting item cart adds through relationships with most ordered restaurant dishes 

We’re excited about you because you…

• Have 5+ years of experience in developing complex taxonomies and ontologies
• Have advanced proficiency with taxonomy management tools (Graphite, PoolParty, Graphologi, etc.)
• Have managed large and complex taxonomies through tooling, versioning, and quality controls
• Have proficiency in SPARQL and SQL
• Have designed taxonomies to support navigation, search, discovery, and analytics applications of large scale
• Have built taxonomies for machine learning classification systems
• Can communicate complex taxonomy and information management concepts to a diverse audience of technical backgrounds
• Push the boundaries of conventional information architecture to create unique solutions with fast implementation
• Have a passion for helping people find what they are looking for and discovering options they didn’t know existed
• Are curious about new technologies like Large Language Models and how they can supplement taxonomy growth and classification

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 with door-to-door delivery, and we are looking for team members who can help us go from a company that is known for delivering 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.

Compensation

The location-specific base salary range for this position is listed below.  Compensation in other geographies may vary.

Actual compensation within the pay range will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, skills, prior relevant experience, and specific work location.  For roles that are available to be filled remotely, base salary is localized according to employee work location.  Please discuss your intended work location with your recruiter for more information.

DoorDash cares about you and your overall well-being, and that’s why we offer a comprehensive benefits package, for full-time employees, that includes healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan including an employer match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, wellbeing benefits, paid time off, paid parental leave, and several paid holidays, among others.

In addition to base salary, the compensation package for this role also includes opportunities for equity grants.