Operations Research Intern (PhD), Summer 2027
About the Team
DoorDash is building the world’s most reliable on-demand logistics engine for delivery! We’re looking for experienced engineers to join our fast-growing engineering team to help us develop a 24x7 global infrastructure system that powers DoorDash’s three-sided marketplace of consumers, merchants, and dashers.
About the Role
This intern will report into a manager on the Assignment Engine team. We believe interns are essential to our mission of attracting and retaining top talent. During the 12 week Operations Research internship, interns will be completely immersed in their teams and will have the opportunity to develop, maintain & ship products. As an intern, you will directly impact our business by collaborating with your team to solve real problems for our customers.
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. to be considered for this position. F-1 students are eligible if they are using Curricular Practical Training (CPT). DoorDash does not support students on J-1 visas at this time.
This position will be hosted in person at the DoorDash office in Sunnyvale, CA. #LI-Onsite
You're excited about this opportunity because you will…
Design and implement improvements to our real-time on-demand dispatching algorithm
Analyze data to understand each delivery at the lowest level of detail, perform cutting-edge research, and inspire new lines of work
Collaborate with engineers, data scientists, product managers, business operators, and more to develop cross-cutting and scalable solutions to guide value for our consumers, dashers, and merchants
Receive actionable feedback from your mentor and team members
Socialize with and learn from colleagues all across the company, through events including Lunch and Learns with executive members, game nights, movie nights, intern offsites, and more
We're excited about you because…
Are a PhD student in operations research, industrial engineering, computer science or a related field graduating between Fall 2027 and Summer 2028
Have research or industry experience working on complex optimization problems through mathematical programming or metaheuristics
Have strong programming fundamentals, experience in object-oriented and/or functional programming languages, and a solid understanding of algorithms
Have an excitement to analyze, iterate, and contribute to our state-of-the-art real-time dispatch system
Experience developing algorithms for logistics problems, especially VRP and real-time dispatching problem
Experience with mathematical programming software packages like Cplex, Gurobi, Coin-OR, or Xpress
Production experience with a JVM-based language (ie Java, Kotlin, Scala)
Experience with software development lifecycle (writing clean code, version control, unit testing, etc)
Production experience with modern web applications at scale
Experience with statistical analysis and machine learning algorithms
Proficient in SQL and a visualization tool (ie Tableau, Chartio, Mode)
Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis
Compensation
Actual compensation within the pay range listed below will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, skills, prior relevant experience, and specific work location. Base salary is localized according to employee work location.
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.
$130,600—$192,000 USD