Head of Safety, Robot Operations

The role

You will lead the safety vision and strategy for autonomous delivery operations. This includes building safety culture, managing risk, and developing governance mechanisms across robot deployment and field operations.

What you will do

• Define and execute long-term safety strategy for Dot Operations
• Develop safety management systems, policies, standards, and SOPs
• Partner with Engineering and Product teams to identify operational safety risks
• Engage with regulators and represent DoorDash externally
• Lead incident investigations, root cause analyses, and corrective actions
• Develop safety metrics, dashboards, and KPIs
• Lead emergency response, crisis management, and business continuity preparedness
• Strengthen audit programs to evaluate operational safety and compliance
• Own operational risk assessments for new products, launches, depots, and markets
• Build and mentor a high-performing safety organization

Required qualifications

• 12+ years of experience leading safety programs within technology harnessed operations like logistics, robotics, automotive, autonomous systems, aviation, warehouse or other high-reliability environme
• 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
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Safety, Industrial Engineering, Operations, or a related technical discipline
• Thrive in a high speed, ambiguous, dusty, technology environment

Nice to have

• 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

Benefits

• 401(k) plan with employer matching
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave
• Wellness benefits
• Commuter benefits match
• Paid time off
• Paid sick leave
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits
• 11 paid holidays
• Disability and basic life insurance
• Family-forming assistance
• Mental health program

About the company

DoorDash Labs is an independent robotics and automation team within DoorDash focused on transforming last-mile logistics at scale. DoorDash is a technology and logistics company that started by enabling door-to-door delivery.