AI Research Fellowship, (Summer and Fall 2026)

DoorDash is a technology and logistics company focused on empowering local economies. They are seeking researchers and engineers for their AI Research Fellowship to tackle applied ML and AI problems in local commerce, providing resources and real-world data for impactful research.ResponsibilitiesPick the problem (within a set of priority areas) and own the directionPublish or ship the outcome of research workPropose research directions and work across priority areas such as reinforcement learning, agentic systems, and multimodal understandingEngage in a core research period with regular check-ins, internal talks, and working sessionsComplete a final write-up, internal presentation, and publication or productionization pathSkillsYou're a researcher with a strong track record — PhD candidates (rising 4th year or beyond), recent PhDs, or independent researchers with published work at top ML venues or equivalent demonstrated outputYou're an engineer with deep research instincts who have shipped ambitious ML or systems work and want dedicated time to pursue a research directionYou can operate independently — set a research agenda, scope it, and execute without heavy supervisionYou have strong written and verbal communication; comfort presenting work to mixed research and engineering audiencesBenefitsDedicated compute allocation sized to the research agenda — GPU clusters for training and inference budgets for experimentationFull access to DoorDash's research infrastructure — our internal RL stack, training and evaluation pipelines, RL environments built on real operational systems, agent evaluation harnesses, and the tooling our own research teams use day-to-day. Fellows are first-class users, not sandboxed visitors.Access to DoorDash operational data — real-world datasets spanning logistics, merchant operations, consumer behavior, and marketplace dynamics, under appropriate data governanceResearch mentorship from senior researchers and engineering leaders at DoorDash, plus a named research sponsor for each fellow who meets with you weekly and is accountable for unblocking your workSpeaker series featuring leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry — faculty from top ML programs, research leads from frontier AI labs, and senior operators from across tech. Fellows get dedicated 1:1 time with speakers when possible.A cohort of fellows working alongside you — a small, tight-knit group of researchers tackling different problems but sharing ideas, drafts, and reading groups. The community extends to DoorDash research alumni and the broader fellowship network.Publication support — fellows are encouraged to publish at top venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, KDD, etc.) and DoorDash will support the legal and review processRelocation support, housing stipend, and competitive payHousing stipendRelocation stipendWellness reimbursement benefitAccess to an employee assistance programIn-office lunch creditsPremium healthcareWellness expense reimbursementPaid parental leaveCompany OverviewDoorDash is a food delivery platform that connects customers with local and national businesses. It is a sub-organization of DoorDash. It was founded in 2013, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, with a workforce of 10001+ employees. Its website is http://www.doordash.com.Company H1B SponsorshipDoorDash has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 70 in 2026, 530 in 2025, 510 in 2024, 413 in 2023, 612 in 2022, 439 in 2021, 126 in 2020. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Apply To this Job