DoorDash, an online food ordering and delivery platform, is planning to hire 50 engineers to populate a new Australian engineering hub next year.
"The engineering hub will be focused on scaling DoorDash’s platform and data infrastructure, building new products, ensuring reliability at scale and boosting developer productivity," DoorDash said in a statement.
DoorDash engineering manager Sharim Chua, who is currently based in Melbourne, is the site lead for the new hub.
Chua indicated he would return to Australia for the new role.
He stated in a DoorDash blog post that the hub will enable the company "to tap into the abundance of local tech talent” in Australia and “build solutions to support DoorDash’s growth Down Under, and beyond.”.
“As a data-driven company, DoorDash aims to improve the logistics of every delivery by optimising as many customer touchpoints and interactions as possible,” Chua said.
“As we rapidly expand our services and open new business verticals such as grocery and convenience, our teams build flexible, engaging experiences, enable localisation, and support innovation.
“We’re incredibly excited to grow this offering right here in Australia.”
Chua said Australia had "some interesting challenges for distribution and delivery” due to the geographic spread of the population, and customer expectations of acceptable delivery timeframes.
DoorDash believes it can reset “consumer expectations by getting items to customers’ doors in under 40 minutes from local merchants”.
“This won’t happen overnight and will require product innovation, but the building blocks are there," Chua said.
“The lessons we learn here will then bolster our product in other international markets as we build locally and scale globally."
