Lessons in adaptability: A conversation with DoorDash’s WFM leader
The Assembled team sat down with Gabriel “Gabo” Vera, Senior Manager of Workforce Planning at DoorDash, to explore his journey from a BPO to workforce leader at one of today’s most dynamic companies. With a career spanning telecom and banking across in-house and outsourced operations, Gabo shares how resilience, adaptability, and a knack for connecting the dots took him from technical support to managing complex, large-scale operations. He also dives into the value of his BPO experience, his approach to leveraging AI, and his strategies for building scalable, high-impact workforce systems.
How Gabo got his start
Assembled: Gabo, how did you get started in customer support?
Gabo Vera: I started my career at a telecom company in Mexico, the "Comcast of Mexico,” as an agent. I heard about a new call center (now known as TTEC) opening up, and they were paying four times more than what I was making, and the only requirement was to speak English. Sadly, I didn’t pass the English test, but luckily, they still allowed me into training as a real-time specialist. My job was to log in and out agents for payroll — it was very basic at first. But soon, I was introduced to the workforce side, learning about CMS, SLA, metrics, and AHT. That’s how I started in workforce management.
Assembled: Sounds like that was your education right there.
GV: Exactly. I was brand new to metrics and the workforce side, but things started to click. I could connect the dots between everything I was learning, and I quickly moved up to a scheduler role.
Assembled: Was that a promotion of sorts?
GV: Yes! At that time, workforce management had a very strict path for advancement. You start as a real-time specialist, then move to scheduling, then to planning, etc. After six months, I was promoted to scheduler, and about eight months later, to planning analyst, where I worked on capacity planning. Eventually, I consolidated capacity plans across regions and lines of business. By 2009, I had moved from knowing nothing about WFM to becoming a manager.
Assembled: So, how did you find yourself working at DoorDash?
GV: TTEC put me on a consulting project for DoorDash because of my experience building a workforce management team from scratch. Three weeks after starting that project, DoorDash asked me to join long-term as part of the “Managed Services” team, and two years later, I joined as a full-time employee!
By the time DoorDash officially hired me, we had expanded from three lines of business to 120, and our contact volume surged from 200,000 a week to 3 million. My role kept growing too — last year, they told me I’d be overseeing both BPO and in-house teams. It seems they realized I could handle a lot, so they kept adding responsibilities.
Assembled: What makes you passionate about workforce management?
GV: I love planning and being in control. I enjoy mapping out steps to reach specific outcomes and ensuring every detail is accounted for. Workforce management allows me to optimize, connect various elements, and see the results play out.
What keeps me committed to this field is knowing that our work genuinely contributes to the company’s big goals. It’s rewarding to look back during performance reviews and see our impact, like reducing costs or improving occupancy.
The evolution of WFM at DoorDash
Assembled: How has workforce management evolved at DoorDash as the company has grown?
GV: The biggest change we’ve seen with the workforce team at DoorDash is moving from complete chaos to a structured, organized system. When we first arrived, there was no organization, no established processes — it was basically, “Open Slack, check your messages, and that’s your work for the day.” We had to establish a weekly cadence, a cycle of forecasting, planning, executing, analyzing, and then starting over. It took a lot of blood and sweat to build that rhythm.
Think about it: there’s no way to grow from managing three lines of business to 120 without a scalable process. We needed a system that could handle growth without breaking, which is why we spent time implementing processes that happen on a weekly basis.
Today, the team is on top of it. They know exactly what to look for, what information to gather from partners, and they follow a consistent weekly process. They can tell me our staffing coverage for the next four weeks, pinpoint each partner’s pain points, and anticipate SLA concerns for each line of business. With this system in place, we can now step back from the day-to-day and focus on bigger strategic goals. If everything goes according to plan, our service levels hit the target; if not, we know how to respond.
Assembled: How do you think starting out at a BPO influenced how you approach workforce management now?
GV: During my BPO career, I was exposed to hundreds of different scenarios across various companies and industries. This experience gave me a lot of extra tools in my toolkit. For instance, if DoorDash wants to handle partners on a per-task basis, I know how to set that up. Or if they need to manage occupancy, I can guide them on the best approach.
One thing I’ve noticed is that many people in workforce management tend to assume a one-size-fits-all approach — as if the structure that works for one program will work for every other one. But I never come with that assumption. My first step is always understanding the specific needs of a program before deciding if it has the right solution or if adjustments are needed. My BPO experience gives me the balance to either build from scratch or say, "You’re on the right path, but you could improve your process with A, B, and C."
This flexibility is something people who have only worked in-house often don’t have. When someone works for a single company long-term, they tend to get stuck in that particular operating model. In BPO, we have to adapt constantly. For example, when I worked in Saudi Arabia, I had to create break schedules based on the lunar calendar to accommodate daily prayer times. It was one of the most challenging scheduling scenarios — finding ways to ensure people could pray while balancing peak call times.
Assembled: What an interesting challenge. How did you solve it?
GV: We had to get creative. We found ways to balance staffing by hiring people who didn’t need to follow specific prayer schedules or by adjusting shifts. The schedulers had to dynamically plan each day to align with the lunar calendar, allowing agents to log off and pray when needed.
Reflecting on a career in WFM
Assembled: You’ve had such an incredible career so far. What do you think has motivated you?
GV: One thing people always say about me — for better or worse — is that I struggle to say "no." In a positive sense, this means I don’t immediately dismiss challenges. Instead, I take time to think through how we might approach a solution and work toward making it happen. But there are times when saying "no" would be the wiser choice, yet I still try to find a way to help.
My motto is, “There has to be a way.” This mindset has helped me tackle many complex problems, even when others advised against it. I believe that if the answer ends up being "no," at least I can say I tried, I put in the effort, and we explored every option. This approach has been invaluable on the BPO side, where we’re often asked to reduce costs and optimize efficiency. It’s challenging, but it’s what I’m passionate about.
Assembled: What advice would you give to someone in workforce management who wants to grow their career?
GV: I always tell my team to keep asking, “Is there a better way to do this?” This question keeps me and the team from settling into the status quo, even when everything seems to be running smoothly — service levels are high, occupancy is great. That’s often the best time to look deeper and ask, “Okay, what’s next? How can we make this even better?”
When you start to feel comfortable with the status quo, that’s when you risk falling behind. Other teams will be asking these questions too, and they’ll find ways to optimize. Always challenging the current process is one of the best ways to keep improving and stay ahead.
Assembled: How do you talk about AI to your team in a way that excites rather than threatens them?
GV: I frame AI as a tool that can enhance our work. If we don’t adapt, AI might replace roles, but by learning and leveraging it, we gain an advantage. I personally use AI for productivity — from analyzing data to drafting documents. I see it as Gabo 2.0, using AI to work smarter.
Every quarter, my team is required to complete 10 hours of self-development, often through LinkedIn courses on AI or other relevant topics. I tell them, “Take advantage of these free courses and show me how you’re using what you’ve learned to benefit the business.” It’s been rewarding to see them apply new skills to improve their work.
How WFM is, and isn't, changing
Assembled: Reflecting on your career, what changes have you noticed in workforce management, and what remains the same?
GV: I often ask my peers, “What do you think is the biggest breakthrough in the workforce industry?” And honestly, no one can name anything radically new that we weren’t already doing 17 years ago. Workforce management, at its core, still functions the same way. Many teams are still handling their forecasting in spreadsheets.
What has changed is how workforce management is now viewed. It’s no longer seen as a nice-to-have, and is now seen as a necessity. Companies have started recognizing the value workforce can add, whereas before, it was just a box to check. It was an area handling schedules, often ignored, and seen as having minimal impact. Today’s workforce teams are more specialized, and are closer to the center of gravity of the business – we work with finance, human resources, and other departments to bring real strategic advantage.
Assembled: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for innovation in workforce management?
GV: There’s so much untapped potential in workforce management, especially with a fresh perspective. What I love about Assembled is that you’re not just replicating what Aspect or Verint are doing; you’re setting your own course. I’m excited to see how far we can go if we focus on what truly matters for the business.
In an ideal future, imagine if agents could manage their schedules freely, with the system setting parameters but allowing them the flexibility to make adjustments. For instance, if I’m a supervisor and notice a coaching opportunity with one of my team members, I wouldn’t have to go back and forth with workforce to schedule it. The system would recognize the availability and suggest a time, maybe 15 minutes later, when the team member could join me for feedback.
This vision of a workforce system that adapts to people’s lives — not the other way around — is what excites me. It’s about removing rigidity from the process, so if someone wants to take a day off to spend time with their family, they should have the flexibility to do that without jumping through hoops. Many tools make this process overly complex, but I believe Assembled has the opportunity to tackle this challenge from a fresh perspective and make it work.
That’s what I’m really looking forward to in our partnership. We don’t have to follow the old playbook.
Assembled: You’ve shared such an incredible story, Gabo. Not only about your career path but also about workforce management. It’s clear you’re doing something right.
GV: Thank you! I am passionate about what I do, and it’s rewarding to see workforce management contribute to broader company goals. It’s a hard job, but with the right mindset, it can be a powerful and fulfilling role.
