Senior Specialist, Rider Payments

foodpanda is part of the Delivery Hero Group, the world’s pioneering local delivery platform, our mission is to deliver an amazing experience—fast, easy, and to your door. We operate in around 65 countries worldwide. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Delivery Hero has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2017 and is part of the MDAX stock market index. We are seeking a highly analytical and results-driven individual to join our regional logistics team as a Senior Specialist, Performance (Courier Pricing). In this role, you will play a critical part in designing, analyzing, and optimizing rider payment and incentive strategies across our 16 diverse markets. Acting as the bridge between high-level business goals and on-the-ground operational reality, you will treat rider incentives as a key operational lever. You will use data-driven insights to improve rider earnings, enhance fleet satisfaction, and drive overall logistics performance while ensuring financial sustainability. Key Responsibilities: Incentive Strategy & Governance: Define and optimize rider payment and incentive models. Develop frameworks to harmonize incentive strategies across diverse markets while allowing for necessary local adaptations, maintaining consistency and financial discipline. Ensure payment models align with broader business goals, logistics performance KPIs (e.g., delivery time), and rider satisfaction. Financial Impact & Cost Efficiency: Continuously evaluate the financial impact of payment models and monitor cost-per-order (CPO) trends. Ensure incentive structures align with broader profitability targets while maintaining sufficient rider supply and fleet retention. Data Analysis & Insights: Dive deep into large datasets to identify trends, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement in rider payments and logistics operations. Translate complex data into actionable strategic recommendations. Rollout of Models & Automation: Execute and drive the regional implementation of advanced data science models and automated tools tailored to rider payments and operational efficiency. Initiative Rollout & Innovation: Challenge the status quo by introducing innovative techniques to enhance rider payment systems. Support the testing and rollout of strategic initiatives and new pay components (e.g., dynamic pricing, surge models, quest incentives) aimed at improving logistics performance and order acceptance rates. Product Collaboration: Partner with the Delivery Hero’s Central Product team to influence the development of payment-related features. You will translate business requirements into product requests, participate in testing, and ensure the successful adoption of new product capabilities across the region. Stakeholder Management & Market Partnership: Work closely with operations, finance, product, and local logistics stakeholders. Build strong relationships with market teams to understand their unique challenges, implement refined incentive structures, and drive scalable solutions. Experience: 3+ years of professional experience in high-growth tech, logistics, strategy consulting, or investment banking. Experience specifically in the gig-economy, marketplace dynamics, or logistics is a strong plus. Education: University degree in STEM, Economics, Business, or a related quantitative field. Technical Fluency: Proficiency in Excel, SQL, and Looker is required to independently dive into the data, uncover insights, and build robust models. Communication: Exceptional English communication skills, both written and spoken. You are comfortable effectively challenging the status quo, and negotiating with senior stakeholders and leadership.