Deliveroo appoints former Amazon exec

Deliveroo has appointed Devesh Mishra as its new chief product and technology officer.

He will be responsible for Deliveroo’s tech arm, including the delivery company’s engineering, data science, design and product development functions.

Mishra joins the business from Amazon where he has worked for the past 16 years – mostly recently as vice president, global supply chain. Previous to that he was director for Amazon’s worldwide inventory buying and sourcing where he was responsible for more than 200 product lines across nine countries.

He will sit within the executive team and report directly to chief executive Will Shu.

Deliveroo said his appointment “underlines the complexity of the problems to be solved in on-demand delivery”, as well as the scale of opportunity ahead for Deliveroo.

The delivery company is currently creating 400 additional high-skilled tech jobs across a range of skill sets, including software engineers, product managers, user researchers, designers, and data scientists.

Deliveroo’s current chief technology officer, Dan Winn, will continue in that role working closely with Mishra. The current chief product officer, Akshay Navle, is leaving the company to pursue another opportunity.

Of Mishra’s appointment, Deliveroo CEO and founder, Will Shu, said: “He has unique and unmatched experience in how technology can help to scale a business and deliver world-leading consumer experiences.

“He will help take Deliveroo to the next stage in our journey. Devesh will work with the team to ensure we are delivering unique experiences for our consumers, restaurant and grocery partners, and riders, as well as developing new innovations as we seek to become the definitive online food company.”

Mishra added: “We are at the inflection point in how our customers eat and their relationship with food. I’m excited to be part of a company leading that change in such a large and important market. Deliveroo has reached a super impressive scale with an impressive growth rate, but there is a lot of opportunity ahead and lots of building to do.”