Location(s): US (remote), Boston (hybrid), or New York (hybrid)
About Toast
Toast builds technology that helps food and beverage businesses run smoother, serve customers better, and grow with confidence. Our platform brings together the tools teams need to power daily operations—while turning complexity into clear, actionable insights. We're purpose-built for the pace of hospitality, and we're investing in new experiences that make great businesses easier to run at any scale.
About this roll* (Responsibilities)We're looking for an Engineering Lead to join our New Ventures team and help build one of Toast's newest products from 0 to 1. You will lead a tight-knit team of 5 highly experienced engineers as a true player/coach—where your primary focus is driving engineering velocity, hands-on problem solving, and outsized impact. You'll lead by example, helping the team discover new ways of working and building with the tools of the day to optimize for speed, customer impact, and the right shared norms.
You will partner closely with our Product Lead to drive weekly sprints. Beyond guiding the team, you will be deeply embedded in the product discovery process and work directly with our customers. We expect you to jump into the codebase to fix bugs, triage issues directly with users, and ensure we're delivering value at top speed without breaking what matters most.
In this role, you will:
- Lead, unblock, and collaborate with a team of 4 highly experienced senior engineers, fostering a culture of rapid iteration and technical excellence.
- Act as a player/coach, actively writing code, jumping in to fix bugs, and triaging customer issues to ensure a tight feedback loop.
- Partner directly with the Product Lead on weekly sprints to decide what we'll build each week, weighing technical tradeoffs together.
- Help the team pioneer new ways of working by integrating the tools of the day into our daily development processes.
- Establish shared norms, guardrails, and best practices that allow the team to move at top speed while maintaining high quality where it counts.
- Navigate the broader Toast ecosystem to unblock your team, leading technical collaboration with other engineering and platform groups when cross-team dependencies are needed to bring new capabilities to life.
- Stay exceptionally close to the customer, participating in feedback sessions and directly solving their pain points.
- Partner with your senior engineers to shape the technical strategy and architecture for a 0-to-1 product, guiding the team toward pragmatic decisions that balance speed-to-market with long-term viability.
- Proven 0-to-1 experience taking a product from concept to an initial MVP and beyond.
- A strong "player/coach" mentality with the technical depth to hold your own with very senior ICs, review designs/code, and contribute directly.
- Experience managing or leading small, high-leverage engineering teams, maximizing impact and autonomy in a lean environment rather than scaling headcount.
- Deep customer empathy and a track record of rolling up your sleeves to fix bugs or triage issues based on direct customer feedback.
- Demonstrated ability to build teams and products in new ways, constantly exploring how to leverage modern tools to ship faster and smarter.
- Experience defining shared engineering norms and guardrails that optimize for speed and impact while keeping processes lightweight.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, specifically with Product Leads, to weigh technical tradeoffs and define weekly priorities.
- You're self-directed, low ego, and thrive in an environment without perfect clarity.
- You've built with LLMs or shipped AI-powered product experiences.
- Experience in operationally complex industries.
- Founder or early-startup experience, or time on an internal incubation or new ventures team.
AI at Toast
At Toast, one of our company values is that we're hungry to build and learn. We believe learning new AI tools empowers us to build for our customers faster, more independently, and with higher quality. We provide these tools across all disciplines, from Engineering and Product to Sales and Support, and are inspired by how our Toasters are already driving real value with them. The people who thrive here are those who embrace changes that let us build more for our customers; it’s a core part of our culture.
Our Total Rewards Philosophy
We strive to provide competitive compensation and benefits programs that help to attract, retain, and motivate the best and brightest people in our industry. Our total rewards package goes beyond great earnings potential and provides the means to a healthy lifestyle with the flexibility to meet Toasters’ changing needs. Learn more about our benefits at https://careers.toasttab.com/toast-benefits.
The base salary range for this role is listed below. The starting salary will be determined based on skills, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, our total rewards components include cash compensation (overtime, bonus/commissions if eligible), equity, and benefits. You can learn more about how we align pay with local labor markets in our Geographic Pay Zone Philosophy.
How Toast Uses AI in its Hiring Process
Throughout the hiring process, our goal is to get to know you. We use AI tools to support our recruiters and interviewers with tasks like note-taking, summarization, and documentation of interviews to ensure they can be fully focused on your conversation. All hiring decisions are made by people. We ask that you complete interviews and assessments on your own, without real-time AI tools, recording, or transcription bots, unless we tell you otherwise in advance. To learn more: https://careers.toasttab.com/ai-in-hiring
Our Approach to Hybrid Working
We embrace a hybrid work model that fosters in-person collaboration while valuing individual needs. Our goal is to build a strong culture of connection as we work together to empower the hospitality community, regardless of location. Please visit the Locations page on our career site to learn more about our in-office expectations by region: https://careers.toasttab.com/locations-toast
People Are the Secret Ingredient in Our Recipe for Success
At Toast, our employees are our secret ingredient—when they thrive, we thrive. The restaurant industry brings together people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, and we value that same breadth at Toast. We strive to build a culture grounded in authenticity, respect, and humility, where every Toaster has a real opportunity to grow, contribute, and do their best work—raising the bar in delivering exceptional experiences for our customers and each other.
Apply today!
Toast is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive hiring process. As part of this commitment, we strive to provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities to enable them to access the hiring process. If you need an accommodation to access the job application or interview process, please contact [email protected].
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For roles in the United States, it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
Skills Required
- Proven experience taking a product from concept through an initial MVP and beyond
- Strong player/coach mentality with technical depth to review designs and code and contribute directly
- Experience managing or leading small, high-leverage engineering teams
- Deep customer empathy and experience fixing bugs or triaging issues from direct customer feedback
- Experience building teams and products using modern tools to ship faster and smarter
- Experience defining lightweight engineering norms and guardrails
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills with Product Leads
- Self-directed, low-ego approach and comfort working with ambiguity
- Experience building with LLMs or shipping AI-powered product experiences
- Experience in operationally complex industries
- Founder, early-startup, internal incubation, or new ventures experience
What the Team is Saying
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What We Do
Toast is the all-in-one platform built for restaurants of all sizes. Toast provides a single platform of software as a service (SaaS) products and financial technology solutions that give restaurants everything they need to run their business, including point of sale, payments, supplier management, digital ordering and delivery, marketing and loyalty, and team management. By serving as the restaurant operating system across dine-in, takeout, and delivery channels, Toast helps restaurants increase revenue, streamline operations and deliver amazing guest experiences.
Why Work With Us
Our recipe for an awesome workplace: One splash of friendship A dollop of impact A sprinkle of no hierarchy & A heavy spoonful of individuality Mix these ingredients in a fast-paced and hardworking environment. Best paired with a side of interesting people who always bring their whole selves to work. *100% Sunday scary free
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Toast Teams
Toast Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
