Toast creates technology to help restaurants and local businesses succeed in a digital world, helping business owners operate, increase sales, engage customers, and keep employees happy.
As a Principal Engineer / architect you will be responsible for creating a technical strategy and coordinating the designs for meeting the needs of Toast’s largest restaurant brands. You will partner with Product Managers to develop the technology roadmap that enables enterprise customers to leverage the power of Toast. You will also work closely with technical leaders and implementation teams across the organization to deliver robust, scalable solutions with integrations to customers’ external systems. While the role is primarily internally-facing, it requires infrequent interactions with enterprise customers, listening to their requirements and providing expert guidance as they deploy Toast.
If you’re a technical leader or a solutions architect, experienced with enterprise SaaS, passionate about customer value, and a great collaborator, read on!
A day in the life (Responsibilities)
- Lead the evolution of Toast’s backend architecture, frameworks, and data models with a strong focus on delivery efficiency, system scalability, and resilience.
- Design and build the next generation of accounting and financial systems using Java, Kotlin, DynamoDB, Pulsar, GraphQL, Big Data tools, and more.
- Define and implement scalable engineering practices, delivery frameworks, and coding standards that raise the technical bar across the org.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, UX, QA, and multiple engineering teams to deliver robust, customer-facing solutions.
- Build and maintain strong partnerships across business units, aligning technology strategies with key company objectives.
- Champion data-driven decision making by developing strategies and prioritizing initiatives with high impact on user and business outcomes.
- Mentor and grow engineers across levels, promoting a culture of inclusivity, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.
- Guide and influence the broader technical roadmap and architecture strategy for Toast.
- Leverage cutting edge AI tools to enhance your development workflow, improve velocity, and help pioneer new approaches to building - contributing to a culture of innovation and productivity across the team
What you'll need to thrive (Requirements)
- 12+ years of experience designing and delivering complex, scalable backend systems.
- Proven technical leadership on mission-critical projects, with the ability to influence across multiple teams.
- Strong experience building distributed, event-driven architectures and microservices in Java, Kotlin, Scala, or similar OOP languages.
- Deep understanding of data architecture and schema design; experience with DynamoDB is a plus.
- Hands-on experience with cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure.
- Strong knowledge of modern database systems (Postgres, SQL Server, DynamoDB).
- Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment, delivering value continuously.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to break down complexity and drive solutions that scale.
- A passion for building impactful products with a customer-first mindset.
- Strong interpersonal and leadership skills—respectful, empathetic, humble, and inclusive.
- A growth mindset with a desire to constantly learn and uplift others.
- Comfortable balancing velocity with platform stability and long-term architecture goals.
- Comfortable using AI-powered engineering tools to improve developer productivity, code quality, and technical decision-making, with the ability to critically evaluate and validate AI-generated solutions.
- Demonstrated experience incorporating AI into the software development lifecycle to improve engineering effectiveness, and the ability to champion best practices for responsible, secure, and high-impact AI adoption across engineering teams.
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.
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. 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
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is Baked into our Recipe for Success
At Toast, our employees are our secret ingredient—when they thrive, we thrive. The restaurant industry is one of the most diverse, and we embrace that diversity with authenticity, inclusivity, respect, and humility. By embedding these principles into our culture and design, we create equitable opportunities for all and raise the bar in delivering exceptional experiences.
We Thrive Together
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 restaurant community. To learn more about how we work globally and regionally, check out: https://careers.toasttab.com/locations-toast.
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].
------
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
- 12+ years designing and delivering complex, scalable backend systems.
- Proven technical leadership on mission-critical projects with cross-team influence.
- Experience building distributed, event-driven architectures and microservices.
- Proficiency in Java, Kotlin, Scala, or similar OOP languages.
- Deep understanding of data architecture and schema design.
- Experience with DynamoDB (noted as a plus).
- Hands-on experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
- Strong knowledge of modern databases: Postgres and SQL Server.
- Experience in Agile/Scrum environments and continuous delivery.
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, interpersonal, and leadership skills.
- Experience using AI-powered engineering tools and incorporating AI into the software development lifecycle.
- Ability to balance delivery velocity with platform stability and long-term architecture goals.
What the Team is Saying
%20-%20Jane%20Modena.jpeg)
%20-%20Jane%20Modena.jpeg)
Toast Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible PTO, paid company holidays, and a paid sabbatical after five years are part of the package alongside paid parental, family, and medical leave. These programs collectively provide multiple pathways for extended time away.
-
Parental & Family Support — Parental leave is described as 16 weeks paid for all parents plus an additional 8–10 weeks for birthing parents that can be split within 24 months. Fertility and family‑forming guidance with a stipend and subsidized backup care further enable family support.
-
Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage are paired with mental‑health therapy and coaching, a wellness stipend, and financial education. Fertility and family‑forming guidance with a stipend adds depth to the health offering.
Toast Insights
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
Gallery
Toast Teams
Toast Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
