Director of Retail Engineering
Job Summary
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 the Director of Engineering for Retail, you will be the primary technical owner of Toast’s highest-growth business unit - a $50M+ "startup" currently doubling year-over-year. You will build a delightful, flexible, and scalable platform that serves the unique needs of businesses across a wide variety of retail personas.
Responsibilities
Own the Retail Technical Strategy: Mandate to move beyond siloed feature development to build a unified, extensible retail core that supports a wide variety of retail personas at scale
Architect for Resilience: Ensure high availability and blazing fast performance at the edge; you will oversee the infrastructure that keeps our high-volume retailers up and running regardless of connectivity
Deploy Autonomous Systems: Lead the move from manual and labor-intensive inventory management to AI-driven autonomous systems, saving hours of time and unlocking new operational efficiencies for thousands of customers
Raise Talent Density: Uplevel the engineering organization by identifying and attracting top-tier talent and coaching existing managers to operate as high-autonomy owners
Own the Outcome: Partner with Product and Design to drive the P&L of the Retail business, managing the immediate delivery of the Retail POS and Purchasing & Receiving squads while developing a long-term strategy for the Grocery persona
What You'll Need To Thrive
Platform-First Mindset: You have a track record of building configurable platforms rather than just collections of features
Systems Architect Background: Deep experience with distributed systems and edge computing. You know how to build software that is bulletproof in high-pressure, real-world physical environments
High-Growth "Builder" DNA: You have led engineering teams through the "1-to-10" scale phase at a high-growth startup and know how to maintain velocity while increasing technical rigor
Obsession with Data Integrity: Experience solving complex inventory, supply chain, or financial reconciliation problems where data accuracy is the difference between a successful business and a failed audit
Drives Exceptional Outcomes: You hold an incredibly high bar for talent and execution. You are a "leader of leaders" who empowers managers but stays close enough to the metal to spot architectural flaws
Strategic Influence: You can navigate high-stakes cross-functional relationships, moving beyond "feature requests" to influence the fundamental business strategy through technical innovation
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.
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.
Pay Range
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.
Zone A: $283,000—$453,000 USD
Zone B: $246,000—$394,000 USD
Zone C: $222,000—$355,000 USD
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
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.
Toast's Commitment to Accessibility
We are 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 candidateaccommodations@toasttab.com.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Toast is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.