Staff Software Engineer, Finance Automation

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. Toast is looking for a hands-on Staff Software Engineer to join the Finance AI & Automation team within the Office of the CFO. In this role, you will serve as a primary technical authority and builder, transforming working AI prototypes into enterprise-grade backend microservices, data pipelines, and internal tools that eliminate manual friction across the finance stack. Sitting on a central Engineering team, you will bridge the gap between rapid AI innovation and robust systems architecture. While your primary mastery lies in distributed backend systems and event-driven integrations, you will also own the lightweight frontend UI surfaces and operator tools that allow Finance teams to interact with these automations seamlessly. A day in the life (Responsibilities) • Hands-on Execution & Leadership: Spend the majority of your time "hands-on-keyboard," architecting, coding, and operating high-performance backend services using Kotlin and AWS. • Productionize AI Workflows: Take working agentic prototypes built by Finance operators and turn them into scalable, monitored, and permissioned microservices with audit trails and automated error handling. • End-to-End Internal Tooling: Build pragmatic, full-stack operator tools—from backend APIs and pipelines down to the lightweight UI surfaces used daily by collections analysts and revenue accountants to run and monitor automations safely. • Integration & Systems Architecture: Design resilient integrations across billing platforms, ERP systems, Salesforce, data warehouses, and internal Toast services using enterprise integration patterns. • Design for Enterprise Controls: Proactively engineer around SOX scope, PCI boundaries, and data access requirements alongside Security, Compliance, and Audit teams from day one. • Technical Ownership & Strategic Handoffs: Own end-to-end technical strategy from high-level business problems down to build sequencing. Recognize when fixes belong in core Toast platforms, driving technical cases and clean handoffs rather than duplicating capabilities. What you'll need to thrive (Requirements) • Backend-Focused with Pragmatic Full-Stack Reach : Proven track record as a Staff (or senior-level lead) engineer with deep expertise in distributed backend systems, paired with the practical ability to ship frontend UI surfaces or admin portals when an internal tool requires it. • Production Kotlin & AWS: Advanced hands-on experience shipping Kotlin (or strong JVM equivalent) services on AWS, with deep familiarity in cloud-native backend patterns. • Applied AI & Systems Fluency: Practical experience productionizing LLM frameworks and agentic architectures (tool use, retrieval/RAG, evals, context management) paired with strong judgment on when an AI agent is required versus a traditional backend system or cron job. • Event-Driven & Integration Architecture: Extensive experience with enterprise integration frameworks, message brokers, and distributed data stores—specifically Apache Camel, Apache Pulsar, DynamoDB, and Dropwizard (or direct equivalents). • Data Systems Depth: Advanced data engineering instincts across SQL, warehouse modeling, pipeline design, and managing data flow/consistency across relational and NoSQL storage systems. • Pragmatic Technical Strategy & Communication: Ability to balance immediate high-impact automation with long-term platform scalability, accompanied by exceptional technical writing that translates complex architectural trade-offs to executive stakeholders. What will help you stand out (Nonessentials/Nice to Haves) • Extensive background in Fintech, revenue systems, automated reconciliation, or operating within strict SOX/PCI control environments. • Deep experience building internal platforms, administrative dashboards, or operator tooling for non-technical business users. • Prior experience embedded directly alongside finance, revenue, or business ops functions to solve core operational scaling challenges. 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&nbsp; 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&nbsp;<a class="c-link" href="https://careers.toasttab.com/toast-benefits" target="_blank" data-stringify-link="https://careers.toasttab.com/toast-benefits" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">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 . Zone A $193,000 &mdash; $309,000 USD Zone B $168,000 &mdash; $269,000 USD Zone C $151,000 &mdash; $242,000 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. 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:&nbsp; 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 candidateaccommodations@toasttab.com . ------ 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.