Principal Software Engineer

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. 

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Advanced Analytics Platform (AAP) team.

The AAP team owns the data platform powering Toast's analytics products and AI/ML capabilities. Our mission is to build the foundational data infrastructure - real-time streaming, data lakehouse, feature serving, and cloud-native analytics pipelines - that enables product teams across Toast to build intelligent, data-driven experiences for over 170,000 restaurant customers. We are in the middle of a significant platform evolution: migrating to Apache Iceberg, standing up a new Feature Store, and scaling our streaming infrastructure to meet the demands of a rapidly growing business.

As a Principal Software Engineer on this team, you will play a key role in defining the technical strategy for our most critical data platform initiatives. You will define how we evolve our architecture, build the frameworks and patterns that enable other engineers to move fast, and establish Toast as a leader in data platform engineering. This is a role for someone who thinks at the level of the business problem first, translates that into clear technical direction, and brings teams along with them.

• →8+ years of experience in software engineering with demonstrated expertise in data platform or distributed systems engineering
• →Strong background in data lakehouse technologies (Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or similar), streaming infrastructure (Apache Kafka, Apache Pulsar, or similar), and cloud-native data platforms (Databricks, AWS, or similar)
• →Demonstrated ability to deliver high-impact, scalable solutions in complex, multi-product environments.
• →Strong leadership and mentoring skills, with a track record of guiding teams through architectural transformations.
• →Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• →Passionate about driving innovation and continuously improving engineering practices.

Our data platform runs on AWS and spans Apache Iceberg for table format and lakehouse architecture, Apache Kafka and Pulsar for real-time streaming, Apache Spark for data processing, and DynamoDB and Postgres for operational data stores. We are migrating from legacy ETL patterns toward a modern, cloud-native data lakehouse and building out Feature Store capabilities to power ML-driven product experiences. Our backend services are primarily Kotlin and Java.

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.

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.

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.

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