Director of Product Management, Lending

Toast is a technology company that assists restaurants and local businesses in thriving in a digital landscape. They are seeking a Director of Product Management to lead their Lending efforts, focusing on scaling Toast Capital and developing new lending products that support restaurant operators in their financial journeys.

Responsibilities:

• Own and evolve the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for Toast’s lending portfolio, with Toast Capital as the foundation and new embedded lending experiences as the next horizon of growth
• Identify, size, and sequence new opportunities that help restaurants start, run, and grow, including working capital, growth financing, faster access to funds, upmarket lending, and other embedded financing products
• Lead teams through both 1-to-n scaling and 0-to-1 incubation by improving existing lending products, expanding eligibility and adoption, and validating new concepts through disciplined experimentation
• Define end-to-end product experiences and scalable lending infrastructure across offer eligibility, application, underwriting, pricing, funding, servicing, collections, and lifecycle engagement
• Build lending experiences that feel native to Toast by embedding access to capital into the moments operators already manage cash flow, payouts, payroll, bills, inventory, equipment, and growth decisions
• Use customer research and data to identify pain points, translate them into product decisions, business cases, and measurable outcomes
• Partner deeply with Engineering, Design, Data Science, Credit Risk, Capital Markets, Legal, Compliance, Finance, Operations, Marketing and external financial partners to improve access to capital while maintaining strong risk controls, compliance, servicing quality, customer trust, and long-term portfolio economics
• Shape the role of AI and automation in Toast Finance, including insights, recommendations, and agentic financial management that help operators anticipate needs and take action with confidence
• Establish the operating cadence, metrics, and decision-making frameworks needed to manage a complex financial product portfolio across growth, risk, customer value, economics, compliance, and operational quality
• Hire, coach, and develop a high-performing team of product managers, raising the bar for product strategy, execution, customer insight, and cross-functional leadership across Embedded Finance
• Communicate strategy, priorities, tradeoffs, and progress clearly to senior leaders and cross-functional partners, creating alignment around the highest-impact opportunities

Requirements:

• 12+ years of product management experience, including experience leading product teams and managing product managers
• Deep experience in fintech, embedded finance, lending, banking, payments, or another regulated financial services domain
• Proven track record scaling a meaningful product line while also identifying and building new product opportunities from early discovery through launch and iteration
• Strong product judgment in complex domains where customer experience, risk, compliance, operations, economics, and technical feasibility all matter
• Experience working with cross-functional teams such as credit risk, capital markets, legal, compliance, finance, operations, data science, engineering, design, sales, marketing, and customer support
• Strong analytical and commercial orientation, with experience using data to define opportunities, prioritize investments, evaluate experiments, and manage business outcomes
• Customer obsession and curiosity, especially for small business owners, operators, or other customers who manage complex workflows with limited time and resources
• Executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to simplify ambiguity, frame strategic choices, and influence decisions across senior stakeholders
• Experience building products that depend on external partners, platform capabilities, operational processes, and scalable controls
• A point of view on how AI, automation, and agentic product experiences can improve financial management while preserving trust, transparency, and customer control
• High standards for talent development, team health, and operating discipline
• First-hand experience with small business lending, merchant cash advance, term loans, lines of credit, card products, equipment financing, or pay-over-time products
• Experience with embedded underwriting, risk models, loan servicing, repayment systems, capital markets, bank partnerships, or lending operations
• Experience building products for restaurants, hospitality, retail, local businesses, or other verticalized SMB segments
• Experience with cash flow management, business banking, payout acceleration, payroll-adjacent products, employee financial services, or financial wellness products
• Experience launching financial products internationally or adapting products across markets, regulatory regimes, and partner ecosystems
• Experience using machine learning, AI, or automation to personalize offers, improve risk decisions, streamline operations, or create more proactive customer experiences