Staff Software Engineer, Backend

Toast creates technology that helps restaurants and local businesses succeed in a digital world. The Staff Software Engineer will design and implement Kotlin backend services and lead the development of software systems for managing Toast POS hardware, collaborating across product, hardware, QA, and software teams while ensuring quality, security, and maintainability.

Responsibilities:

• Hands-on design and implementation of Kotlin backend services to improve our device management workflows for customers
• Lead the design and development of the next generation of Toast’s software services and applications to bring a seamless device configuration and user experience for customers
• Collaborate with Product Management, Hardware, QA and other Software teams on the product roadmap and requirements to build a long term vision for Toast
• Create technical requirements and detailed designs of the software system being developed
• Lead effort estimation sessions and use sound judgment to enable planning of projects
• Diagnose performance bottlenecks and implement optimizations
• Make solid technical decisions keeping software quality, security, and maintainability in mind
• Help set the standard for software quality by adopting modern software test frameworks and practices in day to day development

Requirements:

• 8+ years of experience in designing and implementing robust backend services
• Proficient in a modern object-oriented programming language such as Java or Kotlin
• Demonstrated technical leadership, with the ability to drive cross-team alignment and influence across engineering, product, and business stakeholders
• Demonstrated experience with microservices architecture and containerization technologies for enhanced scalability and maintainability
• Applied knowledge of best practices in backend application lifecycle management, including database, service, & API design strategies, with the ability to share this amongst the team and peers
• Experience developing single-page frontend applications using React
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
• Familiarity with AI-augmented development workflows and tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar)
• Demonstrated proficiency with DynamoDB or PostgreSQL
• Proficiency in Kotlin (or Java and willing to learn Kotlin) and Kotlin-specific frameworks and libraries for building efficient backend solutions
• Experience with monitoring tools to debug and resolve tough customer issues
• Understanding of mobile device management (MDM) concepts and enterprise device management platforms