Staff Software Engineer, New Ventures

About the Role

The New Ventures team is intentionally kept small to facilitate agile decision-making and rapid experimentation. As a core member of this team, you will have the opportunity to make significant contributions to the technical direction and strategy of the venture. Your work will have a direct impact on the success of the business line, and you will be expected to operate with a bias for action, prioritizing rapid iteration and learning over perfect specs.

The role is based in the United States, with options for remote, hybrid, or onsite work in Boston or New York. The ideal candidate will be comfortable working in a distributed team environment and have experience with remote collaboration tools.

What You Will Do

• Build from 0→1: Partner with a small team of engineers to architect and build the technical foundation for this new venture, writing the first lines of code and evolving them as the team learns.
• Ship at Terminal Velocity: Utilize AI coding assistants, LLMs, and modern automation to significantly accelerate output, focusing on high-level logic and solving core user problems.
• Architect for Flexibility: Design systems that are 'just enough' to ship today but flexible enough to pivot tomorrow, understanding that the ability to change direction is a feature, not a bug, in the early stages.
• Create 'Real' Experiences: Build functional prototypes and clickable flows that feel like the final product, allowing the team to test hypotheses with real users immediately.
• Execute End-to-End: Operate as a true generalist, whether it's building out a new API, refining a UI interaction, or adjusting a database schema, doing whatever is necessary to keep momentum high.
• Make Smart Tradeoffs: Work with the team to decide when to 'hack' a solution for a quick experiment and when to spend the extra time on a hardened foundation.
• Operate with Bias for Action: Run with a 'ship-to-learn' mindset, validating assumptions via low-fi experiments, dogfooding, and rapid refinement rather than waiting for perfect specs.
• Collaborate across Disciplines: Partner closely with Design and Product to ensure technical feasibility is baked into the vision from the start, helping to shape the 'what' and 'why' through a technical lens.

What We Are Looking For

• A '0→1 mentality' with high comfort working in high-ambiguity environments where learning is the primary output and 'done' is an iteration, not a finish line.
• Generalist depth, being a builder at heart who is comfortable jumping into any part of the stack—frontend, backend, or infra—to get a feature live.
• AI-native workflow, with a clear, proven pattern of using AI tools to accelerate coding, debugging, and synthesis.
• Product intuition, understanding user needs and translating complex workflows into interfaces and systems that feel intuitive and calm.
• Technical scrappiness, with a 'builder' mindset, possibly from experience in side projects, early-stage startups, or rapid experimentation teams.
• Team-first attitude, thriving in small, collaborative pods and being proactive about alignment.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure and AI-assisted development tools.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Android development.
• Familiarity with hospitality technology or related industries.
• Participation in open-source projects or personal coding endeavors that demonstrate innovation and technical leadership.
• Certification in cloud computing or AI development.

Benefits and Perks

• Competitive compensation package.
• Equity options.
• Comprehensive health insurance.
• Remote stipend to support home office setup and productivity.
• Generous PTO policy, including vacation days, sick leave, and holidays.
• Access to the latest technology and tools for professional development.
• Opportunities for career growth and advancement within the company.

• Tip: Highlight your experience with AI-assisted development tools and how they have improved your coding efficiency in your resume and cover letter.
• Familiarize yourself with Toast's technology stack and be prepared to discuss how your skills align with their technical vision.
• Showcase your ability to work in high-ambiguity environments by sharing examples of times when you had to adapt quickly to changing project requirements.
• Prepare to back your claims of being a 'generalist' with specific examples of times when you took on responsibilities outside your core competence to deliver a project.
• Be ready to discuss your approach to 'shipping to learn' and how you balance experimentation with the need for a hardened foundation in your products.
• Ensure your online presence, including GitHub and LinkedIn profiles, reflects your skills and experience as a software engineer.