Senior Software Engineer, Backend — Toast International

Location: Toronto, ON / Canada Hybrid (Ontario)

Who We Are

Toast is driven by building the restaurant platform that helps restaurants adapt, take control, and get back to what they do best: building the businesses they love.

Are you bready* for a change?

As a Senior Backend Engineer on the Toast International team, you’ll play a pivotal role in engineering the platform that powers the next generation of guest reservations, dynamic floor management, and table operations across global markets like the UK, Europe, and Canada.

You will lead the design and execution of core backend services—building scalable backend systems, robust integrations, data processing pipelines, and core platform capabilities. You’ll collaborate closely with engineering teams in North America and Europe, product managers, and designers to win high-value full-service restaurants worldwide.

About this roll* (Responsibilities)

• Architect, implement, and scale distributed backend microservices (Java / Kotlin / AWS) powering reservations and guest management.
• Build core transactional and payment capabilities for the platform.
• Design robust integrations with third-party aggregators and partners and two-way POS synchronization.
• Implement tiering, entitlements, and usage metering services across freemium waitlists and premium subscription tiers.
• Partner cross-functionally with Mobile, Web/Frontend, Product Management, and UX to deliver seamless end-to-end features.
• Drive high standards of code quality, observability, test automation (unit, integration, and contract tests), and operational excellence.
• Mentor team members, participate in technical design reviews, and leverage modern AI development workflows to accelerate velocity and code quality.

Do you have the right ingredients*? (Requirements)

• 5+ years of software engineering experience building scalable, distributed backend microservices in production.
• Deep proficiency in Java or Kotlin, relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, DynamoDB), and event-driven architectures (Pulsar / Kafka / AWS).
• Proven experience designing clean, versioned REST / GraphQL APIs and handling asynchronous workflows at scale.
• Experience integrating payment workflows (e.g., card tokenization, pre-auth, Stripe/Adyen/payment gateway integrations) or compliance-sensitive systems.
• Strong focus on software reliability, schema design, latency optimization, and distributed systems resilience.
• Passion for collaborating across distributed global time zones with a single-threaded ownership mindset.

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 PhilosophyWe 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