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. A bit about the team Toast Support is undergoing a multi-year transformation to become a seamless, intelligent, and trusted companion for every restaurant—delivering fast, proactive, and deeply human help when it matters most. Support Technology sits at the center of this evolution, powering the tools, platforms, and AI experiences that connect customers, agents, and Toast systems across every support interaction. We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to help define and drive the technical foundation of this transformation. In this role, you will shape the evolution of Toast’s Support Technology ecosystem, spanning agent tooling, AI-powered voice and chat experiences, the Support Center, customer communication platforms, and a modernization of our omnichannel contact center infrastructure (CCaaS). Your work will directly influence how customers and agents interact across channels – and how those experiences come together as a single, cohesive system. This is a high-impact domain. Support systems must operate reliably under urgent, business-critical conditions; integrate deeply with customer, device, and account data; and scale across millions of interactions while maintaining trust, accuracy, and speed. The platforms you influence will determine how effectively Toast can reduce friction, resolve issues end-to-end, and deliver a differentiated support experience as we grow—modernizing our core support infrastructure through a unified CCaaS foundation and AI-driven capabilities that improve routing, resolution, and outcomes. As a Principal Engineer in Support Technology, you will set technical direction across teams, identify and solve systemic architectural challenges, and raise the bar for quality and execution across the organization. You will partner closely with product, design, data, AI, and operations leaders to build platforms and customer-facing experiences that are extensible, resilient, and easy for other teams to build on—unlocking faster innovation and better outcomes for customers and agents alike. If you’re motivated by large-scale platform transformations, excited to work at the intersection of customer experience, agent experience, and intelligent systems, and eager to leave a lasting mark on how Toast supports restaurants at scale, this role offers a rare opportunity to do so. A day in the life (Responsibilities) Lead the transformation of our Support Technology architecture, delivering scalable solutions that have significant business impact across customer-facing support experiences and agent tooling. Define and implement frameworks and processes that guarantee the quality, resilience, and scalability of our Support Technology platforms, including our omnichannel contact center (CCaaS), customer-facing Support Center, and customer communications systems. Develop and execute technical strategies to solve complex business challenges, leveraging data-driven decisions to prioritize impactful improvements across voice, chat, and digital support channels. Establish guiding technical and delivery principles that influence engineering practices across the broader engineering organization. Mentor and guide engineers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, inclusivity, and engineering excellence. Build and maintain strong partnerships across lines of business, aligning technical solutions with strategic objectives. What you'll need to thrive (Requirements) 8-10 years of experience in software engineering, with a strong background in full-stack development is essential. Extensive experience with Java, Kotlin, or other object-oriented languages, and experience building complex, customer-facing web applications is a must Strong skills with modern web and API standards and technologies (e.g. React, REST, GraphQL), delivering cohesive end-to-end experiences from UI through services. You must have experience leading or influencing large, cross-team platform initiatives, setting technical direction beyond a single team or service. Proficient with relational databases and alternative data stores Demonstrated ability to deliver and operate business-critical, customer-facing systems, with a strong focus on reliability, performance, and operational excellence. Demonstrated ability to deliver high-impact, scalable solutions, balancing platform leverage with end-to-end user experience. Strong leadership and mentoring skills, with a track record of guiding teams through architectural and experience transformations. Excellent communication skills and a passion for engineering excellence, including collaborating closely with product, design, and operations to improve customer outcomes. Passionate about driving innovation and continuously improving engineering practices. **This role requires two days per week in our Dublin office** 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 Philosophy We 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 earnings potential and provides the means to a healthy lifestyle with the flexibility to meet Toasters’ changing needs. Learn more about our benefits at https://careers.toasttab.com/toast-benefits. How Toast Uses AI in its Hiring Process Throughout the hiring process, our goal is to get to know you. We use AI tools to support our recruiters and interviewers with tasks like note-taking, summarization, and documentation of interviews to ensure they can be fully focused on your conversation. All hiring decisions are made by people. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is Baked into our Recipe for Success 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. Apply today! 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. ------ For roles in the United States, it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.