Senior Software Engineer - Distributed Systems & Kotlin

Toast creates digital technology that helps restaurants and local businesses operate, grow sales, engage guests, and streamline operations.

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Toast Delivery Services team, you will build the software that turns a phone tap into a hot meal delivered to a guest's door. You will engineer the real-time backbone that dispatches drivers, calculates delivery pricing, manages driver location tracking, and handles complex money movement (from delivery fee calculations to refunds). Operating in a domain where code directly impacts physical-world timing, mapping variances, and partner API integrations, you will architect resilient, high-throughput microservices that ensure restaurants and guests stay informed every step of the way.

Key Responsibilities

• Resilient Microservices Architecture: Design, build, deploy, and maintain highly available, scalable microservices powering real-time delivery logistics and order fulfillment.
• Real-Time Logistics Engine: Engineer real-time tracking, ETA calculations, and driver dispatch systems operating under imperfect real-world mapping and network conditions.
• Financial & Money Movement Logic: Collaborate with Product Managers and Designers to ensure absolute precision in delivery pricing, fee splits, partner payouts, and refund workflows.
• System Optimization & Scaling: Diagnose performance bottlenecks and tune distributed datastores and messaging queues to handle high-concurrency order peaks.
• Technical Mentorship & Code Quality: Raise the technical bar through design reviews, advocating for best practices in Kotlin/Java development, and mentoring engineers across the team.

Requirements

Distributed Systems & Backend Engineering Depth

• Object-Oriented Mastery: Strong proficiency in Kotlin, Java, or another modern object-oriented language.
• Datastore Expertise: Hands-on experience with SQL and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, DynamoDB), including schema design, indexing, and query optimization.
• Distributed Architecture: In-depth understanding of microservices, distributed systems, enterprise messaging systems (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS), and event-driven architectures.
• Production Reliability: Proven track record of delivering resilient, fault-tolerant services to production that handle third-party API integrations and asynchronous data flows.
• Complex Problem Solving: Ability to navigate ambiguous technical problems, communicate technical trade-offs clearly, and foster a collaborative team environment.

Work Logistics

• Preferred hybrid presence in Boston, MA or New York, NY offices, or remote working standard US East Coast (EST/EDT) hours.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with logistics, mapping, geospatial tracking, or routing engines that model physical-world movement.
• Background in payments, financial reconciliation, pricing engines, or refund pipelines.
• Familiarity with modern frontend/web stacks and API specs (React, TypeScript, GraphQL, REST).
• Curiosity and comfort using AI-assisted software development tools to accelerate delivery and code quality.

Total Rewards & Benefits

• Compensation & Equity: Base salary benchmarked by local zone ($125,000 – $254,000 USD) + cash bonus eligibility + equity compensation package.
• Comprehensive Healthcare: Top-tier medical, dental, and vision insurance with flexible health plans.
• Flexible Work & Culture: Inclusive hybrid work model, professional development opportunities, and AI-enabled developer workflows.