Principal Product Manager, Kitchen Technology & Innovation

Toast; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited Vacation

Professional Development Reimbursement

401(k) matching

Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage

Mental Health Benefits

Job summary

Toast is seeking a strategic leader for the Kitchen Operations team, focusing on the Kitchen Display System (KDS). This role involves driving product strategy, managing complex integrations with large restaurant groups, and enhancing kitchen data strategies to improve efficiency. The ideal candidate has substantial experience in enterprise environments, is creative, and possesses a strong understanding of AI opportunities.

Benefits include unlimited vacation, professional development reimbursement, and comprehensive medical coverage. Join Toast to be at the forefront of revolutionizing kitchen operations.

Qualifications

• Ability to drive alignment without authority across various teams in a high-stakes environment.
• Proven track record with enterprise customers and workflow translation.
• Experience defining product strategy for complex products, especially in food & beverage.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the KDS product strategy.
• Define AI value in the kitchen and build a case for investments.
• Lead KDS delivery, translating complex requirements into product decisions.
• Shape the KDS kitchen data strategy and validate its business case.

Skills

Executive presence

Experience with enterprise customers

Product strategy development

Understanding of AI opportunities

Creative and strategic thinking

Strong instincts for SMB operators

Job description

• The Kitchen Operations team owns one of Toast’s most operationally critical and strategically exciting products: the Kitchen Display System (KDS). Deployed across tens of thousands of restaurants, Toast KDS is the connective tissue between front‑of‑house and back‑of‑house, routing tickets to the right prep stations, managing order sequencing, and helping kitchens run fast and accurately under pressure. KDS has strong growth across SMB, enterprise, and international segments.
• Our vision is KDS in the vast majority of Toast kitchens within the next few years. Getting there means three things: supporting the most sophisticated enterprise kitchen workflows in the market, differentiating through kitchen data and AI‑powered operational insights, and growing adoption among the restaurants that still run on paper tickets.
• This is a high‑ownership, high‑visibility role at the intersection of restaurant operations, hardware‑software product, and applied AI. You’ll shape how hundreds of thousands of kitchen workers run their stations every day — and you’ll be the one building the data and agent layer that lets kitchens run smarter, not just faster.
• Own and drive the KDS product strategy — enterprise workflow depth, data differentiation, SMB attach growth, and the agentic AI roadmap — connecting investments to Toast’s kitchen adoption vision and near‑term business outcomes including ARR growth, support ticket reduction, and enterprise retention.
• Define where agentic AI creates real value in the kitchen: proactive prep time adjustments based on real‑time order load, automatic kitchen configuration changes tied to labor schedules or ordering channel mix, intelligent ticket routing and load balancing — and build the investment case to pursue the highest‑leverage bets.
• Own KDS delivery end‑to‑end, working directly with large restaurant groups to translate complex, high‑stakes workflow requirements into scalable product decisions that serve the whole market.
• Lead the KDS kitchen data strategy: define what kitchen efficiency insights should look like for operators at every scale, from API‑first analytics for enterprise operators to actionable reporting for SMBs, and sequence the investments to unlock it.
• Shape and validate the business case for the next‑generation KDS strategy — the long‑horizon bets that drive future growth.

Benefits

• Peer and company recognition programs
• Unlimited Vacation
• Sabbatical opportunity after five years
• Professional Development Reimbursement Program
• Commitment to Employee Wellness through resources such as a quarterly Wellness Stipend
• 401(k) and matching
• Medical, Dental, & Vision Coverage
• Mental Health Benefits
• Subsidized backup childcare

Qualifications

• Executive presence to drive alignment without authority across engineering, design, enterprise customer success, sales, and product leadership in a high‑stakes, cross‑functional environment.
• Track record of working directly with enterprise customers, translating nuanced, high‑stakes workflow requirements into product decisions that scale well beyond a single logo.
• Proven experience defining and owning product strategy for a complex, operationally critical product—bonus points if it spans hardware and software and/or has experience in food & beverage.
• Curiosity and a point of view on AI and agentic product opportunities in operational environments; you don’t need to have shipped an agent, but you should have a clear perspective on where autonomous action creates real value versus real risk.
• Creative and strategic: you don’t just optimize existing products—you identify the next meaningful bet, make the case for it, and drive it from zero to conviction.
• Strong instincts for the SMB operator: you understand what it means to run a restaurant kitchen without a data analyst, an IT team, or a change management budget — and you can build for that reality.