Software Engineer, Orders API

United States Digital Space LLC; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 133,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Toast is hiring a Software Engineer for the Orders API team to design and implement features that improve reliability for restaurant and local business platforms. You will own testing strategy, observability, and participate in code reviews, while collaborating across Product and QA to deliver scalable, reliable services.

The role emphasizes ownership of a critical order lifecycle component, hybrid work, and opportunities to leverage AI tooling to accelerate development and innovation.

Qualifications

• 3+ years backend experience in Java, Kotlin, or similar OO languages.
• Experience with REST, GraphQL, schema design and versioning.
• Ownership of service testing strategies and quality practices.
• Production operations: monitoring, alerting, observability, incident response.
• Experience with distributed systems and microservices.
• Proficiency with relational databases and data stores.
• Familiar with AI tooling such as Cursor, Claude, MCP servers.
• Strong cross-team communication and continuous learning mindset.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement features to improve functionality and reliability.
• Define testing strategy with automated coverage.
• Own monitoring, alerting, and on-call readiness.
• Provide design feedback and participate in code reviews.
• Contribute to API architecture and delivery practices.
• Collaborate with Product, QA, and other teams to deliver scalable services.
• Promote best coding practices and innovate with AI tools.

Skills

3+ years back-end

Java

Kotlin

REST

GraphQL

Testing strategy

Observability

Distributed systems

PostgreSQL

AI tooling

Tools

AWS

DropWizard

PostgreSQL

DynamoDB

RabbitMQ

Pulsar

Spark

Job description

the company 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.

the company 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. We are looking for a Software Engineer to join the Orders API team.

On the Orders API team, our mission is to provide a state-of-the-art platform with unmatched reliability, which empowers the company R&D, external partners, and customers to effortlessly innovate on experiences throughout the order lifecycle. Our primary artifact is the Orders API itself, which handles an immense scale of traffic.

Why this team?

• Scale and Reliability: The Orders API handles critical restaurant operations every day. Reliability is non-negotiable.

• Order Lifecycle Impact: We own experiences across the entire order lifecycle, empowering innovation on top of our platform.

• Platform Enablement: We're not just serving end-users - we're an internal platform that many other the company teams build on, so the quality and clarity of what we ship compounds across the org.

• Ownership and Growth: As a component owner, you'll have real end-to-end responsibility for a meaningful piece of the system.

About this roll* (Responsibilities)

• Design and implement new features that improve functionality and reliability for our customers and partners

• Define and drive the testing strategy, ensuring quality through strong automated coverage

• Own operational monitoring - observability, alerting, and on-call response - and keep it highly available in production

• Provide design feedback and participate in code reviews to ensure implementations meet requirements

• Participate in architectural discussions and help evolve the API's design, tooling, and delivery practices

• Collaborate with Product, QA, and other engineering teams to deliver robust, scalable services

• Advocate for best coding practices to raise the bar for you and your team

• Leverage cutting edge AI tools to enhance your development workflow, improve velocity, and help pioneer new approaches to building - contributing to a culture of innovation and productivity across the team.

Do you have the right ingredients*? (Requirements)

• 3+ years of back-end experience in Java, Kotlin, or other object-oriented languages

• Proficient with modern web standards and API technologies (e.g. REST, GraphQL), including schema design, evolution, and versioning

• Experience owning the testing strategy for a service or component - automated testing, coverage, and quality practices

• Experience operating services in production - monitoring, alerting, observability, and incident response

• Experience working with distributed systems, enterprise messaging systems, and/or microservices

• Proficient with relational databases and alternative data stores

• Proficient with AI tooling such as Cursor, Claude, and MCP servers

• Strong cross-team communication skills on technical topics

• Passionate about technology and learning new things

Our Tech Stack

Our backend services follow a microservice architecture written in Kotlin and Java using DropWizard. We use AWS extensively, ranging from DynamoDB to RDS to Lambda. We store data in a set of sharded Postgres databases and utilize Apache Spark for large-scale data workloads including query and batch processing. For event-driven communication we rely on Pulsar along with some RabbitMQ clusters. We have our own platform for user management, canary deployments, and robust load balancing.

AI at the company

At the company, 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 athttps://careers.toasttab.com/the company-benefits.

The base salary range for this role is listed below. The starting salary will be determined based on skills, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, our total Rewards components include cash compensation (overtime, bonus/commissions if eligible), equity, and benefits. You can learn more about how we align pay with local labor markets in our Geographic Pay Zone Philosophy.

Zone A

$133,000-$213,000 USD

Zone B

$115,000-$184,000 USD

Zone C

$104,000-$166,000 USD

How the company 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. To learn more: https://careers.toasttab.com/ai-in-hiring

Our Approach to Hybrid Working

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 hospitality community, regardless of location. Please visit the Locations page on our career site to learn more about our in-office expectations by region:https://careers.toasttab.com/locations-the company

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is Baked into our Recipe for Success

At the company, 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.