Associate Director - Platform

1 Month ago • 7 Years + • $160,000 PA - $256,000 PA

Job Summary

Job Description

Toast is seeking an Associate Director of Product Design with a strong passion for crafting exceptional user experiences and leading teams to shape platform experiences. This role involves leading the design, strategy, and vision for features that help restaurants manage employee accounts, permissions, menus, locations, settings, and configurations. The ideal candidate is a systems thinker with a portfolio showcasing the ability to balance user goals with business objectives, delivering intuitive experiences. Responsibilities include mentoring a design team, conducting design reviews, collaborating with product and engineering, and leading research to inform design decisions. The role requires a founder's mentality, a focus on lifting others up, driving action through influence, building strong perspectives, and raising the bar for quality.

Must have:

5+ years of design leadership experience
7+ years in a design role
1+ years management experience
Design end-to-end product experiences
Mentor and inspire a design team
Coach team members on craft
Conduct design reviews
Collaborate cross-functionally
Solid communication and stakeholder management
Lead qualitative and quantitative research
Enduring sense of curiosity
Advanced proficiency in Figma
Ability to work core EST hours

Good to have:

Systems thinker
Balance user goals with business objectives
Passionate advocate for customer-centered design
Dig into metrics
Foster creativity and experimentation

Perks:

Competitive compensation and benefits
Healthy lifestyle support
Flexibility to meet changing needs

4 skills required

4 skills required for this role

Add these skills to join the top 1% applicants for this job

team-management

leadership

prototyping

figma

Job Details

About Toast

Our focus is on building the restaurant platform that helps restaurants adapt, take control, and get back to what they do best: building the businesses they love. And because our technology is purpose-built for restaurants, by restaurant people, restaurants can trust that we’ll deliver on their needs for today while investing in experiences that will power their restaurant of the future. We build experiences that help make operating and growing a restaurant and delighting guests easier and scalable. It’s why tens of thousands of restaurant locations love Toast.

About The Roll*

We’re looking for an Associate Director of Product Design with a deep passion for crafting exceptional user experiences and leading teams to lead our Platform experiences. In this role, you will play a pivotal part in shaping the design, strategy, and vision that help restaurants manage employee accounts, permissions, menus, locations, settings, and configurations—while also guiding the evolution of AI to help streamline workflows and decision-making.

The ideal candidate is an amazing systems thinker with a strong portfolio that demonstrates an ability to balance user goals with business objectives, while delivering intuitive experiences that “Do right by the customer.” You know how to balance high craft and speed, are a passionate advocate for customer-centered design, are not afraid to dig into the metrics, and are a skilled mentor who fosters a culture of creativity and experimentation. You'll work cross-functionally with product and engineering to define strategy and inspire the teams.

The right ingredients* (Requirements)

5+ years of design leadership experience
7+ years in a design role
1+ years management experience required
Design end-to-end product experiences that solve complex problems across multiple surfaces and do right by the customer
Mentor and inspire a high-performing design team, fostering a culture of creativity, design excellence, and impact
Coach team members to continually improve their craft and deliver a remarkable experience
Regularly conduct design reviews to obtain feedback, iterating on designs to improve results
Collaborate cross-functionally with product and engineering to understand users, translating that comprehending into strategy that drives customer and business outcomes
Solid communication and stakeholder management skills with an ability to build relationships both within and outside of the product organization
Lead qualitative and quantitative research to inform design decisions and continuously improve product experiences
Enduring sense of curiosity with a desire to continuously learn and evolve
Advanced proficiency in Figma and other prototyping and design collaboration tools
Ability to work core EST hours to collaborate with team members

About You

You are a dynamic leader with proven impact in previous roles who is ready and willing to take on new challenges! You’re excited to join the remotely distributed group of product designers, user researchers, design ops leaders, and product managers that compose the Toast Design team. You embody the tenets that drive Toast’s Design practice:

You have a founder’s mentality: and exhibit ownership of outcomes over outputs. You define and track success within the areas you own.
You lift others up: and work to exhibit true leadership. You build a productive and psychologically safe culture within your team.
You drive action through influence: and appreciate that building trusting and productive relationships with those around you is integral to driving action. You build strong relationships to enact influence within your leadership partners.
You build strong perspectives: and guide yourself and your teams to make good decisions quickly and often. You leverage multiple inputs to make informed decisions and build increased confidence in your leadership decision making over time.
You raise the bar: and commit to continually improving the skills of those you manage. You set a high bar for quality within your team.

Our Spread* of Total Rewards

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.

*Bread puns encouraged but not required

We are Toasters

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is Baked into our Recipe for Success. At Toast our employees are our secret ingredient. When they are powered to succeed, Toast succeeds. The restaurant industry is one of the most diverse industries. We embrace and are excited by this diversity, believing that only through authenticity, inclusivity, high standards of respect and trust, and leading with humility will we be able to achieve our goals. Baking inclusive principles into our company and diversity into our design provides equitable opportunities for all and enhances our ability to be first in class in all aspects of our industry.

Bready* to make a change?

The base salary range for this role is listed below. The starting salary will be determined based on skills and experience. In addition to base salary, our total rewards components include cash compensation (overtime, bonus/commissions, if eligible), benefits, and equity (if eligible).

Pay Range

$160,000—$256,000 USD

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.

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