Director, AI Transformation (Office of the CEO)

Toast is driven by building a platform that helps restaurants adapt, take control, and get back to what they do best: building the businesses they love. The Office of the CEO is hiring a Director, AI Transformation to lead - hands-on - how AI changes the way Toast works, starting with everyday fluency across thousands of Toasters, and leading to real and measurable business impact. It's one of the company's top priorities from the CEO, and this person owns it end to end: a thought partner to the CEO and senior team, a dotted-line leader over the existing set of department-level AI leaders (all Director- and Senior Director-level), and a builder at ground level with each of our functional teams.

The role calls for an unusual mix of skills, and we're holding a high bar for it. The strongest candidate, regardless of background, is equal parts:

• AI-native builder and conceptual thinker - fluent enough with agentic tools to build real workflows themselves, structured enough to break a messy, cross-functional business process into parts that can be automated or streamlined with AI, and sharp enough to do this outside their domain of expertise with little prep.
• Builder and coach - someone who can 10x their own output and, just as important, lift the people around them by building with them rather than for them.
• Operator who manages up, down, and around - as comfortable advising and challenging at the SVP / C-suite level as they are in the weeds driving enablement and adoption with the front lines.

In practice the balance shifts day to day: building enablement and shipping tooling one day, coaching a VP's team to its first working automation the next, advising the CEO and Chief of Staff on where to place the next internal AI bet after that. We're looking for someone who can move across all three without missing a step.

Responsibilities

• Own Toast's company-wide AI transformation strategy - the roadmap from fluency to business impact, and the North Star metric that measures it (adoption in 2026), advising the CEO and Chief of Staff on where to push.
• Coach and scale the org - work as a player-coach who builds capability by doing the work alongside teams, lifting every function versus just their own.
• Be the eminent hands-on builder - personally design enablement and build agentic workflows and tools that get Toasters to real value fast, setting the bar for what great looks like across the company.
• Think like a technologist - not only building one-off tooling, but helping our R&D teams scope, build, and stress-tests the platforms that scale our impact as an org (i.e., internal app hosting)
• Manage up, down, and around - partner with, influence, and hold accountable leaders across the SVP- and C-level, embedding AI into how their teams operate.
• Run the operating rhythm and cultural infrastructure - whether through enablement cohorts, leadership offsites, internal wins channels, shared use-case and prompt libraries, and the feedback loops that turn early energy into standard practice.
• Own the economics - track platform spend and usage against budget, and model the cost of scaling adoption that's both deep and cost-effective.
• Build the function - define what Toast's AI team should become, and grow from doing the work yourself into leading the team that does it.

Requirements

• The combination at the heart of the role: deep, hands-on AI fluency - you build agentic workflows yourself - paired with strong conceptual and analytical problem-solving and an unmatched hunger to move the needle, incrementally, every single day. This is the part we won't compromise on.
• A track record of driving change across a large, complex organization, and of influencing senior leaders (VP / SVP / C-suite) without formal authority.
• The ability to take an ambiguous, messy business process, reduce it to structured, actionable parts - then act on it.
• A player-coach instinct - you make the people around you measurably better, not just yourself.
• 10+ years across consulting, strategy and operations, product or another builder role, or fast-growth tech. We're hiring for capability and ceiling, not pedigree.
• Exceptional written communication - you can make complex, technical topics clear to a non-technical executive audience.
• Proactive and resourceful, with a high bar on pace; comfortable with ambiguity, quick to take a first pass and create momentum, and able to define the role as you go.

Our Spread of Total Rewards

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

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.

Pay Range$160,000—$256,000 USD

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. 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-toast

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 [email protected].

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