Director of Continuous Improvement

Toast 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.

At Toast, we are passionate about creating raving fans and delivering an unparalleled customer experience - and we know that means we can't just react to problems, we have to eliminate them at the source. As we continue to grow, scaling how we operate across teams, products, and systems has never been more important - we need to learn faster, fix smarter, and prevent issues before they happen. As the Director of Continuous Improvement, you’ll lead the function responsible for uncovering and resolving the systemic drivers behind recurring customer and operational issues. You'll uncover the systemic drivers behind recurring customer and operational issues, drive cross-functional accountability to implement permanent fixes, and build a culture where learning from failure makes us stronger.

This is a high-impact role reporting to the Senior Director of Operational Excellence will serve as a key leader in Toast’s next phase of customer and operational transformation.

A day in the life (Responsibilities)

• Build and scale Toast's Continuous Improvement program from the ground up, establishing a structured, repeatable process to identify, investigate, and permanently eliminate systemic issues that drive customer frustration and operational inefficiency.
• Design the end-to-end Continuous Improvement operating model, from intake and prioritization through investigation, fix ownership, implementation tracking, and validation of sustained impact.
• Drive cross-functional accountability by partnering with teams across the enterprise to ensure systemic fixes are implemented, monitored, and sustained over time.
• Establish governance and accountability frameworks that move issues from analysis to action, including review cadences, fix tracking mechanisms, and closed-loop validation processes.
• Embed Continuous Improvement as an operational discipline - not a reactive function - building a culture where root cause thinking is the norm, problems are learning opportunities, and teams are accountable for preventing recurrence.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team, coaching them to run rigorous investigations, influence without authority, and deliver results in a complex, matrixed organization.

What you'll need to thrive (Requirements)

• 10+ years in operations, quality, continuous improvement, or transformation, with deep expertise in root cause analysis and structured problem-solving methodologies (5 Whys, Fishbone, DMAIC, A3, etc.).
• Proven track record of driving systemic problem resolution across complex, cross-functional organizations - securing commitments, holding teams accountable, and delivering measurable, sustained improvements.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional investigations and hold teams accountable for systemic fixes.
• Strong analytical and diagnostic skills—comfortable working with data, trends, and operational metrics to surface patterns, quantify impact, and validate that fixes are working.
• Excellent communication and storytelling ability, with the ability to distill complex investigations into clear, compelling narratives that drive executive action and cross-functional alignment.
• Skilled at building governance structures, with the ability to influence and drive accountability without direct authority.
• Intellectual curiosity combined with disciplined execution - comfortable navigating ambiguity, asking hard questions, and building structure where none exists, all while maintaining focus on results.
• Growth-oriented leader who builds high-performing teams and fosters a culture of accountability, curiosity, and continuous learning.

AI at Toast

At Toast, 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 at https://careers.toasttab.com/toast-benefits.