Director of Product Management, Lending

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. The Embedded Finance team is building Toast Finance into the financial operating system for restaurants: a connected suite of products that helps operators understand cash flow, access funding, move money faster, and make better financial decisions from within the same platform they already use to run their business. Today, Toast Finance includes products such as Toast Capital, Toast Checking, and Instant Deposit. Looking ahead, we believe the next generation of restaurant finance will become increasingly proactive, data-driven, and AI-enabled, helping operators move from reacting to financial pressure toward managing their business with more confidence and resilience. We are looking for a Director of Product Management to lead Toast’s Lending efforts as part of our Embedded Finance team. You will be responsible for scaling Toast Capital, a fast-growing product that helps restaurant owners access funding to start, run, and grow their businesses, while also identifying and building the next S-curves of lending growth across the Toast ecosystem. This role will own a portfolio of lending and funding opportunities, including working capital, hardware financing, faster access to funds, upmarket and multi-location lending needs, employee-adjacent financial services, and other embedded funding instruments that meet restaurants at critical moments in their financial journey. You will also be responsible for developing an AI-native platform that supports multiple products across the full lending lifecycle: eligibility, underwriting, pricing, servicing, portfolio monitoring and collections. You will partner closely with Data Science, Credit Risk, Capital Markets, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, Operations, and external financial partners to build lending systems that are intelligent, explainable, compliant, resilient, and designed to scale responsibly. This is a high-ownership, high-visibility role at the intersection of product strategy, financial services, risk, capital markets, data science, AI, operations, legal and compliance, and go-to-market. You will lead a portfolio of established and emerging lending products, develop and coach product talent, and partner across Toast to create financial products that are simple, trusted, compliant, and deeply embedded in restaurant workflows. A day in the life Own and evolve the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for Toast’s lending portfolio, with Toast Capital as the foundation and new embedded lending experiences as the next horizon of growth. Identify, size, and sequence new opportunities that help restaurants start, run, and grow, including working capital, growth financing, faster access to funds, upmarket lending, and other embedded financing products. Lead teams through both 1-to-n scaling and 0-to-1 incubation by improving existing lending products, expanding eligibility and adoption, and validating new concepts through disciplined experimentation. Define end-to-end product experiences and scalable lending infrastructure across offer eligibility, application, underwriting, pricing, funding, servicing, collections, and lifecycle engagement. Build lending experiences that feel native to Toast by embedding access to capital into the moments operators already manage cash flow, payouts, payroll, bills, inventory, equipment, and growth decisions. Use customer research and data to identify pain points, translate them into product decisions, business cases, and measurable outcomes. Partner deeply with Engineering, Design, Data Science, Credit Risk, Capital Markets, Legal, Compliance, Finance, Operations, Marketing and external financial partners to improve access to capital while maintaining strong risk controls, compliance, servicing quality, customer trust, and long-term portfolio economics. Shape the role of AI and automation in Toast Finance, including insights, recommendations, and agentic financial management that help operators anticipate needs and take action with confidence. Establish the operating cadence, metrics, and decision-making frameworks needed to manage a complex financial product portfolio across growth, risk, customer value, economics, compliance, and operational quality. Hire, coach, and develop a high-performing team of product managers, raising the bar for product strategy, execution, customer insight, and cross-functional leadership across Embedded Finance. Communicate strategy, priorities, tradeoffs, and progress clearly to senior leaders and cross-functional partners, creating alignment around the highest-impact opportunities. What you’ll need to thrive 12+ years of product management experience, including experience leading product teams and managing product managers. Deep experience in fintech, embedded finance, lending, banking, payments, or another regulated financial services domain. Proven track record scaling a meaningful product line while also identifying and building new product opportunities from early discovery through launch and iteration. Strong product judgment in complex domains where customer experience, risk, compliance, operations, economics, and technical feasibility all matter. Experience working with cross-functional teams such as credit risk, capital markets, legal, compliance, finance, operations, data science, engineering, design, sales, marketing, and customer support. Strong analytical and commercial orientation, with experience using data to define opportunities, prioritize investments, evaluate experiments, and manage business outcomes. Customer obsession and curiosity, especially for small business owners, operators, or other customers who manage complex workflows with limited time and resources. Executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to simplify ambiguity, frame strategic choices, and influence decisions across senior stakeholders. Experience building products that depend on external partners, platform capabilities, operational processes, and scalable controls. A point of view on how AI, automation, and agentic product experiences can improve financial management while preserving trust, transparency, and customer control. High standards for talent development, team health, and operating discipline. Special Sauce* — nice to haves First-hand experience with small business lending, merchant cash advance, term loans, lines of credit, card products, equipment financing, or pay-over-time products. Experience with embedded underwriting, risk models, loan servicing, repayment systems, capital markets, bank partnerships, or lending operations. Experience building products for restaurants, hospitality, retail, local businesses, or other verticalized SMB segments. Experience with cash flow management, business banking, payout acceleration, payroll-adjacent products, employee financial services, or financial wellness products. Experience launching financial products internationally or adapting products across markets, regulatory regimes, and partner ecosystems. Experience using machine learning, AI, or automation to personalize offers, improve risk decisions, streamline operations, or create more proactive customer experiences. AI at Toast At Toast, we believe learning new AI tools helps us build for customers faster, more independently, and with higher quality. Product leaders are expected to be curious about how AI can improve their own work, help their teams move faster, and unlock better customer outcomes. For this role, that includes thinking critically about where AI and agentic financial management can help restaurants better understand cash flow, anticipate funding needs, and take action with confidence. 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 $230,000 — $368,000 USD Zone B $200,000 — $320,000 USD Zone C $180,000 — $288,000 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 candidateaccommodations@toasttab.com . ------ For roles in the United States, it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.