Corporate Development Deal Lead

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 Toast Corporate Development team is a fast-paced, high-leverage and high-performing team responsible for strategy development, sourcing, evaluating and executing M&A transactions and strategic investments. This team is central to Toast’s long-term growth and works closely with senior leadership, product, engineering, finance and legal teams to guide company strategy and execute trajectory changing deals. This is a unique opportunity to be a core member for this team.

As a Corporate Development Deal Lead you will help influence corporate strategy and achieve key strategic objectives through deal execution. You will work directly with Corporate Development leadership, senior executives and product leadership internally, and interface with some of the most exciting founders, executives, and companies in our industry. This is a high-impact role for someone excited to learn every angle of corporate development— from first-principle strategy to venture investing to M&A execution— all at an accelerated pace.

A day in the life (Responsibilities)

Deal Execution

• Support and eventually lead all aspects of the M&A deal cycle, including thesis development, sourcing, evaluation, structuring, negotiation, and closing

• Conduct qualitative analyses of new spaces (industry analysis, market maps, competitor deep dives, primary and secondary research) and quantitative analyses of potential targets (all aspects of financial modeling and valuation)
• Prepare deal memos and lead deal committee meetings with the executive team, translating complex analyses into clear insights and structured recommendations
• Lead and coordinate cross-functional deal teams within the company, serving as a key point of contact with target company management and our product leadership
• Build strong relationships with founders, executives, bankers, and investors across the ecosystem

Strategic Analysis

• Identify, research, and recommend new industries, companies, and technologies for acquisition or investment based on Toast strategy, trends and emerging companies
• Maintain a deep understanding of the various spaces we compete in, strategic drivers, and our customers to develop theses and source potential acquisitions and partnerships
• Develop and maintain financial models, dashboards, and memos that track and analyze industry trends and prospective M&A opportunities

Integration and Special Projects

• Drive post-deal success by assisting with integration planning and execution, ensuring acquired companies perform against defined deal success criteria
• Work closely with our portfolio companies we’ve invested in to support their growth
• Build and refine scalable processes and best practices for the Corporate Development function with a heavy bias towards creating agentic workflows
• Support cross-functional projects as needed (e.g., capital markets and financing efforts, strategic finance projects) and special projects that are high priority for the exec team

What you'll need to thrive (Requirements)

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred
• 8+ years of relevant experience in one or more of the following:
• Top-tier investment banking (TMT, software or related coverage)
• Private equity, growth equity or venture capital
• Management consulting (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or similar)
• Corporate development, strategy, business operations or product management at a high-growth technology company
• Expert in financial modeling, valuation methodologies (DCF, LBO, comparable companies, precedent transactions), and broad quantitative analysis
• First-principles thinker with the ability to structure and solve complex business problems and learn quickly
• Excellent exec-level communication (written and verbal) and ability to navigate challenging, contentious discussions
• Ability to effectively build relationships at all levels of an organization with great organization and project management skills
• Advanced use of AI tools on a daily basis such as managing a prompt library, automating multi-step workflows, experimenting with agentic workflows

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience leading M&A deals from sourcing through close
• Experience in technology, fintech, or SaaS sectors
• Experience working closely with product and engineering functions
• Familiarity with accounting principles and key operational metrics
• Background in computer science, engineering, or other technical degree is a plus

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.