Eden S.

Engineering Manager 

I found my way to programming and computer science completely by accident. While studying at Brandeis University, I was originally pre-med. My path to computer engineering was all thanks to a general education requirement and my first professor, Antonella. I went on to graduate with a degree in Computer Science and minors in Business and Near Eastern Judaic Studies. 

I'm someone who enjoys solving problems and seeing its customer impact and I love using software to do it. I am also passionate about community engagement and doing my part to bridge the gender gap in tech. I've been involved with organizations like Girls Who Code to help expose young girls to the opportunities in tech. 

When I was looking for my next career move in 2019, I made sure to really think about what was important to me. My values are rooted in volunteerism, community engagement, and simply doing good. It was very important to me to find a role where I could build software that solves a problem for customers and that I could feel the impact of my work. I was originally drawn to Toast's mission of enabling the restaurant community to delight their guests, do what they love, and thrive.

A big part of my decision to join Toast was its culture and energy. It's tremendous to see Toast's growth over the past few years. I'd argue it's even more amazing to see among that growth and change, the entire organization is consistently rooted in its values. In my earliest interactions with Toasters, I could tell that everyone was driven and inspired by the organization's mission, by thinking of the customer first, by working together as a team, and by treating one another with kindness. Frankly, I wanted to work with - and learn from - every person I met, and this contributed immensely to my decision to join Toast. 

At Toast, I now lead the Menu and Restaurant Config Platform teams. These areas are part of Toast’s core platform technology, supporting restaurant operations and integrating the Toast platform with other systems.  A restaurant's menu is at the heart and soul of everything restaurants do, expressing its brand and offerings, while also serving as a common language between guests, servers, and the kitchen.  My team delivers products that ultimately allow our customers to have the proper tools to be autonomous and successful.

Our engineering team works across the stack leveraging various technologies to support build solutions for our customers. We even help enable the Toast partner ecosystem. Many internal and external integrations rely on our services and APIs. Our team strives to build and design scalable solutions. 

My role has changed a lot since day 1 at Toast. I joined the organization leading a small team, splitting code contributions and people management as a Team Lead, then transitioning into an exclusive managerial role, and now am growing as a leader, learning how to lead through leaders. These have been big professional growth moments for me, and I am fortunate to feel supported by Toast and my mentors across the business throughout.

As an engineer, you are focused on finding solutions and have tangible markers of progress along the way. You can see the progress in developing a new feature, closing out a ticket, and implementing fixes that improve the customer experience. As a member of an agile team, you have a regular cadence to reflect and see the progress you - and your team - are making toward goals.

When you transition into engineering management, there is a shift in what success looks like and what the feedback loop is to measure that success. Your focus is no longer on day-to-day engineering and  hands-on contributions. Your focus is on empowering and enabling your team(s) -- to grow, to improve, allowing them to have the biggest impact possible. You are focused on growing your teammates, carving out opportunities for them to stretch and develop new skills. You are focused on evolving and maintaining a strong culture on your teams and in partnering with cross-functional teammates around both where the team is going, and how we are going to get there. You are focused on removing roadblocks, both proactively and sometimes reactively, so the team can continue to operate at a high level. These changes can evolve over time, and you see moments of satisfaction in less tangible ways, like in one on ones where teammates reflect on how they are growing, or in watching the team complete a milestone. This is especially true as you begin to lead other leaders, giving them space and autonomy to grow, flex, experiment, and learn.

I wish I had heard the advice earlier to carve out time for myself to reflect and acknowledge small wins along the way. It can be easy to continue to charge forward, but moments of growth can occur in moments of reflection and acknowledging the progress made along the journey.

These moments of reflection can be personal; after a day of meetings, taking a moment to pause and acknowledge the impact you personally made, by unblocking a teammate or having a fruitful career coaching conversation in a one on one, or planning for future team projects. These moments of reflection can also be communal, by taking a moment to pause with product/UX partners to celebrate wins and discuss opportunities in how the triad is operating, or in bringing the entire team together a few times a year to acknowledge where we have been and where we’re going.

In short, my experience since joining Toast has been fantastic. I've worked with and learned from some incredibly smart and kind people. I have been stretched both technically and non-technically, grown my career and become a stronger and more effective engineering leader. I have developed strong relationships with peers and mentors, and worked on a stellar team delivering features that are helping our customers. I've also seen the company grow -- I have a sticky note on my desk with the number of live customers on my first day in 2019. It's exciting every day to see that number grow and be a part of that change.