Associate of R&D Strategic Finance (FP&A)

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. 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. Our Finance team serves as a trusted advisor to the company, guiding critical business decisions through insightful analyses & thought partnership with executive leaders. 

We are seeking an R&D Finance associate to own key aspects of our financial reporting, monthly and quarterly processes, and support critical planning activities within our R&D Finance & Strategy team. In this role, you’ll contribute to the foundation of our finance operations as we advance as a public company, with a focus on enhancing efficiency through process improvements and automation. You’ll work closely with our R&D and Corporate Finance team, and collaborate across functions to deliver essential insights and drive strategic initiatives for our senior R&D leaders.

A day in the life (Responsibilities) 

• Support Toast’s monthly and quarterly financial close processes for the R&D function, including reporting and analysis of budget vs. actual results, forecast updates, and preparation of standard financial packages that provide actionable insights for R&D leadership.
• Own headcount tracking, reporting, and reconciliation activities for R&D, conducting trend analysis and collaborating closely with Finance, R&D leadership, and Talent Acquisition to align resource planning with strategic priorities.
• Oversee the financial management for the R&D vendor portfolio, including PO and invoice reconciliation, variance analysis, and trend reporting to ensure alignment with budget and financial goals.
• Leverage Toast’s financial systems, tools, and datasets to build and maintain standard reports and analyses, identifying opportunities to improve insight depth and forecast accuracy, specifically tailored to R&D’s unique needs and objectives.
• Assess and refine existing financial processes for R&D, implementing automation and standardization initiatives to reduce manual workload and create efficiencies across the finance team.
• Partner closely with cross-functional teams, to research, analyze, and advise on financial processes and reporting that directly support R&D’s innovation, operational, and financial goals.
• Able to work 2 pm - 11 pm IST

What you'll need to thrive (Requirements)

• 4+ years of work experience in FP&A, investment banking, consulting, private equity, business operations or accounting
• Strong analytical skills including financial modeling, data/trend analysis and manipulation of large datasets, with proven ability to summarize complex data into key takeaways
• Highly proficient in advanced Excel/Google Sheets and PowerPoint/Google Slides
• Experience working with financial systems, such as WorkDay, Adaptive, Greenhouse, NetSuite, or other similar products
• Positive attitude with high aptitude to learn new things quickly. Team player eager to further develop and grow with us
• Demonstrates intellectual curiosity, problem-solving skills, and hunger to continually up-level current approaches and processes
• Strong ability to work in a collaborative, diverse, inclusive, and open-minded office environment with a desire to contribute to a thriving culture 

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 t