Director, Transformation & Strategy

Panera Bread

89d

About The Position

This position is a key enabler of enterprise-wide strategic initiatives development and execution. At the onset, the priority will be orchestrating the operationalization of Panera Bread’s business transformation strategy, while continually evaluating the strategic priorities based on guest feedback, market information and internal capability development. In addition, this role will gather strategic insights and work with internal and external stakeholders to enable and facilitate annual (or more frequent) strategy evaluation and re-fresh sessions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Strategy, or related field (MBA preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in strategy and broad scale transformation, ideally within the restaurant, retail, or hospitality sectors.
• Strong program management skill and proven track record leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong understanding of café operations and franchise system dynamics.
• Exceptional communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills.
• Willingness and ability to travel for strategic engagements.

Nice To Haves

• Top tier consulting background preferred.
• Familiar and comfortable with agile for business working practices.
• Ideal team-player qualities: humble, hungry, and people-smart.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for Strategy Program Management, ensuring that Panera Bread’s strategy execution initiatives and workstreams are consolidated, planned, sequenced, executed, and measured.
• Partner closely with Strategy Pillars leads, Enabling Function leads, and other stakeholders to create intentional cross-functional interlocks.
• Manage complex, cross-functional programs and ensure alignment between strategic goals and execution.
• Coordinate information gathering and analysis to evaluate and refresh strategic initiatives.
• Drive the design, execution, and governance of an integrated portfolio roadmap and calendar.
• Develop an integrated transformation scorecard with relevant KPIs and track progress, risks, and dependencies.
• Lead the build out of program management tool capabilities to track multiple workflows.
• Ensure decision-making clarity with clear RACI frameworks and Delegation of Authority matrices.
• Develop budgets and tracking mechanisms for sources and uses of funds.
• Align capacity planning across functions and capture constraints.
• Facilitate alignment across stakeholders to ensure pre-deployment readiness.
• Develop an integrated change management strategy to support adoption of strategic initiatives.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits packages.
• Career and personal growth opportunities.
• Community engagement through Panera Cares community cafes and day-end donations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree