Manager, Growth Operations

Panera Bread•Newton, MA

1d•$92,055 - $110,466•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, Growth Operations coordinates assigned New Bakery-Cafe Openings, remodels, market/café ownership transitions, closures, FSO openings, new franchisee café openings, relocations, and other cafe portfolio changes within Operations Services. The Manager owns each assigned critical path, coordinates company and franchise partners, manages opening orders, monitors milestones and dependencies, and ensures successful opening, reopening, transition, closure, and stabilization.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience preferred.
3+ years of experience in restaurant operations, new-unit openings, development operations, project management, franchise operations, supply chain, or a related field.
Experience coordinating multi-location projects, vendors, orders, logistics, or critical deliverables preferred.
Exceptional project planning, organization, prioritization, and follow-through.
Strong business acumen, analytical thinking, judgment, and creative problem-solving.
Ability to influence without authority, navigate ambiguity, and build stakeholder alignment.
Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and executive presentation skills.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office and project-management tools.
Ability to travel based on business needs.

Responsibilities

Manage assigned projects from operational engagement through stabilization.
Build and maintain critical paths with scope, milestones, owners, dependencies, lead times, decisions, risks, and completion requirements.
Facilitate readiness reviews, track commitments, develop recovery plans, and escalate issues.
Maintain accurate plans, status reports, decision logs, risk logs, and documentation.
Coordinate people planning, staffing, training, cafe setup, opening support, systems, vendors, and opening-week execution.
Maintain an order tracker with items, owners, vendors, order dates, delivery dates, status, and issues.
Maintain an inventory of all smallwares required to open a café successfully.
Monitor shortages, delays, substitutions, missing shipments, and installation dependencies.
Coordinate recovery plans and remain engaged through post-opening stabilization.
Manage operational critical paths for remodels, temporary disruptions, franchise ownership transitions, closures, and FSOs.
Coordinate communications, inventory, technology, equipment, vendor services, ordering, training, and business-continuity needs.
Maintain visibility into development milestones and confirm readiness or completion requirements.
Coordinate Development, Operations, Franchise Operations, Supply Chain, Technology, HR, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Marketing, Facilities, Finance, and vendors.
Maintain dashboards covering milestones, orders, readiness, risks, and open issues.
Capture feedback and improve critical paths, checklists, ordering processes, communications, and readiness tools.