Director, Project Management

Position Summary

The Director, Project Management leads the café Operations Services project-management function. They will be accountable for successful delivery of strategic, cross-functional initiatives across Panera Cafés utilizing project management experience gained from restaurant, retail, hospitality, franchise or multi-unit operations experience.

This leader oversees five Managers of Project Management, establishes consistent governance and delivery standards, manages the enterprise project portfolio, and ensures initiatives are delivered on time, within budget, and to executive sponsor expectations.

Location: Newton, MA moving to Weston, MA in 2027

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Portfolio Leadership

• Own portfolio health and delivery performance.
• Establish project intake, evaluation, prioritization, sequencing, approval, and portfolio review processes.
• Partner with executive sponsors to define outcomes, success measures, sponsorship, and priorities.
• Identify capacity constraints, dependencies, timing conflicts, and tradeoffs and recommend portfolio decisions.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach, and develop five Managers of Project Management.
• Assign projects based on complexity, capacity, priority, and capability.
• Set expectations for outcomes, stakeholder experience, and execution quality.
• Build project-management competencies, coaching routines, and career development.

PMO Governance & Standards

• Design and improve methodologies, stage gates, tools, templates, and minimum standards.
• Establish requirements for charters, integrated plans, governance, risk, financial tracking, change control, deployment, and closeout.
• Conduct portfolio and project health reviews and intervene when work is off track.

Executive & Financial Oversight

• Serve as the primary project-management advisor to executive sponsors.
• Lead steering committees, portfolio reviews, and critical decision forums.
• Oversee budgets, forecasts, variances, vendor commitments, resources, and investment tradeoffs.
• Ensure projects incorporate change management, field readiness, communications, training, and adoption.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree required; master's degree preferred.
• 5+ years of progressive project management experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated people-leadership experience with responsibility for project managers or complex portfolios.
• Experience partnering with executive sponsors and senior leaders.
• Restaurant, retail, hospitality, franchise, or multi-unit operations experience strongly preferred.
• PMP or equivalent certification preferred.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• 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.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Disabled/Veterans

Competitive Pay $177,243 - $212,691 annually

The actual pay offered will be determined by multiple factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s relevant experience, job-related knowledge, skills, and geographical location. Individual compensation decisions are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each position and candidate.