General Manager

Job Description

General Manager | Panera Bread

The Tone:
This is a full-time General Manager role at Panera Bread, operating in-person within a beloved neighborhood bakery-cafe. Panera builds a culture where “the best thing of bread is sharing it,” making the familiar fantastic through its bakery-cafes. This role is pivotal for leading a high-performing team to achieve operational excellence and “sweet success.” The General Manager will ensure an environment where the team thrives and guests feel the Panera Warmth, making a real impact every day.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person

• Team: Leads and develops the bakery-cafe team, including managers and team members.
• Mission: Owns bakery-cafe operations to ensure team success, guest delight, and adherence to company standards, contributing to “sweet success.”

What You’ll Actually Do
• Team Leadership: Own all aspects of leading the bakery-cafe team, including meticulously planning and managing staffing needs, developing detailed schedules, fostering people development, nurturing career growth, executing performance management, coordinating comprehensive training, and establishing clear succession plans.
• People Management: Recruit, onboard, and train new team members while continuously motivating, energizing, engaging, inspiring, and celebrating the entire team, developing managers into subject matter experts on people processes and Panera’s Guiding Values & Behaviors.
• Operational Management: Drive overall bakery-cafe success by managing team performance to meet specific goals, ensuring adherence to high operational and quality standards, and executing all company strategies and initiatives. This includes diligent management of the bakery-cafe’s overall costs and inventory to ensure financial health.
• Guest Experience: Guarantee every guest is delighted by the exceptional quality of Panera’s food, the efficiency of service, and the welcoming nature of the staff. Cultivate engaging relationships designed to build long-term, loyal guests who feel the Panera Warmth.
• Culture and Safety: Actively contribute to building Panera’s distinctive Culture of warmth, belonging, growth, and trust. This also involves meticulously maintaining a healthy and safe workplace for your team, meeting all of Panera’s health, food, safety, and company culture standards.

The Must-Haves
• Background: General Manager career level, possessing or having the ability to achieve ServSafe certification.
• Experience: Demonstrated ability to effectively manage shifts, lead, motivate, coach, and develop team members, coupled with proven success in driving positive business results. This role requires flexible hours including nights and weekends with shifting priorities.
• Skills: Possess strong business acumen to drive positive results, robust leadership and coaching capabilities for team development, proficient operational management skills, and clear, effective communication abilities.
• Bonus: At least 3 years of experience as a restaurant General Manager is preferred for this role.