Sr Manager, Real Estate

Sr Manager, Real Estate

Job Purpose

The Senior Manager, Real Estate serves as a strategic advisor to franchise partners and internal stakeholders, supporting Panera’s real estate strategy with a strong emphasis on portfolio optimization, reinvestment planning, and development governance. The Senior Manager partners with franchisees and internal stakeholders to support both traditional bakery-café development and non-traditional opportunities, ensuring alignment with Panera’s growth objectives, brand standards, and real estate strategy. They will focus on guiding franchisees through market planning, site evaluation, remodel/refresh/relocation decisions, and long-range portfolio strategy. The Senior Manager ensures alignment with Panera’s brand standards, financial objectives, and development processes while supporting the Director of Real Estate in executing enterprise-wide initiatives. The successful candidate will have a keen and up to date understanding of real estate trends and activities in their markets. They must make fact-based decisions and have the confidence to articulate them.

Location: Field-based/Remote

Duties & Responsibilities

• Advise franchise partners on portfolio optimization, including remodels, refreshes, relocations, closures, and reinvestment prioritization.
• Provide franchisees with guidance on site feasibility, trade area strength, and long-term market potential, ensuring alignment with Panera’s criteria for demographics, access, visibility, and operational feasibility.
• Conduct real estate performance reviews to help franchisees diagnose issues and help identify strategic actions.
• Support franchisees in evaluating existing cafés and determining appropriate reinvestment or repositioning strategies.
• Partner with the Director of Real Estate and Real Estate Strategy to support long-range market planning and ADA alignment.
• Support franchise partners through LOI review, lease negotiation guidance, and development process expectations.
• Present franchise opportunities to the Development Committee on behalf of the franchise partner.
• Build strong working relationships with Operations, Construction, Design, Legal, Finance, and Project Management.
• Partner with Portfolio Management to support lease renewals, relocations, remodels, and other portfolio actions.
• Monitor franchise development pipelines to ensure timely movement through intake, evaluation, design, and permitting.
• Ensure franchise partners understand Panera’s development standards, timelines, and approval processes.
• Support updates to market plans and maintain accurate documentation of market conditions and development activity.
• Maintain strong relationships with brokers, developers, municipalities, and other external stakeholders.
• Represent Panera professionally at industry meetings, conferences, and development community events.
• Maintain project information and timelines using tools like FranConnect and Sitewise.

Qualifications (Education & Experience)

• 5+ years of experience in commercial real estate, preferably in multi-unit restaurant or retail environments.
• Experience advising franchisees or managing franchise development processes is strongly preferred.
• Exposure to non-traditional development projects, alternative venue formats, or multi-channel restaurant growth is preferred.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret market data, financial performance, and real estate trends.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; highly organized and detail oriented.
• Ability to influence others through coaching, counseling, and fact-based communication.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment.

Personal Qualifications

The successful candidate will:

• Be an innovative and strategic thinker that is detail and relationship oriented.
• Be a high-energy, creative, flexible, purposeful, self-starting individual who is capable of quickly building relationships.
• Be a great communicator who will quickly develop credibility and rapport with franchisees and cross-functional partners.
• Utilize FACT-BASED COMMUNICATION skills with an ability to present complex data and problems in a concise, simplified, and effective manner.
• Provider of CLARITY via excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Take ownership and pride in growing the retail business.
• Be ambitious, initiative-taking, and willing to do whatever it takes to contribute to the Company’s continued success.
• Have excellent planning and organizational skills and demonstrate strong presentation skills.
• Customer service approach with ability to be HIGHLY RESPONSIVE to sensitive issues, complex inquiries, and concerns from both Field-Based and Corporate-Based associates and leadership.
• Strong BIAS TOWARDS ACTION through effective project and process management.

Working Conditions

• 50% travel

Physical Requirements

• While performing this job, the incumbent is regularly required to stand, sit, talk, hear, & use hands and fingers to operate keyboards.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Disabled/Veterans

Competitive Pay $145,305 - $165,648 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.

Saint Louis Support Center

About Us

With more than 2,000 Panera LLC and independent franchise bakery-cafes in the Panera Bread® family, and more locations opening all the time, it’s no wonder our company has been an excellent source of career and personal growth opportunities for more than 25 years.

In neighborhoods across the U.S. and Canada, customers enjoy flavorful, handcrafted meals centered around freshly baked artisan bread. To us, that means serving food like we serve our own families – free of any of the items on our ‘No No’ List.

Along the way, we also like to give back to our community. We enjoy working together, shoulder to shoulder with our customers, to confront a serious problem plaguing communities across this country – Hunger. Through our Panera Cares community cafes, we offer a dignified dining experience in an uplifting environment. In addition, we support our communities through day-end donations at our bakery-cafe locations and partner with local non-profit organizations.

It’s this warmth that you’ll find when you join Panera Bread. From our competitive compensation and benefits packages to our unique cultural values, we’re confident you’ll find us a rewarding and fun place to work.

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