Fast-casual bakery-cafe chain with 2,200+ locations focused on omni-channel ordering and operations automation
Panera operates a 2,200+ unit bakery-cafe franchise across North America with a tech stack anchored in Microsoft (Office, Teams, Azure), Salesforce, and Workday. The hiring acceleration is heavily operations-focused (90% of active roles), reflecting ongoing unit growth and a shift toward automation—they're actively working on manual task reduction and turnaround time improvement. Early Workday adoption signals a move toward more centralized HR and payroll infrastructure as the organization scales.
Notable leadership hires: Catering Lead, Team Lead
Panera Bread is a fast-casual bakery-cafe chain founded in 1987, now operating over 2,200 locations across North America under the Panera Bread and Saint Louis Bread Company banners. The company serves chef-curated soups, salads, sandwiches, and bakery items, with a focus on ingredient quality and transparency. The business operates a multi-channel fulfillment model including mobile ordering, catering, Rapid Pick-Up, curbside, and delivery. The organization spans 10,001+ employees and is headquartered in Fenton, Missouri. Current operational priorities include unit growth, inventory management, compliance, and service speed.
Core: Microsoft Office, Excel, Word, Outlook, Teams, Azure, Active Directory, Windows. Enterprise: Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, Power BI, Tableau, Anaplan. Adopting: Workday, C++. Managed devices: Apple, Intune, Configuration Manager.
Fenton, Missouri. The company was founded in 1987 and is privately held with 10,001+ employees operating 2,200+ bakery-cafe locations across North America.
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