Sr. Technical Product Manager
Job Purpose
As a Senior Technical Product Manager at Panera, you are responsible for owning the strategy, roadmap, and delivery of critical digital platforms across the eCommerce and in-café ecosystem. This role operates with broad scope and high autonomy, leading complex, cross-functional initiatives that span multiple teams, systems, and vendor partnerships.
You serve as a bridge between product strategy and technical execution, translating business and customer needs into scalable, high-performing platform capabilities. In addition to driving delivery, you are accountable for product outcomes, platform reliability, and long-term technical evolution.
The Sr. TPdM also acts as a senior leader and mentor, elevating product management practices, influencing cross-functional decisions, and serving as a trusted advisor to Product, Engineering, and executive stakeholders.
Location: St. Louis, MO (hybrid)
Duties & Responsibilities
The primary responsibilities of this job include, but are not limited to:
- Product Strategy & Roadmap Ownership
- Own and define the technical product strategy and roadmap for one or more critical domains (Web, Mobile, Kiosk, Shared Services)
- Partner with Digital Product Managers to translate customer needs and business goals into scalable technical solutions
- Drive product discovery, solution design, and prioritization decisions
- Balance trade-offs across customer value, performance, scalability, technical debt, and speed to market
- Identify opportunities to evolve platform capabilities and support long-term growth and extensibility
- End-to-End Product Ownership & Execution Leadership
- Own the end-to-end lifecycle from ideation through delivery and post-launch optimization
- Translate roadmap initiatives into execution plans, backlog structure, and measurable outcomes
- Proactively identify cross-team dependencies, risks, and architectural constraints and drive resolution
- Ensure high-quality, predictable delivery across multiple teams and workstreams
- Act as a senior advisor on feasibility, sequencing, and solution trade-of
- Outcome Ownership & Product Performance
- Own and drive measurable product and platform outcomes, including:
- Conversion and digital revenue impact
- System performance and latency
- Reliability and stability (99.99% uptime target)
- Customer and operational experience metrics
- Use data and insights to inform prioritization and continuously optimize product performance
- Monitor platform health and proactively identify areas for improvement and innovation
- Engineering & Architecture Partnership
- Partner with Engineering and Architecture to define system design and technical direction
- Influence platform architecture decisions to support scalability, resilience, and maintainability
- Participate in and challenge technical design reviews
- Ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture, security, and performance standards
- Advocate for investments in technical health, modernization, and platform sustainability
- Advanced Prioritization & Backlog Leadership
- Own a multi-team, outcome-driven backlog aligned to strategic roadmap objectives
- Drive prioritization decisions balancing:
- Feature delivery
- Production stability
- Technical debt reduction
- Long-term platform evolution
- Ensure consistent quality of user stories, acceptance criteria, and readiness standards
- Mentor Product Managers/Owners on backlog strategy and prioritization best practices
- Release Ownership & Production Accountability
- Own execution of complex, high-impact releases across multiple teams and systems
- Ensure releases meet readiness standards including:
- Documentation and traceability
- Testing and certification
- Risk and dependency alignment
- Lead go/no-go decisions, release coordination, and issue resolution
- Serve as the primary escalation point for production issues
- Drive continuous improvement in release quality, predictability, and operational readiness
- Own, document, and execute release management process and calls, ensuring the product is deployed successfully and making precise business and technical judgment calls for issues found before or during the call
- Product Health, Stability & Technical Debt Strategy
- Own visibility and improvement of platform health metrics:
- Stability and crash trends
- Order and transaction performance
- Customer and operational feedback
- Lead strategic planning and execution of technical debt and platform modernization initiatives
- Ensure technical investments are proactively planned and aligned to roadmap priorities
- Partner with Engineering to maintain a healthy balance of feature delivery and platform sustainability
- Cross-Functional Leadership & Executive Communication
- Act as a thought partner and decision-maker across Product, Engineering, and business teams
- Influence roadmap trade-offs and investment decisions
- Provide clear, concise communication on:
- Roadmap progress
- Delivery status and forecasts
- Risks, blockers, and mitigation plans
- Product and platform performance
- Translate complex technical concepts into business-relevant insights for leadership
- Vendor & Partner Leadership
- Own delivery outcomes and performance for external vendor partners
- Lead vendor governance, execution reviews, and continuous improvement efforts
- Ensure alignment between vendors and internal teams on standards, timelines, and quality expectations
- Escalate and resolve vendor-related risks impacting delivery or platform health
- Mentorship & Team Leadership
- Serve as a mentor and coach to Technical Product Managers, Product Owners, and cross-functional peers
- Elevate standards across backlog management, delivery execution, and product thinking
- Drive consistency and maturity in product management practices across the organization
Qualifications (Education & Experience)
- Required Experience
- 8–10+ years of experience in Technical Product Management, Product Management, or related roles
- Proven experience owning product strategy, roadmaps, and delivery for complex digital platforms
- Strong background in software development lifecycle, system architecture, and scalable systems
- Experience leading large-scale, cross-team initiatives and high-visibility product launches
- Demonstrated ability to influence technical and business decisions at a senior level
- Experience working in Agile / SAFe environments at scale
- Technical & Product Skills
- Strong ability to translate business needs into technical solutions and architectural considerations
- Deep understanding of APIs, microservices, and distributed systems
- Experience with performance optimization, scalability, and reliability engineering principles
- Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills
- Leadership & Communication
- Executive-level communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on executor
- Strong cross-functional leadership and influence without direct authority
- Proven ability to drive alignment in complex, fast-paced environments
- Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in eCommerce, mobile apps, kiosks, or omni-channel platforms
- Experience with enterprise-scale, high-availability systems
- Background in platform or backend product management
- Experience managing third-party integrations and vendor ecosystems
- Success Profile (What Great Looks Like)
- Owns both product strategy and execution across complex domains
- Drives measurable business, customer, and platform outcomes
- Partners deeply with Engineering to shape architecture and long-term technical direction
- Balances speed of delivery with platform scalability and health
- Acts as a trusted advisor to leadership and mentor to the broader team
- Elevates product management discipline and execution standards across the organization
Working Conditions
Physical Requirements
- While performing this job, the incumbent is regularly required to stand, sit, talk hear & use hands and fingers to operate keyboards
Direct Reports
Equal Opportunity Employer: Disabled/Veterans
Competitive Pay $145,305 - $174,366 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