Executive Director, Brand Strategy & Social Innovation

Summary of Job Description:

The Executive Director of Brand Strategy & Social Innovation is responsible for building and executing Panda Express’s brand positioning strategy with a social-first lens across all marketing initiatives. This position is responsible for building a high-growth, culturally relevant brand. Leading a team of brand professionals, the Executive Director is responsible for the full spectrum of brand expression: integrated storytelling, LTO and campaign commercialization, always-on social ecosystem, and digital-first activations that transform cultural moments into paced business growth. This position builds campaigns designed for social amplification, engagement, and measurable business impact. The Executive Director serves as the strategic bridge between brand positioning, cultural relevance, and performance marketing, translating brand equity into financial outcomes that drive SSS growth, new guest acquisition, and long-term brand health. This position leads a team of brand professionals, developing associates to elevate their performance in support of the company’s growth goals.

Job Responsibilities:

• Builds and develops a high-performing team of brand professionals, including national promotions leaders, social strategists, creator partnership managers, and content producers, fostering a culture of creative risk-taking balanced with business discipline and clear accountability to performance outcomes. Responsible for leading the team and recruiting, selecting, and retaining associates, elevating associates’ performance in support of the company’s growth goals.
• Translates Panda’s brand positioning into compelling integrated campaigns across national promotions, digital activations, and local market initiatives, ensuring every touchpoint is designed for social amplification and authentic storytelling.
• Develops and executes the annual and three-year communications plan that brings menu innovation strategy to life, embedding social-first thinking across all marketing initiatives while championing authentic storytelling.
• Responsible for the brand and social marketing budget, allocating spend against highest ROI initiatives across agencies, content production, creator partnerships, and paid media. Leads annual budget recommendations with clear business rationale tied to business KPIs, guest acquisition targets, and brand health objectives.
• Leads strategic relationships with creative AOR, social AOR, and media agency partners, ensuring alignment on brand positioning and creative excellence. Negotiates agency contracts and scopes of work to maximize output quality relative to investment while conducting annual performance reviews with each partner.
• Builds and scales a comprehensive creator ecosystem across micro, macro, mega, and celebrity tiers, prioritizing brand values alignment over vanity metrics, establishing a creator partnership framework that balances creative freedom with brand protection.
• Designs and executes a comprehensive social media vision aligned with brand positioning and business objectives, anticipating cultural shifts and platform evolution. Leads cross-functional transformation to embed social-first thinking across agencies, campaign process, and scales strategies to market-based DMA plans.
• Serves as a strategic bridge between brand positioning and execution, partnering cross-functionally with Operations, Finance, Media Strategy and Community Marketing to ensure brand and social strategies support business objectives, profitability, and brand equity.
Provides quarterly business reviews and strategic recommendations to leadership presenting performance against agreed-upon KPIs, competitive benchmarking, and actionable optimization insights while monitoring competitive spend to ensure appropriate investment levels.

How we reward you:

• Hybrid Work schedule
• 401K with company match
• Yearly bonus opportunity*
• Full medical, dental, and vision insurance *
• On-site fitness center, biometric screen, and flu shot clinic
• Discounts at Panda restaurants, theme parks, and gym memberships
• Paid time off starting at 15 days with 7 federal holidays*
• Continuous education assistance and scholarships*
• Income protection including Disability, Life and AD&D insurance*
• Bereavement leave*
• Benefits available for eligible permanent full time associates

Your background and experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, innovation, communications, advertising, computer science or related field required
• Twelve to fifteen years in marketing leadership with at least five years in social strategy roles, including managing media budgets in excess of $20MM.
• Successful completion of initial and periodically required trainings.
• Obtaining a valid Food Handler's Card within 30 days of employment is a requirement of this position.

Pay Range: M5: $205,000 - $288,000 / Annual

• Within the range, individual pay is determined using various factors, including work location and experience.

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Panda Strong since 1983:

Founded in Glendale, California, we are now the largest family-owned American Chinese Restaurant concept in America. With close to 2,300 locations globally, we continue our mission of delivering exceptional Asian dining experiences by building an organization where people are inspired to better their lives. Whether it’s impacting our team or the communities we work in, we’re proud to be an organization that embraces family values.

You’re wanted here:

Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to providing equal opportunity, and does not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by law, including but not limited to sex/gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and related conditions), gender expression, race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, ancestry, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, and veteran status. Additionally, Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. complies with all federal, state, and local laws regarding requests for workplace accommodation. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of disability. Applicants are entitled to reasonable accommodations, absent undue hardship, to effectively participate in the application and hiring process, for example, sign language interpreters. If you believe you require an accommodation for the application or interview process or for the position for which you are applying, please reach out to TASupport@PandaRG.com.