Cyber leadership profile

Panda Restaurant Group

Panda Restaurant Group is the parent company of Panda Express, Panda Inn, and Hibachi-San. It is a family-owned global foodservice retailer operating over 2,300 locations and employing more than 40,000 people. For a security leader, the environment involves protecting high-volume retail point-of-sale systems, supply chain logistics, and extensive employee and customer data.

Industry: Retail
Headcount: 10,000+ employees
Headquarters: Rosemead, California
Ownership: Privately held
Revenue: $1B – $10B
Funding: Not applicable
Founded: 1973

Company website

Cyber hiring activity

Open leadership roles

1 at Director level or above

Opened, last 12 months

1 Director+

Prior 12 months

Hiring velocity

Low

Median Opportunity Score 67

1 leadership role observed in the last 12 months. CLI has no coverage of the prior year for this employer. Counts reflect roles Panda Restaurant Group posted that CLI has observed and published; they are not a complete record of the employer's hiring.

Security leadership

Vijay Venkatesh

Chief Technology OfficerHiring influence: HighStated publiclyHigh confidence

As CTO, Venkatesh oversees the broader technology strategy and infrastructure which includes security governance for the restaurant group.

Public profile Source

Kiran Valla

Executive Director, Information Technology (Security, Infrastructure & Operations)Hiring influence: HighInferredHigh confidence

Directs IT security operations and strategy for the enterprise.

Public profile Source

Reid Stephens

Manager, IT Security EngineeringHiring influence: ModerateInferredModerate confidence

Manages the technical security controls and engineering teams.

Public profile Source

People are recorded only from public sources. Where a role in the hierarchy is inferred rather than stated, CLI labels it so you can weigh it yourself.

Approach

Open any live role below for its full approach path: the likely hiring owner, the decision circle around them, and the strongest route in.

Security organization

Estimated team size15–50 peopleModerate confidence

Security functions operate within the IT department, reporting through the Executive Director of IT to the Chief Technology Officer.

Major functions

Infrastructure SecurityIT OperationsSecurity EngineeringCompliance and Governance

Maturity indicators

Centralized IT leadership under a CTO
Active security engineering management
Post-incident disclosure and remediation protocols

The organization maintains a centralized IT and security function that supports multiple brands (Panda Express, Panda Inn, Hibachi-San), currently focusing on infrastructure modernization following a 2024 security incident.

Organization figures are CLI estimates, not disclosures. High confidence

Security events

Mar 2024
Panda Restaurant Group Corporate Systems Data Breach
Security incidentHigh confidence
Panda Restaurant Group notified individuals of a data breach occurring between March 10 and March 16, 2024, where unauthorized actors accessed personal information from corporate systems.
Source

Technologies observed

AWSCloud1 posting

ISO 27001Framework1 posting

NIST CSFFramework1 posting

Extracted verbatim from this employer's security postings. Absence from this list does not mean the tool is not in use.

Open cyber leadership roles

Principal of Cybersecurity and AI GRC

Panda Restaurant Group · Retail

Rosemead, CA · Hybrid

$157,000 – $220,000 base, disclosed

Employer title: Principal, Cybersecurity & AI GRC

VP-equivalent

CLI Career Level

Opportunity

Solid · Last verified 1 hour ago

Cyber Leadership Index compiles these dossiers from public sources and the employer's own postings. Inferred figures are labelled with a confidence level; anything CLI cannot establish is shown as unknown rather than estimated. Last refreshed September 19, 2026.