// What this job actually is //
We need someone to run the floor of our roastery. Day to day, that means roasting, packaging, labeling, shipping, and making sure orders go out clean and on time. You'll lead a small team of two part\-time folks who work 20 to 30 hours a week, and you'll spend the rest of your time tightening the systems behind all of it.
About 80% of your week will be hands\-on work alongside the team. The other 20% is desk work: building checklists, writing SOPs people will actually use, and finding the spots where our flow is leaking time or consistency. As we grow, that ratio will shift in your favor.
We've already done a lot of the documentation work. What we need now is someone who looks at the gaps and thinks, "I can fix that, and I have an idea for how."
// About Ember Coffee //
Ember is a coffee roaster and cafe in Big Lake, Minnesota. We roast our own coffee and sell it through our shop, through wholesale partners (cafes and restaurants around the region), and direct to people at their homes. We're small, family\-run, and we care a lot about doing the work well.
The roastery is what powers the whole business. The coffee we roast there ends up in our cafe, in people's homes through online orders, and at our wholesale partner shops across the region. Getting production right is how the rest of the company gets to keep growing.
// Why this role is worth taking //
This is a real seat with real authority. You own production. You own the team. You own the SOPs and the equipment. You report directly to the owner, not a layer of middle managers. The decisions are yours to make and yours to live with.
You are building, not inheriting. Some of our systems are documented. Some are in people's heads. Your job is to take all of it and turn it into something that runs cleanly without you having to be everywhere at once. That's the kind of work most production people wait years to get their hands on.
The wholesale business is growing, and this role grows with it. Today you're managing a small team and a tighter schedule. In two or three years, that could mean a bigger team, more production volume, and a bigger book of wholesale accounts. The upside is real and tied to outcomes you can directly move.
This is Big Lake, Minnesota. Cost of living is reasonable, the commute is short, and the lake is a real lake. We're a small family\-run business that has been steadily building something worth showing up for.
// What you'll do //
* Run production day to day. Roast coffee on schedule. Manage green coffee inventory and ordering rhythm. Keep par levels right on packaging, labels, and finished bags. Pack and ship wholesale and online orders. Track batch data and basic traceability so we know what came from where.
* Lead the team. You'll have two part\-time team members working alongside you. You're the one setting the pace, training new people on the floor, owning the production schedule, and making sure everyone knows what they're doing and why.
* Maintain the equipment. Daily cleaning, weekly checks, monthly deep cleans, scheduled preventative maintenance. You'll know when something is starting to drift and address it before it becomes a problem.
* Build the systems. This is the part that makes this role different from a roaster job. You'll write the checklists, refine the SOPs we already have, document the things we're currently doing from memory, and find the steps where we're losing time or consistency. We want SOPs that real people will actually read and use, not AI\-generated filler that gets ignored on day two.
* Watch the numbers. Pounds per labor hour, waste percentage, on\-time fulfillment, packaging cost per pound. You'll report these weekly and bring ideas for how to move them in the right direction.
// Who we're looking for //
Experience: 2 to 5 years in a production or operations role. That's the sweet spot for this seat. Someone who has done the work, can run a small team, and is ready to step into more ownership.
You think in systems, and you've worked in a small\-batch production environment as part of a team (not a one\-person shop where you were the whole operation). We're thinking breweries, distilleries, bakeries, commissary kitchens, contract food manufacturers, small\-batch CPG, packaging operations, or fulfillment centers. Job titles in your background might look like production lead, cellarman, packaging supervisor, shift lead, production supervisor, or line lead. Military logistics counts here too. You're the person who looks at a workflow and immediately sees where the bottleneck is.
Bonus points if you've ever trained a new hire, written a checklist someone else actually used, or filled in for a teammate who called in sick. That's the muscle we need.
* You like doing the work. You'll be on your feet, lifting bags of green coffee (up to 70 pounds), packing orders, and running the roaster yourself most days of the week.
* You can lead a small team without being a jerk about it. You set the standard by doing the work well, you train people patiently, and you don't dodge a hard conversation when one needs to happen.
* You write clearly. The documentation you produce should sound like a real person wrote it for other real people. If the SOP would lose to a YouTube tutorial, the SOP isn't good enough.
* You have integrity. You show up on time, you keep your word, and finish what you start.
// Who we're not looking for //
NOT a coffee expert. We have one of those already. You'll learn to roast on our existing profiles in your first ninety days, and we'll teach you the rest as it becomes relevant. You don't need to know anything about origin processing, cupping protocols, or what makes a Yirgacheffe a Yirgacheffe to walk in here on day one.
If you want to talk about your favorite single origin in the interview, this might not be the right fit. If you want to talk about how you reorganized a packing line so it shipped twice as fast, we should talk.
// Schedule, pay, and the rest //
Hours: Full time, salaried, 45\-50 hours a week, generally Monday through Friday—and roasting on Sundays (can be done by part\-time staff) . Some flexibility on start time each day, but the roastery runs on a production schedule and consistency matters. Coffee must get out the door by a certain day(s), by a certain time.
Compensation: $50,000 to $55,000 a year to start, with room to grow as the roastery grows. Plus a quarterly performance bonus tied to throughput and on\-time delivery once you've been in the role for six months.
Benefits: Paid time off, all the coffee you can drink, a discount at the shop, and a real seat at the table in how we grow this thing.
Pay: $50,000\.00 \- $55,000\.00 per year
Benefits:
- Employee discount
- Flexible schedule
- Paid time off
- Tell me about the last thing you fixed at work that nobody asked you to fix.
- Walk me through how you'd write a checklist for something you do every day at your current or most recent job. Could be opening, closing, prepping, anything.
- Tell me about a time you had to train someone who wasn't picking it up as fast as you wanted.
- What's a number you track at work, or wish you tracked, that nobody asked you to track?
- What was the worst job you've ever had, and what made it bad?
Application Question(s):
Work Location: In person