About Caravela
Caravela Coffee is a team of over 200 hundred coffee professionals located in 11 different countries, with our own export operations in 7 Latin American countries and 4 import operations in Australia, North America, Taiwan, and the UK. Our goal is ‘To Make Coffee Better’ for all of those involved, from the communities where coffee is grown to the coffee drinkers, based on five main principles: quality, transparency, traceability, education, and sustainability.
What we do
Unlike most green coffee traders out there, we don’t just buy and sell coffee for a living. We connect the most talented coffee growers and the most professional coffee roasters, developing true partnerships that lead to improved quality, profitability and sustainability for the entire coffee chain.
How we do it
We achieve this by working directly with over 4 thousand small and medium sized coffee farmers in 7 Latin American countries, constantly providing them with education, technical assistance and access to the world’s best coffee roasters around the World, paying premium prices for their best coffees. The results are a better coffee world, with growers and the communities where they live receiving increased incomes and a higher quality of life and coffee consumers drinking a better and more sustainable product.
Our model has been validated as a high impact model by BCorp since 2014, being the highest rated coffee BCorp in the World. We have been named a ‘Best-For-the-World’ company by BLabs for five years in a row.
The Opportunity
We are in the process of moving our North American headquarters to Houston, TX, where we plan to have a world class facility conveniently located close to our customers and our origin operations in Latin America. We are looking for a Quality Assurance Manager to help us bring the best Latin American coffees to our North American customers.
About You
You are a crucial member of the North American team, responsible for ensuring that our customers are always receiving the best tasting and most consistent coffees from Latin America. You are a driven team player and multitasker that can liaise with multiple origins and customers, as well as the Sales Team, without compromising quality and details. You are a curious person willing to learn constantly on the go and propose new value drivers. You will report directly to the North American Managing Director with a soft reporting to the Global Quality Director.
Key Responsibilities
Green Coffee:
- Meticulous recording, analysis, and sharing of physical and sensorial quality data of green coffee (qualitative and quantitative) using company tools and industry’s best practices
- Provide proactive feedback to origin quality teams
- Develop, in liaison with origin offices, ideal roast profiles for the different coffees sourced by Caravela
- Develop, in liaison with origin offices, proprietary blends of different coffees sourced by Caravela
- Execute experimental roast and proprietary blend profiles and lead QA of results, using a Probat BRZ and/or Ikawa sample roaster
- Facilitate and lead regular cuppings with the sales team
- Direct the day-to-day running of the lab, ensuring product quality of both forward and spot offerings
- Manage the flow of all origin, arrival, and customer samples
- Implement and develop QA policies and procedures, in combination with the Global Quality Director
Customer Experience:
- Support Sales and Customer Experience teams with occasional cuppings, demos, and on-site customer visits
- Represent Caravela in quality-driven industry events, both in North America and abroad, such as CoE Competitions
- Fulfillment of green coffee samples
- Develop strong relationships with our customer’s quality and green buying team
- Identify customer profiles and preferences for preemptive QA
- Perform regular maintenance on all quality control equipment and occasional repairs
- Have an active role in the curation and selection of coffees for our spot offerings
Personnel:
- Manage, train, and supervise junior QA team
- Network with other members of the industry across all levels to develop versatility and variety of the product and supply chain
Qualifications
- Strong passion for high-quality coffee
- Comfortable in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
- 7-10 years’ experience as a QA lab tech and/or lead roaster
- Experience roasting coffee in a variety of styles
- Skilled cupper
- Very detail-oriented, meticulous, and highly analytical
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills with clear leadership abilities
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office and cloud-based equivalents (e.g. Google Docs)
- Experience in water quality testing and analysis, including knowledge of SCA/CQI cupping requirements
Preferred
- Spanish proficiency (reading, writing, speaking) is desirable
- Data analytics experience, using BI systems such as Tableau or PowerBI
Benefits
- We offer competitive compensation, based on experience
- Paid time off: 3 weeks
- Medical, Dental, Vision
- 401k
Caravela is committed to being an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based on a person’s race, color, religion, age, veteran status, disability, national origin, medical condition including pregnancy, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other legally protected status.
Please submit a resume and cover letter to catalina.gomez@caravela.coffee by November 20th.
Must be Eligible to work in the USA
