Location: Washington, D.C.

Employment Type: Full-time

Team: Area Leader Apprentice

Blue Bottle Coffee is a passionate and growing team of hundreds around the world, united by the simple purpose of connecting the world to delicious coffee. We roast on four coasts, make delicious drinks, clean up after ourselves, bake cookies, get change at the bank, and say please and thank you. We’re an impossibly eclectic group of coffee experts, artists, writers, sensory scientists, bakers, designers, and all-around dreamers, who also happen to be some of the most hard-working and talented in the business. Join us.

About the job:

The Area Leader Apprentice is responsible for the overall success of select cafes and their teams. Responsibilities include hiring, training and developing respective Cafe Leaders, ensuring all our guests experience exceptional hospitality and leading all the cafe locations under your portfolio to be successful against our financial and operational goals.

The Area Leader Apprentice role will be for our internal team members only and will generally be an open position.

This position will have direct responsibility for one cafe, plus indirect responsibility for additional cafes that are managed by Cafe Leaders.

You will:

• Build amazing, passionate, high-performing cafe teams, coaching our teams to success and continually inspiring and developing them to bring out their best
• Develop mentor and empower a strong team of Baristas, Lead Baristas and Cafe Leaders, whose work exemplifies deliciousness, hospitality, and sustainability
• Step in to help wherever needed (including working floor shifts, serving coffee, etc.) both to support your team and to stay rooted in our retail work and finding ways to improve it
• Drive exceptional financial performance for each cafe through strong operational management for your portfolio of cafes
• Partner with our Production, Quality Control, Training, Culinary and Design & Development departments to ensure the excellence of everything we provide in our guest experiences

You are:

• A strong and dedicated people leader, who both supports and challenges your people to be their absolute best. You have a record of grooming others to step up and lead
• A business leader who understands how to drive your cafes to financial success through operational excellence, creative initiatives, and building an amazing team
• Obsessed with hospitality and experiences - anticipating the needs of others, deeply empathetic, and filled with a spirit of gratitude to both guests and your own team members
• Energized by ambitious and challenging goals - you don’t just meet them but surpass them
• Never satisfied with the status quo, always proactive in improving you and your team’s results and impact through looking critically at what’s in front of you and trying new things
• Flexible and creative in problem solving - you roll with the punches and have fun doing it

You have:

• 2+ years of retail/hospitality experience with a strong preference for coffee, food & beverage
• 2+ years of retail management experience leading a team of 10+ people
• Experience as a Leadership Trainer or significant experience as a multi-unit unit manager
• A strong track record of mentoring and developing others
• Strong verbal and written communication
• A love and respect of delicious coffee, food and amazing guest experiences

A few benefits we offer:

• Health, dental, and vision coverage for eligible employees starting on your first day
• 401(k) plan
• Paid time off
• Free drinks at any of our cafes and discounts on any Blue Bottle food items and merchandise

Physical requirements:

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by the team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• While performing the duties of this job, the team member is regularly required to see, talk and hear.
• The team member frequently is required to stand, walk, sit; use hands to handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; and stoop, kneel, or crouch.
• The team member must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds
• At times, may require more than 40 hours per week to perform the essential duties of the position (all overtime policies as described in the handbook and required by law apply)
• Fine hand manipulation (working the espresso machine)
• Frequent tasting and smelling of products

Work environment:

• The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
• Inclement weather is possible at all times and depending on the location it may be hotter or colder than expected.

At Blue Bottle, you’ll be critical to guests enjoying delicious coffee. We aim to provide delightful hospitality to everyone who visits us, in-person or online. If you’re ready to help bring amazing products to life, please apply and join us.

Blue Bottle is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value an open mind, dedication to work, and a collaborative spirit. We hire based on these qualities, a job’s requirements, our business’s needs, and an applicant’s qualifications. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind—in the hiring process or in the workplace.

We comply with the ADA and consider reasonable accommodation measures that may be necessary for eligible applicants/employees to perform essential functions.

We may refuse to hire relatives of present employees if doing so could result in actual or potential problems in supervision, security, safety, or morale, or if doing so could create conflicts of interest.

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We participate in E-Verify. We will provide the federal government with employees’ Form I-9 information to confirm authorization to work in the U.S. We will only use E-Verify once an employee has accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.