Do you live and breathe coffee quality? Are you a sensory expert with a passion for flavour, consistency, and continuous improvement? If so, this could be the perfect role for you!
At Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, we’re pioneers of ethical sourcing and quality-led roasting. As our new Coffee Quality Manager, you’ll be at the heart of our commitment to excellence, ensuring that every cup we produce lives up to our award-winning standards.
You’ll work closely with our sourcing, roasting, and production teams to lead cupping sessions and oversee daily quality checks. From troubleshooting and maintaining flavour profiles to conducting sensory evaluations and analysing green coffee, you’ll play a key role in upholding our quality standards. You’ll also contribute to innovation, product development, and our wider sustainability goals.
This is a hands-on role that sits at the intersection of quality control and creative development — ideal for someone who thrives in a collaborative environment.
As Coffee Quality manager, you’ll need to:
• Manage the quality of production samples, including leading daily production cupping sessions and grading. • Work closely with our Roasters to uphold quality standards throughout the production process, offering guidance and support where needed. • Oversee and continuously improve quality control protocols from production through to distribution. • Support the Head of Quality in maintaining flavour profiles and managing calibration processes across the range. • Conduct shelf life and bench testing of packed products, analysing results and making recommendations for improvement. • Collaborate with the Head of Quality on new and existing product development (NPD/ EPD) projects. • Maintain accurate records of cupping results, quality assessments, and roasting data across internal systems and Cropster. • Carry out physical analysis and roasting of green coffee samples to assess quality and suitability. • Assist the Head of Quality and Head of Ethical Sourcing in managing green coffee procurement and supplier performance. • Coordinate and monitor the timely receipt of green coffee samples in line with the GM schedule. • Support traceability and compliance efforts by assisting the BRC/EMS Coordinator with traceability exercises and documentation. • Conduct benchmarking of competitor products to help ensure Union remains at the forefront of coffee quality and innovation. • Investigate customer quality concerns and complaints, providing clear recommendations for corrective actions. • Support the Commercial Team by participating in customer presentations, tender processes, roastery visits, and leading cupping sessions.
You’ll have:
• Advanced coffee certifications (Q Grader, SCA certifications) preferred • Proven experience in quality assurance within the specialty coffee industry or similar environment • Good knowledge of coffee quality standards, sourcing practices, roasting processes, and sensory evaluation • Advanced cupping/coffee quality skills • Strong analytical skills and familiarity with data-driven quality improvement techniques • Highly skilled at detecting and addressing variations in quality • Analytical and data-driven with a strong focus on data in ndecision-making and quality improvement • Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate quality standards across departments • Experience working with NetSuite/Cropster would be highly advantageous
In return, we offer:
• Great, agile team to work with • The chance to be an active part of Union’s success in spreading the love of specialty coffee • Lots of holiday – with 25 days of holiday plus the usual bank holidays • Fantastic support for parents/carers - enhanced family/dependant leave and pay allowances • Support for your future – access to our salary sacrifice workplace pension scheme from day one • Support with travel – access to our Cycle to Work Scheme / Electric Car Scheme • Support with tech – access to a range of perks and discounts on personal tech (mobiles, laptops, household appliances) • Free breakfast – and endless great coffee to drink at work • Discounts on coffee, equipment and accessories • Access to the Extras Discount Scheme – providing savings across a wide range of high street retailers • Discounted gym memberships • Counselling support - access to a 24-hour/365-day per year counselling support service • Time to give and support our communities – with paid time off for volunteering
You’ll be part of our team, helping us grow in the right way – upholding our ethics and values, and having some fun along the way.
We are an equal opportunities employer and believe that diversity is a strength. We really care about creating a diverse and inclusive team and we welcome people from all backgrounds, with different perspectives, ideas and experiences to work with us. In our team, everyone has the freedom to give their opinion, grow in their career and be part of a genuinely caring and inclusive team.
If you think you like the sound of this role and fit the description, we’d love to hear from you. If you’d like more information or to download a copy of our recruitment pack/job description, head over to: https://hr.breathehr.com/v/coffee-quality-manager-41901
Alternatively, you can contact us at [email protected]
Please note that while we will try to respond to all applications, sometimes the sheer volume of responses means we can only focus on successful applicants. If your application is successful, one of the team will be in touch to arrange an initial conversation.
