HEAD ROASTER | Old Spike Roastery CIC | £40,000 - £45,000 per annum based on experience
Old Spike Roastery is a specialty coffee social enterprise based in South London. Every bag we sell funds meaningful employment and support for people experiencing homelessness. We roast and ship exceptional coffee every week to wholesale cafe accounts, offices, restaurants, and direct-to-consumer customers across the UK. We're looking for a Head Roaster to lead the quality and coffee side of our roastery as we continue to grow.
The Role
This is a senior, hands-on role responsible for everything that goes into the cup, from sourcing and selecting green coffee through to roasting, quality control, and blend development. You'll lead a small roasting team, manage our roasting schedule, and be the person who sets and maintains the quality standard across everything we roast.
We're currently roasting high volumes per week across wholesale, retail, and e-commerce, and that volume is continuing to grow. We need someone who is comfortable operating at that scale without compromising on quality, and someone who understands that specialty quality and volume aren't mutually exclusive. You must understand customer needs and preferences within the scope of specialty, and the importance of meeting those requirements.
You'll work closely with our Roastery Operations Manager, who handles the commercial and logistics side of the site, and with senior management on sourcing strategy, budgets, and new product development.
What You'll Be Doing
• Roasting / Profiling: leading all production roasting on our Giesen W30A, creating and maintaining and adapting roast profiles, ensuring consistency and quality across every batch
• Green coffee sourcing and management: building and maintaining relationships with importers and traders, cupping and evaluating samples, selecting coffees that align with our quality and sustainability standards and commercial needs. Keeping a close eye on the green coffee market and seasonality, understanding buying cycles, contract dynamics, incoterms, and tying sourcing decisions into our commercial strategy and margin targets. Ensuring orders are placed on time and based on stock levels / forecasts.
• Forecasting: building a sourcing schedule for all the Old Spike line based on future harvest and arrivals from different origins. Knowing the harvest calendar for the different countries anticipating the request of PSS.
• Quality control: leading the QC process including cupping, roast analysis, and roast logs; setting the benchmark for Old Spike Standards and making sure the team holds it and understands it.
• Blend development: creating and refining our core blends and seasonal offerings ahead of time, working with the commercial team to ensure the range meets customer demand and margin targets. Developing new blends for specific customers according to their needs and working hand in hand with the wholesale department on budgets, volumes and forecasting.
• Budget and margin: managing the green coffee budget, understanding and tracking added costs, and calculating margin across our product range to support commercial decision-making
• Production planning: building and managing the weekly roasting schedule in line with order volumes, stock levels, and fulfilment deadlines
• Team leadership: line managing the Production Roaster and any supporting roasting assistants; setting standards, running check-ins, and developing the team's skills and coffee knowledge
• Equipment: owning the maintenance and care of the Giesen W30A and all roastery equipment, including cleaning schedules and liaison with technical service when needed
• Coffee training: leading internal coffee education for the wider team, including baristas across our cafe sites, and supporting our social impact training programme where relevant
• Marketing support: source traceability and marketing material from importers for new releases, and review all published coffee content for accuracy and brand alignment
• Client-facing and business development: attending client cuppings and tastings to support our sales and account management team, helping showcase our coffees and build relationships with existing and prospective wholesale customers
• Industry representation: representing Old Spike at industry events, exhibitions, and competitions, building our reputation within the specialty coffee community and staying connected to what's happening in the wider market
About You
You have significant experience as a Head or Senior Roaster in a specialty coffee environment, ideally at volumes of above 1,000 KG+ per week. You understand the craft and the science.
• Confident sourcing green coffee: you've worked directly with importers, cupped extensively, and made buying decisions based on quality, availability, and cost. You have a keen interest in and working understanding of the coffee market, including harvest cycles, pricing trends, and how they affect planning and commercials.
• Knowledgeable about sustainability concepts and standards and committed to look for and work with coffees with demonstrable impact in origin communities.
• Strong on numbers: you're comfortable managing a budget, costs beyond the green price per kilo, and understanding how sourcing decisions affect margin
• A calm, positive and capable team leader: you set clear expectations, lead by example on the roaster, and bring people with you on the journey
• Organised and production-minded: you can plan a roasting schedule that keeps up with demand and adapts to last minute changes or special requests.
• A clear communicator: you can talk coffee with importers, explain flavour to customers, and give honest, measured feedback to your team
• Comfortable in a client-facing environment: you're confident leading cuppings, presenting coffees to wholesale customers, and representing the brand at events
• Passionate about quality but pragmatic about scale: you care deeply about what's in the cup and you understand the operational realities of producing it at volume
• Experience with Cropster or similar software is a strong advantage
• Experience with Giesen roasters is a plus but not essential
• Food safety knowledge (HACCP Level 3 or similar) is desirable
• Q Grading or SCA qualifications are a plus
• Motivated by working somewhere that stands for something — our mission matters and we want someone who connects with it
Benefits
* Access to industry events and coffee exhibitions
* An additional holiday day for every year you stay with us
* Staff rewards app with benefits across restaurants, retail stores, gyms and more
* Free coffee on and off shift, 50% staff discount on all other products
* NEST Pension scheme
* Flexible working hours
Old Spike Roastery is a London living wage employer and an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from people with lived experience of homelessness or the criminal justice system.
We are ideally looking for someone to start mid-late July, but will also consider candidates who can start in August. Please apply via the link or email including a cover letter, to submit your application.