Hiring! Cafe Assistant Manager
An Assistant Cafe Manager at Cloud Picker Cafe consists of many aspects to ensure that daily business operations run smoothly; that customers receive the highest quality product we can offer (and that they receive this consistently), coupled with excellent customer service, effective staff management and consistent flow of cafe operations. This creates an inviting, friendly atmosphere that creates return customers and a smooth running of the business.
Job Specifications:
Location: Pearse Street, Dublin, Ireland
Reports to: Cafe Manager
Salary Range: €35,000 - 37,500
Start Date: 10.07.26
Main Managerial Responsibilities:
- Upkeep of allergens folder, staff trainings folder, return to work, HACCP, daily, weekly & monthly sheets etc.
- Devote time and attention to tweaking espresso and filter recipes (a collaborative team effort, but to be led and kept active by assistant manager).
- Point of contact between cafe staff, HQ staff and Directors when Manager is not present.
- Duty Manager - take responsibility for the likes of HSE/EHO visits, TCD Society queries, supplier queries, when the Manager is not present.
- Ensure compliance with HSE requirements. Make sure delivery reports, fridge reports are carried out daily by either completing themselves or assigning staff to complete them.
- Join Roastery Monday/Meetings remotely from cafe - strengthen link between cafe and roastery.
- HQ Orders - Take care to monitor stock levels, coffee levels and their rest periods, and add items to basket accordingly.
- Help ensure staff use coffee feedback form to be sent back to Roastery QC -
- Be the cafe & roastery conduit.
- Stock take. Input stock data to POS system for effective stock level monitoring. Carry-out stock takes on the final day of the month where the Manager is not present.
- Monitor staff lateness/absenteeism and report to the manager for logging in BrightHR.
- Ensure all sandwich / pastry / cake / powerball / milk / retail chocolate / orders are ordered in absence of Manager.
- Manage staff / delegate tasks to the team where needed. Ensuring the cafe is kept clean & to standards outlined by Manager and company directors.
- Ensuring all delivery dockets and invoices are stored in appropriate folders for processing by Manager, and ensuring all goods delivered are in line with what delivery dockets read.
- Keep all cupboards clean and organised & items labeled at all times.Other Duties:
- Technical Skills / Sensory Skills
- Extraction Theory
- 'Origin Theory'
- Customer Service
- Housekeeping
- Operating as a team player/ Taking instructions and orders on board
- Professionalism/ Punctuality / Reliability
- Vigilance of Product expiry dates & stock rotation
- Shelf merchandising
- Execution of seasonal drinks
- Initiative & Taking on responsibilities
Technical Skills
Base level technical skills of a barista start with the ability to create a given espresso-based beverage from start to finish. Cloud Picker cafe expects baristas to pay attention to controlling every parameter possible along the way, including grouphead temperatures, dose, grind size, distribution, levelling, tamping, yield, to best have control over the flavour in the cup, and if things begin to taste undesirably, maintaining control of parameters and changing one parameter helps us to manipulate flavour or texture to our desire. Changing one parameter at a time helps us learn what parameter to adjust, and how so, in order to make coffees taste more to our desire for different coffee beans down the line.
Other technical skills of a barista include:
- Latte art
- Pour Over/ filter coffee brewing knowledge
- Maintenance / cleaning of grinders, espresso machine & Milk Pal. Maintenance of equipment, particularly very regular cleaning of grinders, is essential to keeping cup quality high and off-flavours at bay.
Further Expectations
Extraction Theory:
Understanding extraction theory is integral to bringing the best out of a particular lot and providing customers with a high quality product.
For example;
- Hotter water = higher extraction, cooler water = lower extraction
- Finer grind-size = higher/ faster extraction, coarser grind-size = lower/ courser extraction
- Higher dose:yield ratio = higher extraction %, lower dose:yield ratio = lower extraction %
- A lower ratio can result in a more syrupy, thicker texture, while a higher one is thinner, more tea like, with less body. A higher ratio can help round out the intensity of an espresso shot.
- Higher water temperature equals faster flow rate, or lower contact time
There is constantly new data coming out in extraction theory and there is always more to learn.
Origin Theory
Learning about different coffees and their origin / terroir, varietal, process, altitude, etc helps us understand what we might expect in a coffee flavour-wise, and what we might need to do to dial it in to how to achieve these flavours, but it's also essential from a retail / sales point of view.
If a customer needs help purchasing coffee beans, we need to know what coffee might suit their palate best, based on the characteristics they tell us they like.
Customer Service
As important as the final product is, and baristas having the theory/extraction/origin knowledge to set us apart from other cafes, it all falls apart if the customer service is below par.
Customers need to be welcomed into a clean cafe, floors swept, tables wiped regularly, and greeted on arrival with eye contact and a smile.
As a customer, it is immediately apparent when a barista is disinterested in their job, or providing good customer service. Where service is poor when the customer is ordering, the product almost inevitably follows a similar standard (placebo or not).
It needs to come from within that a barista truly is interested in cultivating and maintaining an inviting atmosphere when their customers visit the cafe.
Something that can fall within this same skills criteria is dealing with unhappy or disgruntled customers in a calm and pleasant way that makes them feel heard and considered, should there be any conflict.
It's important to try and converse with customers in a personal / tailored way while you take their order, that makes the interaction feel like a friendly conversation rather than them being a unit on a conveyor belt. Small gestures go a long way - as an example, if you notice a customer orders a sandwich to have in, with no coffee / tea / cold drink, offer them a glass of tap water.
Housekeeping
Maintaining a clean cafe environment is paramount. We can't stress this enough.
Staff need to be of the mindset not to be content to stand around during periods where there aren't any customers in the shop - this is a commercial space with lots of traffic - this means there are always surfaces and floors to be kept clean in this dynamic environment.
This means that reasonable orders from management regarding cleaning tasks or reorganisation should be taken on board and completed to our high standard as soon as possible.
During the day, customer tables should be routinely checked and cleaned. Shelves and cupboards behind the bar should be sprayed and wiped during any dip in busyness. Floors - both behind the bar and in customer areas - should be checked and swept if necessary.
When closing, the cafe should be left spotless ready for the opening team in the morning. Fridges should be left cleaned and fully stocked. The lids and stir sticks at the coffee pass are to be stocked fully and cups stacked on top of the Slayer. Replenishing stock of cups/ lids should be moved from storage in the lockers to underneath the till for easy access during service.
Windows and doors at the front of the cafe should be sprayed with glass cleaner and left shining.
Team Player
Our Pearse Street team is a small one, and it is of utmost importance that each member of this team operates as a team player, pulling their own weight and having the capacity to take on relevant instructions and orders from the manager in good spirit without retaliation or argument.
Professionalism, punctuality and reliability
Punctuality is one of the highest priorities in this list. This ties in to being a team player. Being on time for your shift shows respect for your colleagues and shows that you care about what we are trying to achieve. It affirms with your team that you are a reliable person and it is a trait of leadership. It inspires confidence in the team. Everyone being on time ensures that the shop is fully set up for the first customers' arrival and that customer service isn't impeded. Vigilance of Product expiry dates / deliveries vs delivery dockets discrepancies. Staff need to be vigilant of expiry dates of all goods, but particularly baked goods with shorter shelf lives so we are not putting out dry cakes / cakes of poor quality. They must also check all delivery dockets versus what was delivered to ensure they are correct before passing the docket on to the manager for checking versus invoices received.
B Corporation and Equal Opportunity
B Corporation
Cloud Picker is committed to B Corporation and the certificate and values it holds. Thus, our employees are also committed to acting on behalf of our agreement with the B Corporation values. Our actions are:
General:
Motivated to make processes more efficient, safe, sustainable and transparent.
Oriented towards cooperation by involving peers in their work when relevant, asking for feedback when necessary and effectively processing said feedback in a productive manner.
Committed to (advancing the awareness of) health and safety policies, such as respecting the workload and office hours of peers.
Attentive to new ways our business operations can be leveraged to further positive environmental or social impact.
Proactive in sharing ideas on how to improve (business) practices, engage external stakeholders or support the communities in which we operate.
Social:
Engagement of stakeholders beyond (direct) sales partners, eg. community stakeholders where relevant.
Engagement of stakeholders on topics beyond sales-related conversations, eg. to proactively open up conversations with stakeholders on how to minimise waste, conserve energy or water, and make more sustainable purchasing or operating decisions.
Supportive of our local communities wherever possible through local sourcing, hiring and investment.
Environmental:
Willing to put in extra effort to gather, process and disclose accurate information regarding environmental and/or social impact to internal and external stakeholders.
Committed to minimising waste and correctly processing the waste that is generated.
Cloud Picker is an Equal an Opportunity Employer:
At Cloud Picker Coffee, quality is the core of our operations. We know that the quality of our coffee depends on the well-being of the people and places we work with. This is why our business is founded on a set of values that aims to create shared value and well-being for all.
We do business with integrity and respect:
We conduct our business based on honesty and ethical decision-making.
We respect human rights, the interests of our stakeholders and individual differences.
We are committed to operating sustainably and continuously challenging ourselves to do better.
We govern our business in full compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.
We encourage curiosity and celebrate diversity.
Apply with your full CV and covering letter explaining why you are the perfect candidate and referencing the required skills and experience to [email protected]
Pay: €35,000.00-€37,500.00 per year
Benefits:
- Bike to work scheme
- Company events
- Company pension
- Employee assistance program
- Employee discount
- Sick pay
Experience:
- managerial: 1 year (preferred)
Work authorisation:
Work Location: In person
