Head Barista

Head Barista - London 

WatchHouse is a specialty coffee company with multiple locations across London and one house in Bath. As we continue to grow in 2024 we are looking for passion and talented Head Baristas to lead our barista teams.

In short: As a Head Barista in WatchHouse, you play a critical role in ensuring the excellent quality of the drinks we serve - you're accountable for the standard of drinks served in your shop, even when you're not there. You coach and manage your team of Baristas, educate and excite the team, maintain the equipment and machines, you provide unparalleled hospitality to build our customer base, and cultivate and positively foster the WatchHouse culture.

At WatchHouse our Head Baristas take a greater level of both responsibility and accountability when it comes to your House. You form part of the management team of the site, and play a fundamental role in maintaining the ecosystem behind the bar and being proactive in disseminating information to their wider team on all of the coffee releases, specials and so on to ensure greater service success.

In short, at WatchHouse you can expect:

• A wonderful bunch of people that you'll get to work with.
• Opportunities for growth and development as we open new Houses.
• Opportunity to receive financial sponsorships and mentoring for national Coffee Competitions.
• Guaranteed contracted hours every week to suit you.
• Flexible shift times.
• Free coffee & WH drinks (even on days off).
• Free lunch on every shift
• 30% off food when you aren't working.
• Discount on our WH retail range.
• Access to the WatchHouse cycle to work scheme.
• Training available and opportunities for career growth and development across the business.

Directly reports into (Line Manager): House Manager, working in cohesion with the Head of Coffee and Coffee Ops Manager.

Key Responsibilities:

• You are a positive example for your team and the wider business at all times. As the Head Barista you manage the personal development of you team (alongside the House Manager and Head of Coffee) you'll:

  • You'll have a 1-2-1 catch up with all your baristas on a monthly basis.

  • Hold inspiring and engaging coffee related meetings or trainings for your team as and when required.

  • You'll actively manage the PDPs of your Barista team alongside the House Manager.

• Attend every Head Barista meeting with the Senior Coffee Team (in your absence you will be expected to arrange sending someone else from your team.)

• Arrange a monthly coffee catch up with the Coffee Operations Manager.

• Quality of all coffee & drinks which leave the bar

• Ensuring their entire team is aware of current drinks offerings and standards.

• Day to day management of the bar team.

• Leadership & Mentoring of the bar team.

• Management of the bar stocks.

• Training & Development of the bar team, take a proactive approach in identifying opportunities for progression and highlighting training needs

• Meet and communicate regularly with the House Manager providing valuable insights and ideas on:

  • Bar Staff Scheduling.

  • Drinks Sales & Speed of Service Opportunities

  • Drinks Training & Development

The role in more detail:

From the bar, our Head Baristas work alongside their team of baristas ensuring the WatchHouse coffee and drinks standards are followed at all times. You'll support and lead the Barista team to produce the highest quality drinks at speed.

You perform all the duties of a Senior barista, plus some. Which means you're responsible for running the whole coffee area/bar to impeccably high standards and working closely with the House Manager, Coffee Ops and Head of Coffee to improve quality, efficiency, increase sales and create an inspiring team atmosphere. You do your fair share of opens and closes, leading by example and setting the standards for what is expected from the rest of your team on site.

Customer Experience

Living our WatchHouse Values and always creating good vibes, looking after regulars and going out of your way to make connections with new customers.

Stock Control and Ordering

You're responsible for ordering products, equipment and utensils, as well as stock control and managing wastage reporting to avoid shortages or surplus. Tackle inefficiencies and wastage. Ensure an ongoing professional and courteous relationship with key suppliers in your section. Managing the retail sections and ensuring visual merchandising is maintained at a high standard. You'll take an active role in completing the weekly stock take.

HACCP

You ensure we adhere to food safety, health & safety, HACCP and COSHH requirements.

Maintenance

You troubleshoot faults with equipment and repair basic equipment failures. Check and replace all equipment, machines and filters, where necessary. Resolve or report maintenance issues appropriately and maintain the cleaning routine. Know who to call for repairs and advice. Update all maintenance logs (grinders, recipes, water).

You'll have outstanding knowledge of our products, focus on quality, efficient speed of service, and eye for cleanliness - all the while, being welcoming and creating a unique, characterful atmosphere. You strive for excellence in every drink my team makes.

Leadership and Team Management

You lead by example; coach and develop others, identify talent and training requirements, give constructive feedback for the good of team development and customer experience, and always look to bring out the best in people.

You guide espresso technique, basic steaming technique, and workflow of others. Train batch brew production, diagnose faults and find solutions. Quality test drinks and provides feedback in a positive and constructive way. You coach Senior baristas on maintenance skill.

We encourage you to hold a daily tasting of your coffee offering with your team; discuss flavors, processing and key points. Ensuring your team has strong knowledge about the offering, allowing your site to build a real culture around coffee. This extends to the FOH team who you'll actively engage in coffee conversation, tastings and educate them, when needed, on menu updates, new products or changes in service standards.

Key to this role:

• Always well-presented and wearing the following WatchHouse uniform standards.

• Proactive and diligent about getting stuff done .

• Positive, upbeat and bringing personality and soul to the role- a real people-person who is a team player through and through, calm under pressure and is comfortable having difficult conversations if needed. I do this in a professional manor.

• Someone who works brilliantly with others I am also supportive of the rest of the WatchHouse business- always willing to help if I am able to.

• A patient and caring coach, encouraging and supportive of others .

• Meticulous about cleanliness and love the little details and super organized.

• Always humble and hungry to learn more - striving for excellence .

• Passionate about hospitality, specialty coffee + food and inspiring others using my knowledge.

WatchHouse is an equal opportunity employer. We pride ourselves in creating an environment where diversity is celebrated, equality is insisted and inclusion expected. A company where we believe in having the right person in the role; and personality, individuality and uniqueness top the list of what we are looking for in applications and throughout our hiring process.