Green Coffee & Quality Assistant

Provide Respectful Responses To Roast Queries

You are a curious and enthusiastic professional with a genuine passion for specialty coffee. You are highly organized and detail-oriented, comfortable working across both data-driven analysis and hands-on sensory tasks, with exposure to cupping or sensory evaluation considered a plus but not required. A strong communicator and natural collaborator, you value teamwork and shared success. You are eager to learn, grow, and take on increasing responsibility, and you approach your work with reliability, proactivity, and a deep commitment to quality, integrity, and purpose.

This entry-level role is designed for someone passionate about specialty coffee and eager to build a long-term career in sourcing, quality, and coffee operations. The Green Coffee & Quality Assistant supports all aspects of green coffee intake, inventory management, quality evaluation, sustainability tracking, and cross-departmental communication.

This position also plays an important cultural rolehelping strengthen internal coffee knowledge, supporting storytelling, and contributing to the company's identity as a coffee-forward organization.

Essential Functions

Green Coffee Intake, Inventory & Traceability

• Assist in receiving, logging, and tracking all incoming green coffee.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date internal records for lots, origins, certifications, and contracts.
• Support reconciliation of physical vs. system inventories across internal and external warehouses.
• Help ensure traceability from green to finished product through careful documentation and process checks.
• Communicate proactively with production, roasting, and operations teams regarding coffee availability and movement.

Quality Control & Cupping

• Participate in daily/weekly cuppings of green samples, production roasts, and finished goods.
• Prepare cupping tables, maintain grind and cupping standards, record data, and assist in reporting insights.
• Assist in sample roasting and green evaluation under the guidance of the Coffee Procurement Manager and senior QC staff.
• Help monitor flavor profiles across core blends to ensure consistency and quality.
• Support sensory development by regularly calibrating with the QC and production teams.

Sustainability Tracking & Reporting

• Support company sustainability initiatives related to green coffee procurement, farm partnerships, certifications, and packaging.
• Maintain logs and documentation for traceability, environmental reporting, and internal sustainability KPIs.
• Help gather data for impact reporting, farm communications, and certification audits.

Kona Mill Coordination

• Assist with communication and coordination with the mill during harvest and production cycles.
• Support mill-level administrative processes, including lot IDs, milling instructions, yields, and production reporting.
• Help ensure required paperworkreceipts, milling instructions, and related documentsis accurate and properly filed.
• Maintain organized and timely communication to ensure smooth seasonal operations with the mill.

Sales, Marketing & Education Support

• Provide product information support to sales and marketing teams (flavor notes, processing details, farm narratives, etc.).
• Assist in preparing internal and customer-facing coffee information sheets.
• Support hosting internal cuppings, training sessions, and exploratory tastings for staff and key partners.
• Help promote and maintain a strong internal coffee culture.

Industry & Community Engagement

• Attend association events, cupping trainings, and relevant industry gatherings.
• Stay current on developments within the specialty coffee sector.
• Represent the company with professionalism, curiosity, and enthusiasm.

Other Functions:

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Position Qualifications

Competency Statement(s)

• Communication, Written Ability to communicate in writing clearly and concisely.
• Communication, Oral Ability to communicate effectively with others using the spoken word.
• Organized Being organized or following a systematic method of performing a task.
• Responsible Ability to be held accountable or answerable for one's conduct.
• Honesty / Integrity Ability to be truthful and be seen as credible in the workplace.
• Accountability Ability to accept responsibility and account for his/her actions.
• Reliability The trait of being dependable and trustworthy.
• Friendly Ability to exhibit a cheerful demeanor toward others.
• Customer Oriented Ability to take care of the customer's needs while following company procedures.

Mental Demands:

• Ability to work under stressful conditions.
• Able to interact with others with courtesy and tact.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects in an organized and efficient manner.
• Ability to respond to crisis situations in a calm and effective manner.
• Ability to complete projects on schedule.

Communication Demands:

The position requires talking to co-workers, customers, vendors; requires written communications to and from co-workers, customers and vendors, talking on the telephone; requires responding to written or verbal requests of co-workers, customers and vendors; requires training/giving verbal and written instructions; requires receiving verbal and written instructions; requires writing/composing written language; requires reading; requires visiting/working at other work-sites; Ability to communicate via the latest technologies required for the position.

Reasonable Accommodations Statement:

To accomplish this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, each essential function satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to help enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Skills & Abilities

Experience: 1-2 years in coffee, food/beverage, or production environment preferred.

Exposure to cupping or sensory evaluation is a plus.

Education: Bachelor's degree preferred, High School diploma or equivalent required

Computer Skills: Basic Microsoft skills (Word, Excel and Powerpoint), Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop

Language: Well-developed verbal and written English AND Japanese communication skills.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The employee is required to stand; walk; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. Pushing/pulling/lifting/carrying up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision and ability to adjust focus.

N (Not Applicable) Activity is not applicable to this position.

O (Occasionally) Position requires this activity up to 33% of the time (0 2.5+ hrs/day)

F (Frequently) Position requires this activity from 33% - 66% of the time (2.5 5.5+ hrs/day)

C (Constantly) Position requires this activity more than 66% of the time (5.5+ hrs/day)

Physical Demands Lift/Carry

Stand O 10 lbs or less O

Walk O 11-20 lbs O

Sit F 21-50 lbs O

Manually Manipulate O 51-100 lbs N

Reach Outward O Over 100 lbs N

Reach Above Shoulder O

Climb N Push/Pull

Crawl N 12 lbs or less O

Squat or Kneel N 13-25 lbs O

Bend N 26-40 lbs O

Grasp O 41-100 lbs N

Speak F

Work Environment