Lead Barista

Lead Barista · Common Circuit Café · Gowanus, Brooklyn

• Reports to: General Manager
• Where: 240 Third Avenue, Gowanus, Brooklyn. Opening soon.
• Schedule: Full-time, five shifts a week, mostly opens. The bar opens at 6 AM. You start before we open, so you build the bar with us.

About the role

Common Circuit is an all-day café: an espresso bar and a slow bar, a matcha program, house-made syrups, and a kitchen rooted in the Mediterranean. Our promise to the neighborhood is simple: strangers in the morning, regulars by Friday.

We're hiring our first Lead Barista before we open. You'll set the standard every drink is held to and teach it. You'll lock our espresso recipes, finish the specs for our syrups, foams and matcha, and train the founding team. Then you'll keep it all calibrated, every morning, while working the bar beside them.

You coach; our GM manages. Hiring, schedules and reviews stay with the GM, so your shifts are spent where they count: on the bar, with guests.

What you'll do

• Dial in espresso at open and hold every drink to spec through the rush
• Finalize our espresso, slow bar, matcha, syrup and foam recipes before we open, all by weight
• Run the Circuit Program: pre-opening training, monthly cuppings, and coaching every barista toward five certifications
• Work the bar most of every shift: the regulars, the 7 AM rush, the 3 PM calm
• Keep the grinders, espresso machine and water filtration clean and calibrated, and catch problems before they become breakdowns
• Order coffee, milk and bar supplies against par levels
• Be the first person a new barista asks, and the calm one when the line is out the door

Who we're looking for

• 3 years behind a bar, at least 1 of them in specialty coffee
• You've trained other baristas, formally or not
• You can dial in by taste and explain why a shot is off
• Calm in a rush, warm with strangers, patient with new teammates
• Available for early mornings, including weekends
• Able to stand for a full shift, lift 40 lb, and work safely around hot equipment

Pay, stated plainly

• Base pay: $25.00 to $28.00 an hour, before tips, set by experience.
• Tips, on top: pooled weekly and split by hours worked. We publish our average tips per hour every month.

Learning and benefits

• $1,000 a year learning allowance from day one, for SCA courses, competitions and classes you choose
• 40 hours of paid safe and sick leave a year
• Shift drink, staff meal, and coffee to take home
• Paid training, including before we open
• NYC Food Protection Certificate exam, paid by us

How to apply

Email View email address on us.fitly.work with your resume and two short answers: a drink you'd put on our menu and why, and a barista you trained and what changed for them. We read every one.

Common Circuit is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of every background, identity and ability.

Schedule Days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday Shifts: Early AM, Day