Lead Chocolate Maker

Job Title :
Lead Chocolate Maker
Hours : 40 hours/ week, 7:30am-4pm, weekends required
Department :
Chocolate Production - 16th Street
Reports to :
Production Manager
Pay rate:
Starts at $70,000/year, non-exempt

Dandelion Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate factory in San Francisco’s Mission District. We make chocolate from only two ingredients, cocoa beans and cane sugar, and travel to origins as often as we can to build good, trusting relationships with the producers who grow and ferment the beans we buy. We’re always searching for good cocoa beans, and now we’re looking for a Lead Chocolate Maker to help our production team craft small batches of chocolate.

Lead Chocolate Makers are core to the success of the Chocolate Production day. Your day starts at 7:30am where you refine a few bins of chocolate so we have enough material to meet our Ball Mill goals for the day. At 8am huddle, we review the daily plans, taste test a new origin roasting profile, and ensure the team is set up for success to meet our highest quality standards.

Today you lead the Ball Mill operations, confidently loading the correct materials in each machine, using a grindometer to confirm our quality standards, and tasting each batch to ensure it meets our target taste profile. You step away for a few minutes to troubleshoot the bean sorting machine with an Apprentice Chocolate Maker, noting a new setting that is a little bit slower but gives better, cleaner yields for a new origin.

At the end of the day, you gather the team to review what goals were met, what hiccups happened along the way, and what steps can be improved as we continuously seek to perfect the chocolate making process. Candidates must have stellar leadership skills and a great attitude. This full time role starts at $70,000/year.

You are fascinated by all things chocolate, and feel great satisfaction helping your team work hard and fast towards measurable goals. You can prioritize tasks and effectively organize your team to achieve daily goals. As the day evolves, you are able to quickly pivot and shift priorities as a machine breaks or a team member gets pulled into a meeting. You have honed your palate to be able to confidently judge when a batch is ready and can identify 8/9 origins correctly in a blind taste test.

You complete each part of the chocolate making process quickly, safely, and to spec for the lead level. You lead by example to promote safely working with machines and ensuring our batches are made to the highest food safety standards. The team knows they can always rely on you to be professional, timely, considerate, and aware of others and your own surroundings.

You have great written and verbal communication skills in team and one‑on‑one settings. Acute listening skills are equally important to understanding problems and finding solutions. We are looking for someone to proactively problem‑solve to make our process and team better each day.

• Chocolate Making :
  Perform all steps of chocolate production: inspecting beans, roasting, cracking, winnowing, starting batches, tempering, and foiling bars to lead chocolate maker metrics. Have at least one area of the process that you own and are the go‑to person for any questions/issues. Taking on production projects such as working with the flavor manager to develop profiles for origins.
• Leadership & Professionalism:
  Lead Chocolate Makers must go above and beyond to illustrate that they are: professional, timely, considerate, aware of others and their own surroundings, all while being confident in the process. You are a Lead because you are a role model. Lead the team to meet or exceed all daily goals, troubleshooting any immediate issues and appropriately raising issues to the Production Manager (often with a proposed solution).
  
  You can delegate tasks to other team members efficiently, and your teammates want to work with you over and over again because of your positive attitude.
• Areas of Ownership:
  Each lead chocolate maker has an area of ownership. These areas are parts of the process that are fundamental to the success of production. Areas of…