Our production kitchen operates Monday through Friday between 5:00 AM and 4:00 PM, plus Saturdays from 7:00–10:00 AM.
The Kitchen Manager's regular schedule is typically Monday–Friday, about 8 hours per day beginning around 7:00 or 8:00 AM. We're happy to adjust this for the right candidate. As with any management role, occasional flexibility is expected to help cover the team when needed.
About Kestrel Coffee Roasters
Kestrel Coffee Roasters is a Vermont coffee roaster and café with locations in South Burlington and at Leahy Burlington International Airport.
We roast our own coffee, prepare our food from scratch, and bake our sweets in-house. We're known for thoughtfully roasted coffee, homemade food, and genuine hospitality—and we're looking for an experienced Kitchen Manager to help lead our kitchen.
About the Role
This is a hands-on leadership position split between food production, administration, and team management.
You'll cook and bake alongside the team while overseeing scheduling, ordering, inventory, production, organization, and a kitchen staff of 2–4 people. You'll work closely with ownership and the rest of our management team to keep the kitchen running smoothly.
We're looking for someone who can earn the trust of an established team by learning first, leading second, and improving third.
Your first few weeks will be spent learning our recipes, systems, and standards. As you become comfortable, you'll gradually take ownership of the operation. Once you understand how we work, we want your ideas and experience to help us improve it.
We're a collaborative team that cares about doing things well, helping each other out, and continuously improving. If that sounds like your kind of kitchen, you'll fit right in.
What You'll Be Responsible For:
Leading the Team
- Create staff schedules
- Manage daily workflow and production priorities
- Train, coach, and support team members
- Delegate responsibilities
- Maintain high standards of quality and consistency
- Adjust for call-outs as needed
- Foster a positive, respectful, hard-working team culture
Food Production
Work alongside the team producing our full line of grab-and-go food and baked goods, including sandwiches, breakfast burritos, egg sandwiches, prepared salads, soups, syrups, cookies, muffins, scones, brownies, coffee cakes, and seasonal items.
Kitchen Operations
- Plan weekly production
- Place food orders and receive deliveries
- Monitor inventory and food costs
- Organize refrigerators, freezers, dry storage, and equipment
- Improve kitchen workflow and efficiency
- Maintain food safety, cleanliness, labeling, rotation, and organization standards
How You'll Succeed
This role involves managing hundreds of small details. The best candidates learn quickly, take excellent notes, stay highly organized, and are comfortable using Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Sheets) every day. Confidence is important—but so is curiosity. The people who thrive at Kestrel are always learning.
Qualifications
- Minimum 4 years of commercial kitchen experience
- Minimum 4 years of management experience
- Experience leading and developing employees
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
- Comfortable learning new systems and technology
- Experience with food ordering, inventory, scheduling, and recipe costing preferred
Benefits
- Paid Time Off
- Flexible schedule
- SIMPLE IRA with 2% company match
- 20% employee discount
- Coffee!
- Opportunity to grow with a locally owned company
Pay: $65,000.00 - $75,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k) matching
- Flexible schedule
- Paid time off
Experience:
- Kitchen: 4 years (Required)
- Management: 4 years (Required)
Ability to Commute:
- South Burlington, VT 05403 (Required)
Work Location: In person
