Position Summary
The General Manager, Operations is responsible for the day-to-day operating engine of Ampersand Coffee Roasters.
This person will oversee production, fulfillment, warehouse organization, inventory, roasting coordination, food safety, organic compliance, SQF implementation, equipment coordination, staff management, and operational customer communication.
The core responsibility is simple:
Make sure all coffee orders are produced correctly, packaged accurately, and shipped or delivered on time — while improving the systems, people, and processes that make that possible.
This is a hands-on leadership role. The right person will be comfortable managing people, working on the production floor when needed, learning equipment, communicating with customers, making decisions quickly, and bringing calm structure to a fast-moving environment.
This role reports directly to the CEO.
What Makes This Role Different
Ampersand is not a large corporate manufacturing company with every system already built. We are a growing, entrepreneurial coffee company with real momentum and real operational complexity.
The right candidate will enjoy that.
This role is a fit for someone who likes to dig in, figure things out, organize what is messy, build repeatable systems, and keep people moving in the same direction. Priorities can shift from week to week. Customer needs change. Production volume changes. Packaging needs change. Equipment sometimes needs attention. The right person will be quick on their feet, practical, steady under pressure, and comfortable making progress even when every variable is not perfectly known in advance.
If you need a highly predictable corporate environment, this probably is not the right role.
If you like ownership, variety, mission, people leadership, production, problem-solving, and making a growing business better every week, this could be a great fit.
Key Responsibilities
Production, fulfillment, and order execution
Oversee the production and fulfillment of all wholesale and direct-to-consumer coffee orders.
Manage the weekly production planning process, including wholesale order review, BlueCart order flow, Excel-based roast planning, roasting coordination, packaging, carton preparation, shipping, and local delivery coordination.
Coordinate with roasting employees to ensure the right coffees are roasted at the right time and in the right quantities.
Lead the production team responsible for packaging roasted coffee, preparing cartons, organizing finished goods, and supporting order fulfillment.
Ensure orders are completed accurately, efficiently, and on time.
Support DTC fulfillment through Shopify and ShipStation, including issue resolution, customer correspondence, fulfillment errors, damaged shipments, and customer-service escalations.
Oversee wholesale order flow through BlueCart (our online ordering platform), including orders entered directly by customers and orders received by email that need to be entered into BlueCart.
Coordinate larger outbound freight shipments with carriers.
Work with the logistics manager to coordinate local deliveries in the Denver/Boulder metro area.
Step onto the production floor when needed to help the team complete the work.
People leadership and accountability
Manage, train, coach, discipline, evaluate, hire, and, when necessary, terminate employees under the operations function.
Lead the roasting, packaging, fulfillment, warehouse, and operations teams with clear expectations and accountability.
Build a culture of ownership, cleanliness, organization, efficiency, respect, and follow-through.
Hold regular team meetings and participate in weekly managers meetings with the CEO, front-of-house manager, and accounting manager.
Use structured management tools, scorecards, issue lists, and meeting rhythms to keep the team aligned.
Familiarity with EOS, Traction, Level 10 meetings, or similar operating systems is strongly preferred.
Depending on experience and final role structure, this position may also oversee the front-of-house manager and help create a stronger management layer across the company.
Food safety, organic compliance, and SQF
Lead Ampersand’s food-safety and compliance systems.
Drive implementation and ongoing execution of SQF in the warehouse and production environment.
Manage food-safety procedures, records, cleaning schedules, documentation, corrective actions, training, and audit readiness.
Train production staff on SQF, GMPs, sanitation, food-safety expectations, documentation, and daily compliance habits.
Take ownership of Ampersand’s organic certification process, including coordination of the annual organic audit with CCOF.
Maintain documentation and operating practices required for organic compliance, traceability, ingredient handling, labeling, storage, cleaning, and audit readiness.
Support Ampersand’s continued leadership in Fair Trade, organic, and regenerative organic coffee.
Prior SQF, HACCP, GMP, FSMA, organic certification, food-safety, or food/beverage manufacturing experience is strongly preferred.
Equipment and technical operations
Become highly knowledgeable on Ampersand’s production and packaging equipment, including sealers, weigh-fill machines, the coffee roaster, and the Bartelt IM-7 packaging machine.
Operate, troubleshoot, and coordinate maintenance for packaging equipment as needed.
Take ownership of the Bartelt IM-7 production process for 2 oz coffee packets and ensure that additional staff are trained over time.
Coordinate repairs, maintenance, replacement decisions, and vendor support for production equipment.
Understand how the coffee roaster operates, even if this role is not normally responsible for roasting coffee.
Help build redundancy in equipment knowledge so the business is not dependent on any one person.
Warehouse, inventory, purchasing, and facility organization
Maintain a clean, safe, organized, and efficient warehouse and production floor.
Improve facility layout, material flow, pallet racking usage, pick shelves, finished goods storage, packaging flow, and general organization.
Monitor inventory of packaging, coffee bags, labels, boxes, chai supplies, syrup supplies, filters, cleaning supplies, and other production and warehouse materials.
Purchase supplies directly or advise the CEO when larger purchases are needed.
Create better inventory visibility, reorder points, and purchasing discipline.
Work within a warehouse environment that includes forklifts, pallet racking, raw materials, finished goods, packaging materials, and production equipment.
Customer communication and operational support
Communicate professionally with wholesale customers and larger accounts by email, phone, Zoom, and Teams.
Manage operational expectations around orders, deadlines, production timing, delivery, special requests, errors, and corrective actions.
Support onboarding of new customers into Ampersand’s ordering systems and operational process.
Handle basic incoming sales inquiries when they are straightforward and within established pricing guidelines.
This is not a sales or marketing role, but the operations leader must be customer-aware and able to represent Ampersand professionally.
Customer equipment coordination
Maintain Ampersand’s customer equipment inventory, including coffee brewers, espresso machines, grinders, and related equipment that may be sold, loaned, or placed with customers.
Coordinate repairs, replacements, technician visits, and service timing at customer locations.
Work with coffee equipment technicians and understand what repairs should cost, what timing is realistic, and when equipment should be repaired or replaced.
Help ensure customer equipment issues are handled quickly and professionally.
Accounting and administrative coordination
Coordinate with the accounting manager on invoice timing, order corrections, credits, customer questions, and order documentation.
Ensure order information is accurate and ready for invoicing.
Improve operational handoffs between production, accounting, delivery, fulfillment, and customer service.
Systems and process improvement
Improve Ampersand’s operating systems, production planning, inventory management, documentation, and communication flow.
Help evaluate and eventually implement ERP/MRP systems or other operational tools.
Create repeatable processes so the business is not dependent on memory, last-minute heroics, or informal workarounds.
Identify inefficiencies in production flow and lead practical improvement projects.
Develop useful operating metrics such as on-time order fulfillment, order errors, production throughput, labor efficiency, machine uptime, inventory stockouts, SQF readiness, organic audit readiness, and customer issue resolution.
What This Role Does Not Own
This role does not own marketing, branding, website design, social media, product design, finance, accounting, tax, company pricing strategy, green coffee contracting, major sales strategy, investor relations, or capital decisions.
The role will work closely with the CEO and accounting manager, but its primary responsibility is day-to-day operations execution.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is a hands-on operations leader with experience in food, beverage, CPG, coffee, manufacturing, fulfillment, warehouse operations, or a similar production environment.
You should be someone who can walk the floor, talk to the team, understand the day’s production needs, solve a customer problem, adjust the plan, improve a process, and still keep the bigger picture in mind.
You should care about quality, food safety, organic integrity, responsible sourcing, and building a team that takes pride in its work.
Coffee experience is helpful, but not required. Food/beverage manufacturing, packaging, warehouse, fulfillment, and people-management experience are more important.
Required Qualifications
5+ years of operations, production, warehouse, food/beverage, manufacturing, fulfillment, or related experience.
3+ years of people-management experience.
Experience managing hourly production, warehouse, logistics, fulfillment, or manufacturing staff.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
Comfortable using Excel or Google Sheets for production planning, inventory, or reporting.
Experience with order-management, shipping, inventory, production, ERP, MRP, or similar systems.
Mechanical aptitude and comfort learning production equipment.
Ability to make decisions, prioritize, and keep production moving under pressure.
Ability to work on-site in Denver, CO.
Preferred Qualifications
Food or beverage manufacturing experience.
Coffee roasting, coffee packaging, specialty coffee, or CPG experience.
SQF, HACCP, GMP, FSMA, food-safety, audit, or compliance experience.
Organic certification or organic audit experience, especially with CCOF or similar certifying bodies.
Experience with Shopify, ShipStation, BlueCart, ERP/MRP systems, or production planning tools.
Experience with packaging equipment, weigh-fill machines, sealers, vertical form-fill-seal equipment, or similar machinery.
Experience with warehouse layout, pallet racking, forklift environments, inventory systems, and process improvement.
Familiarity with EOS, Traction, Level 10 meetings, scorecards, rocks, issue lists, or similar management systems.
Experience coordinating customer equipment, field service, repairs, or technician networks.
Interest in Fair Trade, organic, regenerative organic, sustainable agriculture, or mission-driven food businesses.
Physical Requirements
This is an on-site role in a warehouse and production environment. The role requires standing, walking, bending, lifting, working around production equipment, and occasionally assisting with production or warehouse work.
Must be able to lift up to 50 lbs with or without reasonable accommodation.
Forklift experience or willingness to become forklift certified is preferred.
Success in This Role Looks Like
Orders are produced and shipped accurately and on time.
The production team knows what is expected and is held accountable.
The roasting, packaging, fulfillment, delivery, customer service, and accounting handoffs are clear.
The warehouse becomes cleaner, more organized, and more efficient.
SQF implementation moves from “in progress” to audit-ready.
Organic certification and CCOF audit responsibilities are handled with confidence and accuracy.
The Bartelt IM-7 and other packaging equipment are operated reliably and cross-trained over time.
Customer issues are handled professionally and promptly.
Inventory is better controlled, with fewer surprises and fewer stockouts.
The team operates with more structure, better communication, and stronger follow-through.
The CEO is pulled into fewer daily operating decisions.
Ampersand becomes easier to run, easier to scale, and better prepared for its next stage of growth.
Why Join Ampersand
Ampersand is a growing coffee company with a real mission and a real opportunity ahead.
We care about great coffee, responsible sourcing, Fair Trade, organic integrity, regenerative agriculture, and doing business in a way that creates long-term value. We are small enough that your work will matter every day, and large enough that the operating challenges are real and meaningful.
This is not a role where you sit in an office and manage from a distance. It is a hands-on leadership role for someone who likes building systems, solving problems, developing people, improving flow, and helping a growing business become stronger.
The right person will have a major impact on Ampersand’s team, customers, operations, and future.
How to Apply
Please apply through Indeed with your resume and a short note describing your experience managing production, fulfillment, warehouse, food/beverage, manufacturing, or operations teams.
In your note, please also tell us why Ampersand’s focus on Fair Trade, organic, and regenerative organic coffee is meaningful to you.
Pay: $85,000.00 - $105,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
Work Location: In person
