Bakery and Kitchen Lead — ANTHEM Coffee
Position type: Hourly, full-time
Pay range: $20 to $22 per hour, based on experience
Reports to: Matia Long, Director of Operations
Location: Anthem bakery commissary and across our retail locations as needed
Schedule: Pre-dawn starts. Bakery and kitchen production runs early.
================================================================
WHAT ANTHEM IS
We're a multi-unit coffee and bakery operator across the Pacific Northwest. We've been serving our communities for over twenty years. Our tagline is Heroic Hospitality. Our team carries it onto the floor every shift.
We're not a corporate coffee chain. We're a community hub disguised as one. We exist to serve people, build leaders, and run to potential problems before they become real ones. Our 12 guiding values aren't on a poster. They're how we work.
We're scaling the bakery side of our business right now. The retail side has run on systems for two decades. The kitchen and bakery side is finally getting the same treatment, and this role is at the center of that work.
================================================================
WHAT YOU'LL DO
You'll lead bakery and kitchen production for Anthem across all retail locations. The role is 70 percent hands-on production, 30 percent administration. That ratio is intentional. We want a leader who can bake, taste, plate, decorate, and run a station alongside the team, not a manager who sits at a desk.
A TYPICAL WEEK LOOKS LIKE THIS
- 5 hours building and refreshing the weekly production plan from sales history and forecasted volume
- 1.5 hours per day adjusting the day's production based on actual sales and what's moving
- 4 to 5 hours coordinating ordering, vendor communication, and par sheet management
- The rest of the week, working on the line. Producing, decorating, plating, baking, mentoring junior team members.
WHAT YOU'LL OWN
- Production planning across all retail locations, anchored to the par sheet system that's already in place
- Daily production adjustments and shift handoffs
- Ingredient ordering and vendor relationships on the bakery and kitchen side
- Standards on every station: open, run, close
- On-site accountability for the kitchen team. Dress code, timing, quality, professionalism.
- Cross-unit consistency in product and presentation
- The bakery values rollout. Our 12 core values are alive in the cafe. Your job is to make them alive in the kitchen too.
WHAT YOU WON'T OWN (YET)
- The bakery and kitchen P&L. That stays with Matia and Bryan for now. You'll have visibility and input as you grow into it.
- Hiring and termination decisions. You'll participate in interviews. The final call sits with Matia.
- Capital expenditures and equipment purchases. Same.
This isn't because we don't trust you. It's because we want you focused on the production engine for the first six months while you learn our system. As you prove out, more comes your way.
================================================================
WHO YOU ARE
You're a baker and a kitchen operator. Equal parts. We don't expect you to be a specialist in both. We expect you to be dangerous in both. You can run a savory line on a busy Saturday. You can bake a clean pastry shift on a Tuesday. You're not afraid of either.
You've worked in production environments where the day ran whether you were there or not. You know what a real production schedule looks like, and you've worked off one.
You read a P&L well enough to know when something is off in cost of goods or labor. You don't need to be an accountant. You need to be curious about the numbers.
You like systems. You like building them, refining them, and handing them off. You're suspicious of "we've always done it this way," but you also know when not to break what's already working.
You give feedback directly and you receive it the same way. You don't take it personally and you don't deliver it cruelly.
You believe hospitality starts in the kitchen. The team you build will reflect the values our customers feel.
================================================================
WHAT WE'LL GIVE YOU
- $20 to $22 per hour, based on what you bring to the role
- Health benefits (we'll walk through the specifics in the interview)
- Paid time off, accrued from your first day
- Coffee. Lots of coffee.
- A real seat at the table. You'll be in weekly leadership conversations. Your input shapes how the bakery side of Anthem grows.
- A clear runway. Within 12 to 18 months, this role grows into a salaried Assistant Manager position with broader scope and bigger responsibility. We're hiring for someone who wants to build something here, not just take a job.
================================================================
WHAT WE'LL ASK OF YOU IN THE FIRST 90 DAYS
You won't be expected to fix everything. You will be expected to:
- Learn the existing par sheet system from Alyssa and the team. Don't change it in the first 30 days. Watch it run.
- Document what currently lives on the dry erase board into the master par sheet
- Walk every Anthem location at least once. Meet the team in person.
- Build trust with the kitchen team before installing any new standards
- Identify the three biggest production gaps and bring them to me with a recommendation, not a complaint
After 90 days, the bigger system work begins. The first 90 are about earning the right to lead.
================================================================
HOW TO APPLY
Send a resume and a short note on why this role and Anthem specifically. Not why bakery work in general. Why us.
If your note tells us something about how you think, you're already ahead of most candidates.
We interview rolling, not in batches. The right person gets an offer within two weeks of the first conversation.
Email applications to Matia Long: [email protected]
We're a multi-unit Pacific Northwest coffee and bakery operator hiring for our growing kitchen and bakery team. Equal opportunity employer. We hire for fit and skill, not background.
================================================================
WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT
A few things this role is intentionally not, so you can decide if you're the right fit:
- Not a desk job. You'll be on your feet most of the day.
- Not a production-only role. You'll have administrative and leadership responsibilities.
- Not a stepping stone. We want someone who can grow with us, not someone passing through.
- Not a corporate kitchen role. We move fast, decisions stay close to the work, and the team has voice.
Has the ability to work at a minimum of 15 hours a week and a maximum of 38 hours a week. Has the ability to be teachable and a desire to grow.
