Assistant Manager

Freelance Coffee Project is a single-origin, award-winning coffee company based in Newport Beach, California, looking for an Assistant Manager to run day-to-day operations at our warehouse/café, owning scheduling, ordering, and SOPs while building a team that takes real pride in serving fantastic, Q-grade coffee.

• Build and manage weekly staff schedules, covering call-outs and shift gaps

• Own inventory and ordering (beans, milk, syrups, packaging, retail), tracking pars and avoiding stockouts

• Maintain and enforce SOPs across bar, cleaning, opening/closing, and cash handling; flag gaps and keep docs current as processes evolve

• Run daily floor operations: bar flow, quality control, POS troubleshooting

• Hire, train, and coach baristas on brewing standards, espresso dialing, and customer service

• Lead pre-shift huddles and team meetings; keep morale and communication strong

• Track and report labor and COGS against targets; flag variances early

• Handle customer escalations and ensure a consistently excellent guest experience

• Support wholesale/online order fulfillment as needed

• Act as key holder, handling opening/closing, cash reconciliation, and deposits

• Keep the space itself running beautifully, a warehouse that looks and feels as good as the coffee tastes

• Uphold health/safety and food handling compliance

• 2+ years of management experience, ideally in a café, restaurant, or retail setting

• 2+ years specialty coffee experience, with strong technical knowledge in dialing espresso and brew ratios; familiarity with Q-grading/cupping is a big plus

• Proven ability to build schedules and manage inventory systems

• A natural communicator who builds camaraderie rather than just enforcing rules

• Self-starter who spots problems and fixes them without being told

• Comfortable with POS and inventory software

Real ownership over how the team operates and how the space feels day to day, with room to grow as the business grows.