Barista

COMPANY HEAD BARISTAAugust Café | Mumbai

The RoleThe Company Head Barista is responsible for maintaining and continuously improving beverage quality, coffee standards, barista capability, and beverage innovation across August Café.

This role acts as the technical and training authority for the barista team across all units. The Company Head Barista is responsible for ensuring that every barista understands and follows August Café’s beverage recipes, preparation methods, presentation standards, coffee quality, hygiene practices, and bar operations.

A key part of the role is beverage innovation. The Company Head Barista will identify one relevant and trending beverage every month, develop and standardise the recipe, costing and preparation method, present it for management approval, and once approved, ensure it is introduced properly across the business and communicated through the café blackboard/menu communication.

The role also owns regular barista training, technical audits, calibration, and performance development, ensuring that beverage standards remain consistent across every August Café location.

• Key ResponsibilitiesBeverage Innovation & Monthly SpecialsIdentify one trending beverage every month based on customer preferences, café trends and market relevance.
• Develop the beverage recipe, ingredients, measurements, preparation method and presentation.
• Conduct trials and refine the beverage before presenting it for approval.
• Prepare the final standardised recipe after management approval.
• Ensure the approved monthly beverage is correctly communicated and implemented across all units.
• Work with the relevant team to ensure the beverage is properly represented on the August Café blackboard/menu communication.
• Monitor guest response and team feedback and recommend improvements where required.
• Beverage Standards & Recipe ControlOwn and maintain the company's beverage recipes and preparation standards.
• Ensure all baristas follow the correct recipe, measurements, sequence and presentation.
• Maintain consistency in taste, temperature, texture and appearance across units.
• Review recipes periodically and identify opportunities to improve quality, efficiency or cost.
• Ensure any recipe changes are properly communicated and implemented.
• Barista Training & DevelopmentConduct regular training for Baristas, Unit Baristas and Senior Unit Baristas.
• Train the team on beverage recipes, coffee preparation, espresso extraction, milk texturing, presentation and bar practices.
• Conduct practical demonstrations and hands-on training.
• Identify skill gaps and create focused training plans.
• Support new baristas during their technical development.
• Develop strong Unit Baristas and Senior Unit Baristas who can independently maintain beverage standards at their respective units.
• Maintain training records and track team development.
• Barista Audits & Quality ControlConduct regular barista audits across all August Café units.
• Audit recipe adherence, beverage quality, espresso extraction, presentation, hygiene and bar practices.
• Check whether baristas are following the correct measurements and preparation sequence.
• Identify gaps in technical knowledge and execution.
• Provide immediate coaching and corrective guidance where required.
• Report recurring issues to management and recommend corrective actions.
• Follow up on previous audit findings to ensure improvements have been implemented.
• Coffee & Espresso StandardsMaintain strong knowledge of coffee preparation and espresso extraction.
• Support calibration of grinders and espresso machines across units.
• Ensure baristas understand dose, yield, extraction time, grind adjustment and shot quality.
• Identify under-extraction, over-extraction, channeling and inconsistent espresso shots.
• Train Senior Unit Baristas and Unit Baristas to maintain daily coffee calibration.
• Ensure coffee quality remains consistent throughout service.
• Bar Operations & HygieneEnsure all units follow August Café bar hygiene and food-safety standards.
• Maintain proper cleaning and maintenance practices for coffee machines, grinders and bar equipment.
• Monitor bar organisation, mise en place and equipment readiness.
• Reduce beverage wastage through proper preparation and handling.
• Support teams in maintaining efficient bar workflow during service.
• Team Performance & LeadershipSet clear technical expectations for the barista team.
• Work closely with Unit Managers and Shift Supervisors to address beverage-related performance issues.
• Identify high-potential baristas and support their growth.
• Encourage a culture of learning, discipline and technical excellence.
• Lead by example in coffee knowledge, beverage quality, professionalism and hospitality.
• Who You AreExperience5–8+ years of professional barista/coffee experience.
• Strong experience in specialty coffee, café beverage operations or premium hospitality.
• Proven experience training and developing barista teams.
• Experience working across multiple outlets or locations is preferred.
• Strong understanding of espresso, coffee calibration and beverage development.
• Skills RequiredAdvanced knowledge of coffee and beverage preparation.
• Strong espresso calibration and extraction skills.
• Recipe development and standardisation.
• Beverage costing and portion control.
• Barista training and coaching.
• Quality auditing and performance assessment.
• Strong understanding of bar hygiene and food safety.
• Good communication and leadership skills.
• Ability to identify beverage trends and convert them into commercially viable café beverages.
• MindsetTakes complete ownership of beverage quality across the company.
• High attention to detail.
• Passionate about coffee, beverages and hospitality.
• Naturally curious and interested in new beverage trends.
• Patient and effective when training others.
• Comfortable giving honest feedback and maintaining standards.
• Leads through knowledge, discipline and example.
• Understands that consistency across every August Café unit is the goal.
• What Success Looks LikeBeverage quality is consistent across all August Café units.
• One well-developed and approved trending beverage is introduced every month.
• Monthly beverages are properly standardised, trained and implemented.
• Baristas demonstrate strong knowledge of recipes and preparation methods.
• Regular barista audits are completed with clear follow-up actions.
• Espresso calibration and extraction standards remain consistently high.
• Unit Baristas and Senior Unit Baristas are capable of maintaining beverage standards independently.
• Beverage wastage, recipe deviations and quality complaints are reduced.
• The barista team continuously improves through structured training and coaching.
• August Café develops a strong internal pipeline of technically skilled baristas.

LocationMumbai, Maharashtra

Role may require regular travel between August Café units for training, audits and beverage implementation.

Growth PathSenior Unit Barista → Company Head Barista → Beverage Lead / Coffee Program Manager → Head of Beverage / Beverage Operations Leadership

The Company Head Barista is a key leadership position within August Café’s beverage function. The role provides an opportunity to move from outlet-level technical expertise into company-wide beverage leadership, training, innovation and quality ownership.