Coffee Scientist

Welcome to the future of coffee. Cometeer features the best beans from world-class roasters, brewed better through science, and frozen in a peak-state of coffee deliciousness. Delivered in a tiny recyclable capsule, all you have to do is melt it with hot water (or ice water, or oat milk). Think pour over quality, pajama convenience. With a mission to elevate how the world consumes coffee, we recognize that our greatest strength lies in our people. 

At Cometeer, we foster a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and respect, where every team member’s unique perspective and contributions drive our success. We are passionate about building an environment where individuals thrive, innovate, and feel empowered to make an impact. Join us in revolutionizing an industry while celebrating the people who make it all possible.

The Role

Cometeer is the world’s most advanced specialty coffee company, and we are looking for a passionate and experienced coffee scientist to help us further refine our extraction process. By joining our team as our Coffee Scientist, you will be responsible for leading and supporting key coffee R&D initiatives with Engineering and Operations to test, design, improve, and optimize our coffee brewing process. You will also characterize existing processes and configure manufacturing systems to reduce cost, improve performance, develop best practices within the production process and work to make coffee better everyday.

This role has the unique opportunity to use the most advanced coffee extraction equipment on earth, including an industrial grade roller mill coffee grinder, a laser particle analyzer, a custom water chemistry system, and our proprietary coffee extractors. You will join a fast-paced environment that allows for continuous personal and career growth in the process of developing and enhancing one-of-a-kind products and machines.

What You Will Do:

• Operate as the core knowledge owner of coffee and extraction processes, and their impact to product quality
• Design and execute coffee extraction experiments at scale, focused on improving key sensory and operational outputs
• Identify gaps within current production process and owning/delivering change for improvement 
• Observe equipment used in the manufacturing process and characterize process capability and the underlying effects
• Partner with cross-functional teams including operations, engineering, supply chain/coffee quality, and safety to develop cost effective solutions that streamline and standardize processes and drive economies of scale
• Lead R&D projects from concept through scale-up of new ingredients, products or technologies
• Investigate product quality issues, including consumer complaints, and prepare subsequent after-action review to reduce recurrence
• Build business cases for new products, technologies, or changes within existing framework
• Gather and examine product data, including customer feedback and sensory results, for analysis to build or refine product specifications
• Provide regular status updates with all stakeholders, keeping the stakeholder’s needs and requirements continuously in view
• Engage with industry trends and leverage new technology into design standards
• Establish clear ownership for project tasks and a clear schedule for when each task will be performed
• Develop and execute comprehensive test plans for equipment and process improvements
• Work Cross-Functionally with Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, and other teams to continuously improve our quality and efficiency 

What We Are Looking

• Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science, Process Engineering, Chemistry or applicable experience
• Background in academic or commercial research and development, including in design of experiments and publishing results
• Familiarity with Good Manufacturing Process (GMP)
• Comfortable integrating new ideas, technology and processes into an existing business environment 
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Project management experience
• Must have the ability to effectively communicate with cross functional business partners 

Preferred:

• 3+ years of experience in a similar role
• Deep understanding of specialty coffee brewing processes, including the roles of fines migration, water chemistry, and volatility in extraction yield and flavor characteristics
• Related work experience in a beverage or food manufacturing environment
• Experience in data analysis to build product specifications
• Proficient in Google GSuite data tools and ability to work with data to generate periodic reports as needed 

Cometeer is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and everyone is encouraged to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, national origin, protected veteran status, age, or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state, or local law.