Product Developer - Specialty Coffee

Caravela Coffee; Spring (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, and dental insurance

401k match

Generous holiday package

Profit-sharing scheme

Immersive onboarding experience

Job summary

A leading specialty coffee company in Spring, Texas, seeks a sensory expert and market strategist to lead sensory evaluations and align product offerings with customer insights. The role demands over 5 years of specialty coffee experience and expertise in sensory evaluation. Responsibilities include analyzing coffee quality and trends, engaging in market research, and collaborating with commercial teams. The position fosters a hands-on collaborative environment and offers competitive benefits including health insurance, a 401k match, and generous PTO.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of specialty coffee experience.
• Expert-level sensory evaluation and quality assurance.
• Comfortable in a decentralized, autonomous environment.
• Share insights with Origin (PD & QA) to support profile adjustments.
• Analyze market trends and customer behavior to guide strategy.

Responsibilities

• Lead sensory evaluation of coffee samples to assess quality.
• Communicate with customers to understand their coffee preferences.
• Analyze customer behavior and market trends.
• Collaborate with commercial teams on sensory intelligence.
• Analyze market trends and customer behavior to guide strategy.
• Co-create and propose strategic spot offerings with CRM.
• Lead bi-weekly updates to customers on spot availability.
• Design product-led opportunities to drive growth with seasonal selections.

Skills

Sensory evaluation

Strategic communication

Market research

Customer insights analysis

Specialty coffee

Job description

Caravela Coffee is a team of over 200 coffee professionals currently located in 12 different countries, with our own export operations in 7 Latin American countries in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru, and 4 import operations in Australia, North America, Ireland, and the UK. Since 2000, we’ve been on a mission to make specialty coffee as prosperous as it is delicious by facilitating the equitable exchange of green coffee between highly skilled coffee producers in Latin America and high‑quality coffee roasters around the world. To do this, we develop our BETTER COFFEE initiative, based on five main principles: meaningful work, building connections, empowering communities, embracing diversity, responsibility, and sustainability.

What we do

At Caravela Coffee, our work goes beyond buying and selling coffee. We are a collective of coffee experts working to create and deliver as much value for the specialty coffee chain as we can imagine. We connect the most talented coffee growers and the most committed coffee roasters, developing true partnerships that lead to improved quality, prosperity and sustainability for the entire coffee chain.

How we do it

We achieve this by working directly with close to 4 thousand small and medium‑sized coffee farmers in 7 Latin American countries, constantly providing them with education, technical assistance and access to the world's best coffee roasters around the World, paying prosperous prices for their best coffees. The results are a better coffee world. Our partnerships are founded on the principle that coffee farmers deserve more than just fair incomes, by fostering these partnerships, our aim goes beyond boosting coffee farmers' incomes; we also seek to uplift the communities they call home and enhance their quality of life. Simultaneously, we are committed to offering coffee consumers a superior and more sustainable product, showcasing our commitment to mutual growth and prosperity. Our model has been validated as a high‑impact model by BCorp since 2014, being the highest‑rated coffee BCorp in the World. We have been named a 'Best‑For‑the‑World' company by BLabs for five years in a row.

The opportunity

We are looking for a sensory expert and market‑driven strategist who can translate customer insights and coffee quality into a high‑performing product portfolio; a professional with a sharp palate and a strategic mind to lead our sensory evaluation and align our offerings with evolving global market trends.

Responsibilities

Sensory Leadership & Product Evaluation

• Lead sensory evaluation of PSS, Offer, and spot coffees, using cupping as a strategic tool to assess quality, profile consistency, and commercial potential.
• Own the continuous follow‑up of PSS and Offer Samples, maintaining communication with customers to understand preferences, expectations, and decision‑making criteria.
• Analyze sample results and customer feedback to identify opportunities, risks, and emerging needs.
• Ensure continuous information flow to Origin (QA & PD) by sharing structured insights that support profile adjustments, quality improvements, and product relevance.
• Analyze customer behavior, category trends, buying patterns, and sensory preferences to anticipate needs and guide commercial and marketing strategies.
• Conduct market research by evaluating clients’ roasted coffees to understand their product positioning, flavor profiles, and communication approach.
• Translate market learnings into clear, structured insights that inform Origin teams (Product Development & Quality Assurance) and shape the evolution of the portfolio.
• Identify market opportunities and challenges based on data, customer conversations, and sensory cues.
• Co‑create and recommend a strategic spot offering in collaboration with CRM, ensuring alignment with market demand, customer expectations, and commercial priorities.
• Lead recurring (bi‑weekly) customer communication about spot availability, key opportunities, and featured coffees.
• Design product‑led opportunities that respond to customer insights and support commercial growth, including targeted offerings, seasonal selections, and category‑focused spotlights.

Collaboration & Cross‑Functional Enablement

• Act as a strategic partner to CRMs by providing insights that enhance customer interactions, proposals, and commercial decisions.
• Collaborate closely as part of the integrated commercial team, contributing market and sensory intelligence to campaigns, messaging, storytelling, and content creation.
• Work with Origin teams to transfer market insights, share structured feedback, and support product development initiatives aligned with customer and market expectations.
• Ensure alignment across Commercial, Origin, and Marketing teams to maintain a consistent understanding of market needs and opportunities.

This job description is not intended to be all‑inclusive. Team members may perform other related duties to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.

Qualifications

• 5+ Years of Specialty Coffee Experience
• Expert‑level sensory evaluation and quality assurance
• Strategic communication
• Comfortable working in a decentralized, autonomous, and outcomes‑driven environment

Join us in person! This role is based at our Spring (TX) office, 4 days a week, for hands‑on collaboration (and great coffee!)

What we offer

• Immersive onboarding experience
• Access to coffees from Latin America’s finest coffee producers
• Medical, vision, and dental health insurance
• 3.5% 401k match after 6 months
• Generous holiday package (20 days PTO + ALL Federal holidays + a day off on the month of your birthday)
• Eligibility to participate in the Company’s Profit‑Sharing scheme
• The opportunity to have a meaningful and measurable impact on the specialty coffee industry