Careers

City

Description

The Virginia Distillery Co., a single malt whisky distillery located half an hour south of Charlottesville, Virginia, is seeking a Guest Experience Manager.

It’s a very exciting time to join our fast-paced team where you’ll have the opportunity to wear many hats, work within a passionate close-knit group, and support our rapid national expansion. We work hard to bring our category-defining American Single Malt Whisky to market. Our distilling operations started in November of 2015, and 2020 marked the first year we launched our own flagship whisky brand, Courage & Conviction. We are data driven. We think big. We stay positive. And we have fun (there’s really good whisky).

The person in this position will supervise the day-to-day operations of the Visitors Center, maintaining excellent guest experiences and operational efficiency while building and expanding on company goals through strategy development and execution of direct-to-consumer and private event programs with focused attention on brand experience and revenue generation. This position will be responsible for all Visitors Center part-time employee activities, consumer programming and local marketing support for hospitality and tourism items. This position is full-time, Thursday through Monday. The ideal candidates will have had experience managing a tasting room or tour program focused on a by reservation model. Daily access to the distillery in central Virginia is required.

Specific Responsibilities:

• Manage Visitors Center guest experience and operations. Support vision for world-class brand experience through execution of on-site consumer activities.
• Manage revenue, goal and budget tracking for all Visitors Center operations and programs.
• Develop and implement consumer programming, including specialty tours, tastings, private events programs, and club programming to maximize revenue. Utilize assigned revenue and operations expense targets. Tour content and training will be led by the Education Manager.
• Lead local Virginia tourism and hospitality outreach to develop partnerships with complementary businesses.
• New hire recruitment and coordination of training with Education Manager support for all consumer-facing team members.
• Responsible for employee scheduling, payroll reporting, tip reporting and other items related to managing Visitors Center part-time employees. Ensuring the accurate reporting of employee hours.
• Prep Visitors Center for daily opening and closing, including whisky bottle tracking, cash drawer preparations, and banking deposits. Managing whisky inventory includes internal whisky transfers to and from Visitors Center.
• Maintain supplies; work with team to manage orders as needed.
• Ensure delegation and maintenance of cleaning schedules, including equipment maintenance schedules and cleanliness of all active and storage spaces. Communicate maintenance and general items to Site and Facilities team for repair. 
• Run and review reports on weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis to share with Management.
• Lead Virginia ABC compliance standards and overall best practices for all operational items.
• Expert on Microsoft Office applications and retail systems such as Shopify and POS.
• Awareness and adherence to company goals. Act as communicator of goals to part time Visitors Center staff and assist linking part-time staff to larger team staff through culture development.
• Willingness to work evenings, weekends, and holidays.
• Lead efforts to create a positive, passionate, and knowledgeable team in support of positive guest and employee experiences.

Qualifications and Desired Experience:

A bachelor’s degree in marketing, hospitality or a related field is required. Experience may substitute for education at the discretion of the hiring manager. 

• Demonstrated excellence and experience in club management or similar direct-to-consumer programs is required alongside marketing of these experiences; three or more years of experience is ideal.
• Experience managing staff for at least three years is required; experience in hospitality and the spirits, wine or beer industry is required.
• Experience tending bar or with mixology is preferred as well as knowledge of and passion for whisky.
• Ability to stand for continuous periods throughout the day. Ability to lift 30 lbs.
• A people-person who understands and can support the pursuit of a world-class guest experience.

Compensation

This is a salaried full-time position with benefits and is eligible for participation in our bonus and Employee Equity Program. This role reports to our Visitors Center in Lovingston, VA Thursday through Monday.

Pay range for this position is $45,000 - $60,000 based on experience

Please send a cover letter and resume to careers@vadistillery.com to apply.

City

Description

The Virginia Distillery Co., an American Single Malt Whisky distillery located half an hour south of Charlottesville, VA, is seeking a Bottling Operations Manager. This supports our Production Team and will strive to achieve our relentless pursuit of operations excellence.

It is a very exciting time to join our fast-paced team where you will have the opportunity to wear many hats, work within a passionate close-knit group, and support our rapid national expansion. We work hard to bring our category-defining American Single Malt Whisky to market. Our distilling operations started in November of 2015, and 2020 marked the year we launched our own grain-to-glass flagship whisky brand, Courage & Conviction. We are data driven. We think big. We stay positive. And we have fun (there’s really good whisky).

Key Responsibilities

• Planning, assigning, training and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding, coaching, and motivating employees; resolving conflict, and solving problems.
• Foster a culture of Continuous Improvement to identify and implement opportunities for improvement. Elevate new ideas (both your own and those of the team) and execute plans to positively impact the bottling operations and goals.
• Embrace change and operations transformation for achieving finished goods supply readiness and supporting rapid sales growth.
• Ensure compliance with established standards of food quality & safety and employee safety.
• Coordinate staffing assignments on a daily basis in coherence with budgeted staffing  
• Input compliance and operations data into Whiskey Systems and fill out daily production records and metrics tracking sheets.
• Maintain exceedingly high standards of cleanliness and organization, enforcing visual management principles (5S).
• Collaborate with the Supply Chain Solutions Manager to support bottling schedule changes.
• Willingness to cross-train in the other functional areas such as Distilling and Caskhouse operations.
• Operate material handling equipment including a forklift as required.
• Regular and predictable attendance at the work site, this role requires regular presence at the distillery production facilities. Some nights and weekends may be required.
• This role requires lifting up to 50 lbs. 

Qualifications & Desired Experience

• Self-motivated and operates with a great sense of urgency and ability to drive progress towards company goals.
• Excellent people and leadership skills
• Strong change management skills, driving and implementing change to optimize the business focusing on safety, quality and efficiency
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Problem solving and decision-making abilities
• Ability to work with and relate to all levels of personnel
• Ability to read/interpret production performance reports
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in manufacturing or in a high-speed, complex environment required, including machine operations, machine changeovers, start-up, shut-down, package quality, OSHA standards and 5S.
• Mechanical aptitude and ability to troubleshoot processing and packaging equipment such as motors, pumps, fillers, labelling machines, and conveying systems.
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite required
• Minimum of 2 years in a supervisory capacity preferred
• Food manufacturing or beverage alcohol production experience preferred
• Knowledge of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB) compliance preferred.

City

Description

Distillery Associate - Seasonal

The Virginia Distillery Co., an American Single Malt Whisky distillery located half an hour south of Charlottesville, VA, is seeking a Distillery Associate. This supports our Production Team and will strive to achieve our relentless pursuit of operations excellence.

It is a very exciting time to join our fast-paced team where you will have the opportunity to wear many hats, work within a passionate close-knit group, and support our rapid national expansion. We work hard to bring our category-defining American Single Malt Whisky to market. Our distilling operations started in November of 2015, and 2020 marked the year we launched our flagship whisky brand, Courage & Conviction. We are data driven. We think big. We stay positive. And we have fun (there’s really good whisky).

Key Responsibilities

• Maintaining the highest degree of safety with responsibility for yourself and fellow team members
• Ability to work flexible hours. Shifts rotate Monday – Friday between: 5:00AM-1:00PM (AM Shift), 8:00AM-3:00PM (Day Shift), and 1:00PM-8:00PM (PM Shift). Some weekends and holidays are required on an as-needed basis.
• Support production team in daily distilling, cellar, and/or bottling operations
  • Distilling operations include (but not limited to) milling, mashing, distilling, cask filling and handling
  • Cellar operations include (but are not limited to) cask movement, spirit reductions, and warehouse logistics
  • Bottling operations include (but are not limited to) rinsing, filling, corking, labeling, packing, and other assembly needs
• Maintain meticulous records for all processes, operations, and compliance purposes
• Maintain high standards of quality for production of spirits, casks, and finished goods, including performing routine and ad-hoc quality checks
• Cleaning of all distillery, bottling, production, and common areas – we take our food beverage production facility cleanliness seriously!

Qualifications & Desired Experience

• Applicant must be dependable, reliable, have track record of on-time attendance, professional, and comfortable working in various indoor / outdoor conditions.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Forklift truck operation
• Proficiency with computers and applications such as the Microsoft Office suite
• Prior experience in production or manufacturing operations, and the use of both general and process-specific tools and equipment
• Self-motivated and operates with a sense of urgency
• Great ability to communicate and work well in a team-based highlight collaborative environment. Communication is a core competency of this role!
• Attention to detail and accuracy, precision, and timeliness
• Open-minded and positive thinker
• A high school diploma, associate or bachelor’s degree and 1+experience in food beverage manufacturing
• Manufacturing and/or spirits, beer, or wine industry operations experience
• At times, this role requires the ability to lift up to 40 lbs., standing for extended periods of time, work from heights and in confined spaces, with variable temperatures including heat during the warmer seasons.

Compensation

Job Type: Seasonal, Part-Time

Pay: $13.00 - $15.00 per hour based on experience

Seasonal employees are not guaranteed 40 hours of work per week, every week and are generally limited to working hours during the period of January – June and September – December with a potential for further part-time or full-time work.

City

Description

Job Summary

Virginia Distillery Company, an American Single Malt Whisky distillery based in Lovingston, Virginia, is seeking Whisky Attachés who can help support events & store tastings.

Position Summary:

Virginia Distillery Company is seeking highly interested individuals who want to learn about the growing spirits industry in Virginia and beyond, who enjoy interacting with the public in support of brand development.

The core responsibilities will include conducting tastings at stores and consumer events in the local area. Whisky Attaches will be tasked with driving brand awareness, product education and product sales through these activities.

A full training program and continuous education would be provided to ensure Whisky Attachés are fully engaged in the activities at the distillery and can speak accurately and passionately about the company and the brand.

The scheduling will be flexible, but focused mainly on evening and weekend events. This would be on an as-needed basis, with no minimum guarantee of available hours per week.

The ability to lift 40 lbs and stand continuously for hours at a time are required. Preferred background includes people with customer service, theater, adult beverage, brand and marketing experience. Must be friendly, outgoing and excited about interacting with a variety of people in support of educating consumers on Virginia Distillery Company products.

Requirements:

• 21+
• Outgoing and Engaging
• Articulate and Goal Oriented
• Dependable, Reliable, On-time and Professional at all times
• Sales experience preferred
• Experience in the spirits industry is preferred – a love for whisky a definite plus!

The locations available for the Whisky Attaché positions are in the following locations:

• New York, NY
• White Plains, NY
• Boston, MA
• Hartford, CT
• Fairfield, CT
• St. Louis, MO
• Kansas City, MO
• Chicago, IL
• Memphis, TN
• Detroit, MI
• Farmington, MI
• Lynchburg, VA
• Northern VA
• Virginia Beach, VA
• Montgomery County, MD
• Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Jacksonville, FL

To apply, email your cover letter and resume to jessica@vadistillery.com and mention the location you're interested in applying for.