In March the UN General Assembly formally designated 1 October as International Coffee Day, so 2026 is the first year it is officially on the UN calendar. The International Coffee Organization’s campaign this year is “Coffee is Part of the Solution,” and the celebration in Geneva runs under the line “Celebrating Coffee, Honouring the People Behind Every Cup.” Coffee supports the livelihoods of around 125 million people. We can’t count all of them, but we can count who is hiring them today.
Farm to cup, by the numbers
As of this morning, 22,770 jobs are live on Career.Coffee. Here they are by stage of the supply chain:
| Stage | Open jobs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Farm & origin | 9 | <0.1% |
| Green coffee, trading & logistics | 47 | 0.2% |
| Roasting & production | 268 | 1.2% |
| Quality control & cupping | 9 | <0.1% |
| Equipment & technical | 80 | 0.4% |
| Education & training | 53 | 0.2% |
| Sales & marketing | 162 | 0.7% |
| Management & operations | 643 | 2.8% |
| Barista & café staff | 21,499 | 94.4% |
The takeaway: the cup end of the chain is where almost all the hiring is: 94 of every 100 open coffee jobs are behind a bar. Further up the chain the roles get rarer and more specialised. Green buying, agronomy, Q-grading and cupping jobs come up a handful at a time, and most are filled through who-you-know rather than a job board. If that is where you want to go, the path usually runs through a roastery: production and QC roles are where baristas learn to cup and grade, and where green buyers get noticed. (Categories are assigned automatically from each listing, so read the small numbers as approximate.)
Where the work is
The top hiring countries today:
| Country | Open jobs |
|---|---|
| United States | 5,371 |
| Germany | 3,717 |
| United Kingdom | 2,049 |
| Netherlands | 1,756 |
| Japan | 1,134 |
| Australia | 743 |
| France | 656 |
| Austria | 606 |
| Canada | 602 |
| Switzerland | 552 |
By city, London leads with 373 open roles, then Amsterdam (253), Hamburg (217), Berlin (173), Munich (123) and Melbourne (110). Chicago (98) and New York (82) are the biggest single-city markets in the US, where hiring is spread across more cities than anywhere else. Germany stands out: four of the top ten cities are German, and Hamburg, the country’s historic coffee port, out-hires Berlin.
Ten roles worth a look today
One from each stage of the chain, all open as of this morning:
- Origin: Coffee Agronomist at Kyagalanyi Coffee (Volcafe), Kampala, Uganda. Field work across Rwenzori and Mt. Elgon with Volcafe’s global coffee research team.
- Sourcing: Director of Coffee at City of Saints Coffee Roasters, Brooklyn (remote-friendly), $60–80K. Sourcing, contracting and logistics.
- Quality: Coffee Quality and Cupping Assistant at Equal Exchange, West Bridgewater, MA, $45–50K. A rare entry-level door into cupping.
- Quality & education: Education & Coffee Quality Manager at elbgold, Hamburg. Owns cupping and training across one of Germany’s best-known specialty roasters.
- Roasting: Roastery Operations Supervisor at Equal Exchange, West Bridgewater, MA, $60–64K.
- Roasting: Production at Bocca Coffee’s roastery, Dronten, Netherlands, 16–40 hours.
- Roasting: Production at Speicherstadt Coffee Roastery, Hamburg, in the old warehouse district.
- Logistics: Logistics & Warehouse Operative at Extract Coffee Roasters, Bristol, £24–26K.
- Equipment: Mobile Espresso Machine Technician at JURA, Montréal. Full-time, on the road.
- Equipment: Field Service Technician at Extract Coffee Roasters, London.
And of course the 21,499 bar jobs. Search them by city, role and pay.
Your turn: how did you get into coffee?
Numbers only tell half of it. The other half is the stories: the first shift, the first cupping, the person who handed you a portafilter or a sample roaster. We’ve opened a thread for International Coffee Day: How did you get into coffee? Tell us where you started and where you are now. It is the most useful thing anyone starting out can read today.
One day on the calendar, 365 in our cups.
International Coffee Organization, International Coffee Day 2026
Data: live job listings on Career.Coffee at the morning of 1 October 2026. Background: International Coffee Organization, FAO Geneva.
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