Join one of the UK's leading bean-to-bar chocolate makers
Full Time, Permanent | 35 hours per week | Monday–Friday, 9am–4pm
Salary: up to £29,500 per year, depending on experience
Paid lunch break | East Lothian, Scotland | Starting September 2026
Help us make some of the world's finest chocolate.
Chocolate Tree is an independent, organic bean-to-bar chocolate maker based in East Lothian, Scotland.
Founded in 2005, we've spent more than twenty years learning our craft, and since 2013 have travelled regularly to cacao-growing regions across South and Central America, building lasting relationships with producers and sourcing exceptional cacao directly from origin.
Back in Scotland, our small team turns those beans into chocolate from scratch – roasting, grinding, refining, tempering and moulding everything in our own factory.
Our chocolates have won numerous International Chocolate Awards, including three Golds in 2026, and today we supply our bars and couvertures to independent retailers, wholesalers, chefs and food businesses across the UK and beyond.
We're proud of what we've built, but we're still a small, hands-on business with plenty of ambition for the future.
We're looking for someone who genuinely connects with what we do – someone who cares about great food, where ingredients come from and the people and landscapes behind them. Our commitment to organic production, direct relationships with cacao producers, quality and sustainability is at the heart of Chocolate Tree, and it's important that the person joining us shares those values and feels proud of the products we make.
As demand continues to grow, we're now looking for an experienced craftsperson to join our production team full time.
You might already be a chocolatier, or you may come from a professional bakery, pastry, confectionery or food production background. We're looking for someone with strong practical skills, a good production mindset and an appetite to learn the rest.
For the right person, we think this is a pretty special chocolate job.
Why we're hiring
Chocolate Tree is growing, and we're looking for another full-time member of our production team to join us for the long term.
Our busiest period runs from September through Christmas, so you'll be joining us at an exciting (and busy!) time, helping us increase capacity, stay ahead of demand and keep production running smoothly.
We've recently invested in new production equipment and increased our capacity, and we're looking for someone who wants to grow with the role, develop their skills and become an important part of the team for years to come.
What you'll be doing
Working alongside our experienced chocolatiers, you'll help produce our complete range of bean-to-bar chocolate, couvertures and speciality products.
Your work will include:
- Tempering chocolate
- Moulding and decorating bars
- Preparing recipes accurately
- Operating commercial chocolate and production equipment
- Packaging finished products
- Maintaining excellent hygiene and food safety standards
- Helping keep production running efficiently and smoothly
- Learning specialist chocolate-making techniques
- Maintaining the high quality standards Chocolate Tree is known for
This is a hands-on production role. Quality matters enormously to us, but so does efficiency: we're looking for someone who understands that great craft and efficient production go hand in hand.
A practical, hands-on role
Chocolate making is physical work. You'll spend much of the day on your feet, working with machinery, moving ingredients and equipment, cleaning down and getting stuck into whatever needs doing.
We're a small production team, so there isn't a division between the interesting jobs and the everyday ones – everyone plays their part in keeping the factory clean, organised and running efficiently.
Who we're looking for
You may already be an experienced chocolatier, or perhaps you're an excellent baker, pastry chef, confectioner or food production professional looking for your next challenge.
Either way, you'll already understand what it means to produce excellent food consistently, efficiently and with pride.
We're looking for someone who:
- Enjoys being busy and takes satisfaction from a productive day's work
- Thrives in a professional production environment
- Enjoys working with their hands
- Is naturally organised and methodical
- Works accurately and pays attention to detail
- Thinks one step ahead
- Notices problems before they become bigger problems
- Solves practical problems calmly and sensibly
- Enjoys routine, consistency and mastering a process
- Works confidently independently while enjoying being part of a small, close-knit team
- Takes ownership of their work
- Cares about the products they make and takes pride in representing Chocolate Tree
- Is open to learning and improving
- Wants somewhere to build a long-term career rather than simply find their next job
What you'll already bring
We're happy to teach our way of making chocolate, but we're looking for someone who already has strong production fundamentals.
Ideally you'll have experience within chocolate, bakery, pastry, confectionery or artisan food production.
You'll also have:
- Professional experience working in a food production environment
- Good food hygiene knowledge and safe working practices
- Confidence following recipes and production specifications accurately
- Good numeracy and confidence with weights, measurements and batch calculations
- Strong attention to detail
- Experience using commercial kitchen or production equipment
- Basic computer skills and confidence using spreadsheets
- Good organisational skills
- An understanding of efficient production workflow
- Basic chocolate knowledge, with tempering experience highly desirable
What we'll teach you
We'll teach you the skills and systems specific to Chocolate Tree, including:
- Bean-to-bar chocolate production
- Our recipes and quality standards
- Chocolate tempering and production techniques
- Specialist processes such as panning
- Our production equipment and systems
- Production planning and workflow
- Working with exceptional cacao from different origins
We're not expecting someone to arrive knowing everything. We're looking for someone with strong foundations, the right mindset and the ability to learn.
What success looks like
After three months
You'll have successfully navigated our busiest production season, learned a huge amount along the way and integrated well into our small team. You'll be confidently contributing to daily production, building good working relationships with your colleagues and showing that we can rely on you to produce careful, consistent work at the pace the role requires.
After twelve months
You'll be able to work independently across most areas of production, understanding our systems and standards and helping keep production organised, accurate and efficient.
After three years
You'll be one of the experienced people within our production team, taking greater ownership and responsibility, helping improve workflow and supporting newer colleagues.
For the right person, there is genuine potential to progress into a more managerial role and become an important part of the long-term future of Chocolate Tree.
This role probably isn't for you if...
We'd rather be upfront about the kind of environment we offer.
This probably isn't the right role if you:
- Aren't genuinely interested in the chocolate we make, where our cacao comes from or the values behind the business
- Don't enjoy structured production work
- Struggle with accuracy or attention to detail
- Become easily distracted or frequently make avoidable mistakes
- Find repetitive processes frustrating
- Prefer constant novelty to mastering a craft
- Don't enjoy working as part of a small team
- Need a lot of supervision to stay organised and productive
- Aren't comfortable working at a good pace while maintaining quality
- See this primarily as a short-term stepping stone
Why join Chocolate Tree?
You'll have the opportunity to:
- Work with some of the world's finest heirloom cacao
- Learn bean-to-bar chocolate making with one of the UK's most experienced craft chocolate companies
- Join a business with more than twenty years of chocolate-making experience and numerous International Chocolate Awards
- Work with cacao sourced through relationships we've built directly with producers and farming communities
- Develop specialist chocolate-making skills
- Work with modern chocolate-making and production equipment
- Be part of a small team where your contribution genuinely matters
- Enjoy Monday–Friday, 9am–4pm working hours, with a paid lunch break
- Build a long-term career with genuine opportunities for increased responsibility as the business grows
Most importantly, you'll spend your days making chocolate we're genuinely proud of.
How to apply
Please send us your CV, together with a short covering letter answering three questions:
- Why does this role at Chocolate Tree interest you?
- What achievement from your previous production work are you most proud of?
- Tell us about a time you spotted a problem or inefficiency at work and what you did about it.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview, with final-stage candidates also invited to a paid practical trial.
We're much more interested in finding the right person than simply filling the position quickly.
If you're excited by craftsmanship, quality, great food and becoming part of a small independent business with ambitious plans for the future, we'd love to hear from you.
FOOD OF THE GODS, BROUGHT DOWN TO EARTH
Pay: £25,420.00-£29,500.00 per year
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Dunbar EH42 1XJ: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Experience:
- chocolate: 1 year (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
