Location: socialbar, Saxmundham High Street, IP17 1DF
Start: Immediate
Hours: approx. 27.5 hours per week
Pay: £13–£15 per hour, depending on experience, with pay reviewed as the business grows and the role develops
We are open to this being either an employed role or a freelance arrangement where you invoice us, depending on experience, availability and how the working relationship is structured.
Typical shifts
This role is primarily for evening pizza service for Back Yard Pizza.
Current Shifts:
- Thursday evening: 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
- Friday evening: 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
- Saturday evening: 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
From late July / beginning of August, hours will likely increase to:
- Wednesday evening: 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
- Thursday evening: 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
- Friday evening: 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
- Saturday afternoon & evening: 11:30 am – 4:00 pm & 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
- Sunday afternoon: 11:30 am – 4:30 pm
Total: Approx. 27.5 hours per week.
Looking for more hours? If you prefer a fuller schedule, there are excellent opportunities to pick up additional shifts at our sister site—a countryside pub in Laxfield (around a 20-minute drive from Saxmundham).
About Us
Back Yard Pizza currently operates from socialbar, an independent café-wine-bar on Saxmundham High Street. We run a fast-paced evening service, crafting delicious hand-stretched pizzas using high-quality frozen-to-thawed pizza pucks, cooked to perfection in a top-level Gozney oven hitting 500°C.
We are expanding! In addition to socialbar, this role will service our soon-to-open sister site just across the street, tap.social. As we scale, this role features exciting growth potential.
We’re a small, close-knit team where communication and pulling together are everything. If you enjoy a workplace where people take ownership and pitch in to make things run smoothly, you’ll fit right in.
The Role
While the core of the role is managing the evening and daytime pizza service, we are looking for someone with a genuine creative flair. We want to expand our current pizza menu with innovative new toppings and introduce a curated selection of small plates to complement our pizzas (for example, a simple, well-executed pasta recipe or light sides).
Key Responsibilities
During Evening Service:
- Pizza Execution: Stretching, topping, and cooking wheat and gluten-free pizzas using our Gozney oven.
- Menu Collaboration: Bringing creative input to the table to develop new pizza toppings and complementary small plates/pastas.
- Service Management: Keeping the pizza line organised, clean, well-paced, and managing dough, prep, and oven timings.
- Communication: Working seamlessly with front-of-house to manage order pacing and expectations.
Kitchen Operations:
- Keeping the kitchen organised, clean, and running smoothly.
- Managing prep, stock rotation, and basic kitchen needs.
- Clearing and washing dishes as part of a small, hands-on team.
- Opening and closing the kitchen in a clean, orderly way.
- Maintaining strict food hygiene practices and Environmental Health standards.
What We Are Looking For
- Creative Instincts: A passion for food and the creative flair to suggest, test and implement new toppings and small plates.
- Kitchen Experience: Previous experience in a kitchen setting (café, restaurant, deli, bakery, pub, or hotel). Pizza experience is ideal, but solid cooking experience, a quick mind, and calm under pressure are just as valuable.
- Quality Driven: A great eye and palate for fresh, quality-led food, ensuring consistency, balance, and beautiful presentation.
- Independence & Reliability: Punctual, reliable, and capable of following recipes and kitchen systems without needing constant direction.
- Team Player: A warm, steady temperament suitable for a close-knit team. Excellent communication skills (we coordinate daily through WhatsApp).
- Logistics: Ideally based in or near Saxmundham for an easy commute. Applicants must be 18 or over, as shifts will include keyholding responsibilities.
What We Offer
- £13.00–£15.00 per hour (depending on experience), with pay reviews as the business grows.
- A share of staff tips.
- Growth Potential: The opportunity to shape the menu, grow with the business across socialbar and tap.social, and potentially move into a larger site in the future.
- 28 days’ holiday pro rata (if employed).
- Pension with employer contribution (subject to eligibility, if employed).
- Employee Assistance Programme with wellbeing support and retail discounts.
- Free and discounted food and drink on shift.
- Relevant training, including specific pizza service and kitchen systems.
- Free company events.
- A comfortable working environment equipped with heating and air-conditioning.
Next Steps
We usually start with a short video call to introduce ourselves, followed by an in-person meeting if it feels like a good fit. For the right person, there is plenty of room to shape this role around your existing culinary strengths and creative ambitions! And if you can only work some shifts, speak to us!
Pay: £13.00-£15.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
Application question(s):
- Pizza service can be fast, hot and unforgiving: dough, toppings, timing, oven temperature and communication all matter. What do you think makes someone good at this kind of service?
- You would be covering shifts around another daytime chef who is in most of the week. What would your end-of-shift handover look like so they can come back into a kitchen that is properly labelled, organised, clean and ready to use? Include the specific checks you would do before leaving.
Experience:
- Cooking: 1 year (required)
Work Location: In person
