Aukse Buganauskaite
Chicago,IL
Summary
I discovered my love for coffee two weeks into becoming a barista at Starbucks. What was meant to be a part time job while in college, turned into a full time career. From there, I was hungry to learn everything there is about coffee. Soon enough, I became a shift supervisor, a coffee master, and even conducted coffee research for my undergraduate degree.
After 4.5 years in retail, I transitioned to manufacturing where I helped open the world's largest Starbucks Reserve Roastery as an artisanal coffee roaster. I specialize in the science of coffee roasting and green coffee formulating.
I'm currently working on product development within coffee brands at Kraft Heinz such as Maxwell House, IHOP, Gevalia, Ethical Bean and more.
I enjoy being challenged in my role and I'm a firm believer that opportunity for growth within the company is vital for success.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Associate Scientist - Product Development
KraftHeinz
06.2022 - Current
- R&D technical leadership role, providing direction for and execution for coffee
- Lead product development for IHOP Cold Foam Iced Latte (3 SKUs) and Maxwell House Iced Latte with Foam (3 SKUs) in under a year.
- Scope and/or execute technical projects to meet business initiatives focused on innovation, quality improvement, and value engineering.
- Proven record of executing work plans and driving for results. This includes basic understanding of the business need, designing and executing tests, analyzing data, drawing conclusions, documenting, communicating results, and commercializing products.
- Proven communication and teamwork skills, which operate in a cross-functional environment.
- Strong technical background, able to apply prior learning or scientific principles to new situations
- Manage multiple assignments/ tasks concurrently and demonstrate the ability complete work with minimal guidance
- Exhibit a collaborative mindset and apply innovative solutions under extremely tight timelines.
- Manager of the coffee lab
Advanced Coffee Roasting Systems Operator
Starbucks Coffee Company
05.2019 - 06.2022
- Roasted coffee at the Reserve Roastery according to Starbucks standards, ensuring product quality and safety through adherence to GMP and HACCP guidelines.
- Experience working with commercial quantities
- Exposure to green coffee quality (QC, sourcing, roasting, cupping)
- Educated people on coffee’s journey from bean to cup, hosted sensory tastings, gave tours.
- Supplied the café with coffee based on business needs, ensuring coffee served in the space is at its peak freshness.
- Review OSHA regulations as part of safety committee.
- Identified food quality hazards in the manufacturing space, ran audits, and improved mass sanitation system.
- As head of the quality committee, I monitored and documented quality measures using analytical tools, calibrated equipment, performed maintenance, wrote standard operations procedure (SOP) protocols, manage green coffee inventory.
- Quality Study: Participated in a color range project for roasted coffee and worked closely with corporate using data to identify sources of variance in our measurement systems.
Shift Supervisor
Starbucks Coffee Company
10.2015 - 02.2019
- Was an integral part of the team which helped open the most successful reserve bar in the United States.
- Delegated tasks and/or coordinating the tasks for 20+employees.
- Won district level barista championship of 2018. As a result, I elevated the quality of beverages at my store.
- Met store operating policies and standards, including providing quality beverages and food products, cash handling and store safety and security.
- Prepared and coached the preparation of food and beverages to standard recipes or customized for customers, including recipe changes such as temperature, quantity of ingredients or substituted ingredients
Barista
Starbucks Coffee Company
06.2014 - 02.2015
- Delivered legendary customer service to all customers by acting with a customer comes first attitude and connecting with the customer. Discovered and responded to customer needs.
- Provided quality beverages, whole bean, and food products consistently for all customers by adhering to all recipe and presentation standards. Followed health, safety and sanitation guidelines for all products.
- Coached new employees as a barista trainer on store standards
- Shared coffee passion via tastings and seminars as a coffee master
Education
Bachelor of Science - Biochemistry
North Central College
Naperville, IL04.2019
Skills
- Coffee Tasting/Sensory
- Coffee Roasting
- Green Coffee Formulating
- Research & Development
- Commercialization of CPG
- Critical thinking
- Excellent Customer Service
- Strong Organizational Skills
- Excellent communication, verbal and written
- Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)
Certification
Licensed Q Arabica Grader
Languages
English
Native or Bilingual
Lithuanian
Native or Bilingual
Accomplishments
- Helped open the world's largest Starbucks as an artisanal coffee roaster on iconic Magnificent Mile in the heart of Chicago, USA (The Chicago Reserve Roastery).
- Developed biggest coffee innovation to date for Kraft Heinz in just 8 months (the projection was initially a full year) with 6 SKUs under IHOP and Maxwell House brands ($30MM NSV)
- Won a regional coffee creation competition for Starbucks and was invited for an internship at their head office in Seattle
Timeline
Associate Scientist - Product Development
KraftHeinz
06.2022 - Current
Advanced Coffee Roasting Systems Operator
Starbucks Coffee Company
05.2019 - 06.2022
Shift Supervisor
Starbucks Coffee Company
10.2015 - 02.2019
Barista
Starbucks Coffee Company
06.2014 - 02.2015
Bachelor of Science - Biochemistry
North Central College