WineTalent Classifieds: Winery Cost Accountant in Napa, CA

WineTalent is working with our client, Nakedwines.com, to find a Cost Accountant to join their team in Napa.

About Nakedwines.com:  Nakedwines.com is creating a community of wine drinkers and winemakers who are changing the wine world for the better.  Nakedwines.com customers support talented, independent winemakers across the USA and the world, in return for access to exclusive handcrafted wines at amazing prices. Because they fund winemakers upfront, Nakedwines.com can remove a huge chunk of the costs that would usually be passed back to the customer.

Nakedwines.com started in the UK in 2008 and by 2012 Naked Wines launched in the US and later in Australia.  The US business recently celebrated its 5^th anniversary and is delivering profits along with significant growth.  In Napa, Nakedwines.com has a marketing, operations, finance and customer service team approaching 100 people, and a production site in Kenwood.  WineTalent is searching for someone to improve the wine cost accounting processes to support the fast growth of sales.

Come be a part of a culture of fun, hard-working people in a laid-back environment where employees come to work in flip flops and jeans.  All of NakedWines.com’s staff members are very friendly and helpful, so before long you will be coming to work with your friends.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

We are looking for an experienced wine Cost Accountant for NakedWines.com US business to help the company reach its fullest potential.  This position will report to the Controller and support the following activities:

• Design and implement best-in-class controls to improve cost accounting methods and procedures.
• Reconcile monthly inventory of bulk wine, cased goods, and packaging materials to ensure that inventory value is accurately reflected on financial reports.
• Compile and produce summary reports related to winery spend and monthly costs.
• Drive business performance through insightful analysis of inventory and COGS.
•  Work closely with Controller on annual audit and lead inventory and cost accounting areas.
•  Work across various departments both locally and globally to implement group standard tools, systems and processes.
• Provide analysis support for various business driven projects as needs evolve.

Candidates who connect through positive and respectful interaction and create extraordinary experiences, solutions and ideas will be at the top of the list. 

QUALIFICATIONS

• Four-year degree in Accounting or Finance; CPA preferred.
• 3 – 5 years of cost accounting experience desired; previous wine industry experience preferred.
•  Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel.
• Highly organized with acute attention to detail and high level of integrity.
• Ability to take initiative and work collaboratively within company guidelines.
• Passion for continuous process improvement.

     COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

• Health and Dental Insurance
• Retirement Plan
• Paid Holidays, vacation, and sick time
• Monthly gym contribution
• Wine allowance
•  Compensation - Dependent on experience and qualifications

HOW TO APPLY

Email resumes to amy@winetalent.net. All inquiries will be kept strictly confidential.  Applicants will also be required to take an online assessment. 

WineTalent Classifieds: Estate Relations for ADAMVS on Howell Mountain

WineTalent is working with our client, ADAMVS, to find an experienced hospitality professional to lead the estate relations role at the winery on Howell Mountain in Angwin, CA. 

About ADAMVS:
Among the great hillside and mountain-grown Cabernet Sauvignons of the New World, Howell Mountain is legendary for the profound structure and sophistication of its wines. It is an area so unique that it became the first sub-appellation designated entirely within Napa Valley. Located on the high slopes of Howell Mountain, ADAMVS is dedicated to honoring this renowned terroir and crafting timeless mountain-grown Cabernet Sauvignon.

The proprietors discovered the idyllic property that would become ADAMVS in 2008. In its mosaic of five vineyard sites, iron-rich red soils, ideal elevation and diversity of vineyard exposures, they saw the perfect convergence of geology and geography. To realize the promise of ADAMVS, and the goal of establishing a new benchmark for excellence on Howell Mountain, they gathered together a small team of the industry's finest and most passionate individuals, including Philippe Melka and Mike Wolf to cultivate the mountainside vineyard organically and biodynamically and forge personal relationships with each partner, member and connoisseur who has embarked on this journey.

Estate Relations
The Estate Relations candidate would ideally have a breadth of experience in hospitality, member relations, allocation management, and event planning that will immediately inspire the confidence of the team. We seek a professional who has a service heart, gracious, mature, and an outstanding background in authentic, personalized, high touch hospitality experiences and member relations.

Responsibilities:

• Provide guests an intimate experience at the winery, including a guided tour of the property and a seated tasting of the estate’s wines. 
• Establishing and managing business relationships with luxury partners.
• Booking tours and tastings.
• Management of wine allocations and mailing list.
• Fulfillment of orders.
• Relationship development and management of VIP clients.
• Excellent attention to detail in all business dealings including site preparation, guest tours, correspondence, communications with guests and periodic post-visit follow-up. 

Qualifications:

• A true appreciation and understanding of fine wine with a global perspective on wine, food and hospitality.
• Past management of the hospitality experience at an ultra-premium winery including order fulfillment.
• Experience in managing a highly curated mailing list and hosting those guests on-site.
• Strong business partner relationships within the Napa Valley and within the wine, food and hospitality industry.
• Ability to work independently and be self-motivated and self-managed.
• Good teamwork skills and a desire to work with the entire organization in a collaborative and productive manner.
• Poise and grace with a true love of terroir, agriculture, enology and hospitality. 
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, hospitality, communications or related discipline. 
• An appreciation of arts, culture, travel, language and related areas is highly desirable. 

All applicants and inquiries will be treated with the utmost confidentiality.  Interested candidates are encouraged to email a resume to amy@winetalent.net.  

Winejobs News: Hiring Increases in June 2017

Good news for job seekers:  Wineries increased job postings in the last month.  Winejobs.com just stated that they had a 1% increase in postings from June 2016 to June 2017 and up 6% year-to-date.

Harvest positions continue to get good advertising with a 13% increase in postings year-to-date.  Winemaking postings were up 6% from June 2016 and 18% year-to-date.  Sales and marketing had a slight increase while DTC and related positions decreased by 2% from June 2016 but are up 2% year-to-date.





For more information about winejobs.com, please visit www.winejobs.com.

George Anders' June Newsletter on College, Careers and the Future of Work

George Anders is putting together a new book, You Can Do Anything:  The Surprising Power of a 'Useless" Liberal Arts Education.  He just sent out his June Newsletter which contains great information about job-market dynamics, the value of a college degree and related topics.  Take a look at it, and feel free to subscribe to it yourself.  Click here for the link to George's website and to sign up for the newsletter.   

June Newsletter:
Welcome to June’s edition of this newsletter about college, careers, and the future of work. In this issue, I’m looking at the rise of robots and software, with a focus on what humans can do to stay ahead. I’m also giving away five advance copies of my new book, You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Education. (See the final section for details.)
 
Everyone’s Destiny in a Single Chart

The latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek includes a brilliant chart spanning nearly 700 careers – from marriage therapists to carpet installers. For each one, Oxford University researchers have calculated the 20-year odds of automation-related job loss. It’s an interactive marvel. Scroll down to the fourth chart in the article and let your mouse hover over various yellow, green and red circles to see what’s deemed safe and what isn’t.

This vision of the future taps into two big insights: one familiar, the other startling.

First: the best safeguard against automation is a college degree. The college-honed skills of a lawyer or even a fundraising specialist will be hard to duplicate with software or robots. It’s a different story, however for office clerks or restaurant employees. Such work, for now, is available to anyone with a high school degree. As we all know, however, software and machines keep making inroads where tasks are simple, repetitive and predictable.

Now comes the surprise. Some high-paying jobs that cater to college grads look vulnerable, too. Prime examples include bank-lending officers and the most routine aspects of computer programming. The safest jobs, according to Oxford researchers Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, involve a high level of originality and an intense “service orientation.” That’s good news for ambitious executives and brainy software developers. Refreshingly, it’s a boon, too, for social workers, writers, teachers, doctors, nurses and physical therapists.
 
Is Anyone Lecturing About This?

The answer is yes. MIT economist David Autor is an especially astute voice; this link takes you to his popular 2016 TEDx talk about job-market dynamics. Silicon Valley eminence Jerry Kaplan shares plenty of insights from his recent book, Humans Need Not Apply, in this talk. And I’m getting in the game as well.

Earlier this month, I traveled to Denver to discuss “Work’s Provocative Future” with trustees of a leading liberal-arts college. In September, I’ll be delivering an updated version of this talk at Claremont McKenna College, in southern California. If you’re interested in seeing a preview of my key slides on the topic, you can find them at this Slideshare link. I’m convinced that creativity, curiosity and empathy can sustain good jobs in areas that the machines can’t touch. If that’s a perspective that interests you, we should connect!
 
Making Foreign-Language Expertise Pay Off

Each issue of this newsletter focuses on new trends for particular college majors. This month, the spotlight is on degrees in French, Japanese, and other languages. As this recent piece on Forbes.com attests, language majors are benefiting from the boom in localization, as companies of all sizes scramble to recast English-language content for diverse markets world-wide.

Think bigger than the mechanics of line-by-line translation. That’s partially automated already, and it’s a favorite target of machine-learning. What’s crucial is human oversight, starting with recruiting teams of translators and making sure the work is parceled out appropriately. Someone also needs to referee difficult calls about everything from profanity to local color taboos. These are high-impact, high-paying managerial jobs. They call for people who can work well in cultures both familiar and unfamiliar. Language degrees can be the winning ticket. At Brigham Young University, localization has become the college of humanities’ fastest growing minor.

Share This Newsletter; Win a Book

Newsletters are meant to be shared, and this one is no exception. Many of you have forwarded earlier editions to dozens of your friends, relatives and business colleagues. I appreciate the support! In fact, I’d like to do more to recognize this community’s most active sharers.

While You Can Do Anything is still a few weeks away from its bookstore debut, we’ve got a limited number of bound galleys that amount to a full paperback preview. (These galleys traditionally go to book-review editors, broadcast producers and the like, ahead of formal publication.)

If you’d like an early copy, free, all you need to do is be generous with your sharing. I’ll look at the email analytics a week from now, with the goal of sending free galleys to the five newsletter readers who are the most active sharers. Or if you'd rather be sure of getting a hardcover or e-book as soon as YCDA goes on sale (Aug. 8), simply click on the cover image to the right to place a pre-order. The book just became Amazon's No. 1 new release in its Career Development Counseling category, which is exciting news! .
 
Yours,