Work & Travel · Seixal, Madeira

A life by the black sand.

Join a small, coffee-first team in Seixal and build a life where volcanic cliffs meet the Atlantic.

The Invitation

Cross an ocean. Stay a while.

Some people spend years imagining a life like this — a black sand beach across the road, ocean light in the windows, mornings that smell of salt and espresso.

OBSIDIAN 17 is a coffee-first cafe-restaurant on Madeira's north coast, in the small village of Seixal. We are a small team, looking for a few more of the right people to make that life their everyday.

The Island

A world of its own.

Madeira rises out of the Atlantic five hundred kilometres from the nearest coast — a volcanic island of sheer green mountains, terraced hillsides, and water everywhere. It belongs to Portugal, and to the European Union: familiar and connected, yet a world of its own.

The climate barely changes. Coastal days sit between seventeen and twenty-five degrees, all year, with no true winter — so the swimming, the walking, and the outdoor life never really stop.

Ancient laurel forest, a relic more than twenty million years old, still covers the high ground. Dolphins and whales move through the deep water offshore. Bananas and vines climb the volcanic soil. You do not visit a place like this. You live inside it.

Seixal's black sand beach beneath volcanic green cliffs on Madeira's north coast

The North Coast

The wilder, quieter coast.

Seixal sits in a green amphitheatre of terraced vineyards and steep cliffs, cupped between the mountains and the sea. The black sand beach is across the road. A few minutes away, the Atlantic fills natural pools carved into black lava rock. Waterfalls spill straight down the cliffs, and the old coast road runs beneath them. Higher up, fog drifts through five-hundred-year-old laurel trees on the plateau. It rains more here than on the sunny south, and the cloud rolls in fast — that is the price of all this green, and most days it is a fair one. This is Madeira's quieter, more dramatic side: the coast people cross the island to find, and the one you would get to call home.

Life Here

The life around the work.

Ocean at the Door

Finish a shift and swim in a natural lava pool the same afternoon. The Atlantic is a walk across the road from the counter.

A Slower Kind of Rich

Life here runs at the speed of the tide, and the cost of living is gentler than most of Western Europe. Less rush, more day.

Known by Name

Seixal is a village of around seven hundred people, where the same faces greet you all year. It is one of the safest, most tight-knit corners of Portugal.

Wild Days Off

Levadas, hidden waterfalls, ancient forest, dolphins in the deep water — all within minutes. Days off here rarely stay indoors.

The Team

Small team. Real craft.

We are small, and it shows in the work. Coffee made with intention. A room kept with care. Nothing here is done on autopilot.

Mornings begin with sea air and the first grind of the day. You pull espresso through the rush, and finish a shift two minutes from the water. This is the work. It is also the life.

You will be held to a real standard, and you will get better for it — learning the craft alongside people who take it seriously and still keep it warm. You will be seen, not processed.

Who We're Looking For

More than a résumé.

Warmth

You put people at ease without trying. A real welcome comes naturally to you.

Craft

You care about the small things — the pour, the plate, the detail most people miss — and you want to keep getting better.

Spirit

You are ready for the leap. A small village on a remote coast sounds like the start of something, not a sacrifice.

The First Step

This could be the start.

Tell us who you are, where you are from, and what pulls you toward a life on Madeira's north coast. A CV helps, but a few honest words matter more.

A practical note — Madeira is part of Portugal and the EU, so citizens of the EU, EEA, and Switzerland can live and work here freely. Applying from further afield? Tell us where you're based, and we'll be honest about what's possible.

Name

Phone

CV / Résumé

PDF, DOC, or DOCX — up to 10 MB.

A Few Words Optional

What pulls you toward Madeira, when you could start, and anything else you'd like us to know.

A real person reads every message — and will write back.