Senior Risk Analyst – Physical Energy Trading

London | Permanent | On-site

Physical Energy / Refined Products / Biofuels

We are working with an established and entrepreneurial energy trading business to appoint aSenior Risk Analyst into its London-based trading risk team.

This is not a conventional market risk role centred around VaR, limits and established risk systems. It is ahands-on physical commodity role , sitting close to the trading business and focused on understanding the positions, exposures and P&L generated by real physical transactions.

The business is looking for someone who can takegenuine ownership of a trading book , initially with a particular focus ongasoline , while also providing senior support across a team whose major areas includedistillates and ethanol/biofuels .

The environment is deliberately different from the highly automated product-control functions found within the largest oil majors. Systems and processes continue to evolve, meaning the successful individual needs to be comfortable getting underneath a trade rather than relying on a system to

provide the answer.

Given a contract, its pricing terms and the relevant market data, you should be able to work through the economics from first principles:what position has the business created, where is the exposure, how should it be marked, and what P&L should it generate?

That ability to understand and explain a physical exposure is central to the appointment.

The role

You will assume day-to-day ownership of a physical trading book, producing and explaining position and mark-to-market P&L and ensuring exposures are accurately and transparently represented.

The existing remit includes daily position reporting, MTM P&L, validation of market data and price markers, reconciliation with Finance and the continued development of the firm's ETRM environment.

However, the opportunity is broader than simply producing reports.

The business wants to continue evolving the function towards ahigh-quality deals desk / product-control model , with analysts who understand the commercial substance of transactions and can challenge, investigate and explain what they see.

You will therefore:

1. Take ownership of thegasoline trading book , understanding the physical positions and exposures generated by individual contracts and trading activity.
2. Produce and explain daily positions andmark-to-market P&L , including meaningful commercial commentary.
3. Understand and challengepricing and marking methodologies , rather than simply accepting system-generated outputs.
4. Investigate discrepancies and be capable of rebuilding positions or P&L from first principles when required.
5. Work closely with Trading, Commercial and Finance to ensure that exposures and performance are properly understood.
6. Help improve controls, reporting and processes as the function continues to develop.
7. Act as a senior point of reference within the team,mentoring and developing more junior analysts .
8. Create additional capacity for the team leadership to focus on broader projects and the continued development of the function.

The existing specification explicitly looks for someone able to improve reporting, challenge the business and ensure trading activity is transparently represented.

Who are we looking for?

The strongest candidates are likely to come fromproduct control, deals desk or physical commodity risk rather than a purely statistical market-risk background.

You will need a strong understanding ofphysical commodity trading, hedging, positions and mark-to-market P&L .

Direct experience ofoil products, refined products, gasoline, distillates, ethanol or biofuels would be particularly relevant. However, the business is also interested in strong physical commodity professionals from adjacent markets – including metals – where they can demonstrate that they understand how physical contracts translate into positions, exposures and P&L.

Crucially, this role requires someone who is comfortable working in asmaller, entrepreneurial trading environment . If your experience has largely involved pressing a button within a highly developed product-control infrastructure and reviewing the resulting output, this is unlikely to be the right role.

If, however, you enjoy taking a contract, a price and a blank sheet of paper and working out“what is my position and what is my P&L?” , the opportunity should be significantly more interesting.

Why consider it?

This is an opportunity to join a business where an experienced analyst can havevisible ownership and influence .

Rather than becoming one component of a large product-control infrastructure, you will own a meaningful trading book, work closely with the commercial business, help develop junior colleagues and contribute to how the function itself evolves.

There is a longer-term ambition to develop the analytical capability of the team further, including greater use of tools such asVaR , but the immediate priority is getting the fundamentals right:positions, physical exposures, marks, P&L and commercial understanding .

For someone who understands physical commodities and wants greater ownership than a large, highly automated environment can typically provide, this offers a particularly interesting next step.