Responsibilities
Position Description
This role forms part of JERA's growing North American Gas Trading business, which is expected to transition onto JERAGM's trading platform. This business is wholly owned by JERA Co., Inc. and will focus on US natural gas trading, optimisation and market development across North America. Successful candidates will join during the build-out phase ahead of the business's planned operational launch.
Within JERAGM's US business in Houston, the Middle Office function is responsible for all aspects of Product Control and Trade Control.
As a global trading business, JERAGM has counterparty exposure in Asia, EMEA, the U.S., and Latin America. The quality of our counterparties ranges from large, listed utilities and global trading companies to small single ship owning organisations. Trading relationships range from bilateral commodity sales and purchases to complex structured transactions with SPVs (IPPs for example).
The Middle Office team is responsible for
- Production of daily profit and loss for the trading books, ensuring its consistency and integrity
- Resolving any queries from traders or other departments relating to P&L, and escalating as required to the Head of Risk
- Validation of internal trade physical and paper marks
- Validation of all physical commodity and derivative deal entries to ensure accurate capture into the ETRM system
- Forward curve and algorithm maintenance
- Contract and confirmation management for financial trades.
- Daily reconciliation of internal system vs clearing banks for exchange traded products
- Management of the relationship with clearing brokers and clearing banks
- Monitoring the trading activity; highlight and report unusual activity.
- Supporting the Market and Credit risk monitoring
- Supporting the Treasury team in margin management
- Supporting Finance in month-end financial closing processes
- Summary reporting (e.g. weekly, monthly) on key analytics
- Active discussions with Front Office, Market Risk and Credit Risk around trading strategy, positions, and the overlap with other management and risk reporting
The current position will be located in Houston office. The Manager, Middle Office in Houston office will report directly into the VP, MO Transformation in JERAGM, who is based in Singapore, and indirectly into the Head of Risk, in Houston office.
Key Role Responsibilities
The MO Manager's responsibilities will cover BAU reporting
- Overseeing the operations of Middle Office team in the production of management profit and loss reports;
- Production of daily profit and loss for the trading books, ensuring its consistency and integrity;
- Resolving any queries from traders or other departments relating to P&L;
- Validation of internal trade physical and paper marks;
- Validation of all physical commodity and derivative deal entries to ensure accurate capture into the ETRM System (EKA);
- Forward curve and algorithm maintenance;
- Contract and confirmation management for financial trades;
- Daily reconciliation of internal system vs clearing banks for exchange traded products;
- Management of the relationship with clearing brokers and clearing banks;
- Monitoring the trading activity; highlight and report unusual activity;
- Support Market and Credit risk monitoring;
- Support Treasury team in margining management;
- Supporting Finance in month-end financial closing processes;
- Summary reporting (e.g. weekly, monthly) on key analytics;
- Active discussions with front risk and risk around trading strategy and positions;
- Providing leadership to the MO team, including the training, mentoring and coaching of other MO team members, and providing guidance for their professional development.
Qualifications
Key Qualifications and Experience
Experience
- Minimum 10 years of work experience, preferably with a degree in an accounting discipline or similar;
- Experience in a senior Middle Office role in another energy or commodity trading firm, preferably with coal, freight or LNG experience;
- Ability to engage with commercial teams and other internal stakeholders, to provide firm but constructive challenge and ensure adherence to the control framework and the associated policies / processes
Technical
- Educated to degree level or equivalent professional qualification;
- Excellent understanding of risks in trading businesses and a strong risk mindset;
- Strong understanding of the physical commodity trade life-cycle and derivative products;
- Ability to engage and empathise with stakeholders across the Supporting Functions;
- Good negotiation skills and understanding of contractual frameworks;
- Knowledge of US gas and power products, and an understanding of Oil, Coal, LNG, Dry-Freight, Emissions, and/or Power products will be beneficial;
- Strong communication skills in the English language (verbal and written) are required;
- Strong quantitative analysis skills, including the ability to structure clear, but concise answers to complex problems, often involving large data-sets;
- Structured and methodical approach to problem solving and systems testing.
Person Specification
- Confident personality, with the ability to communicate effectively in English;
- Attention to detail and the ability to work logically, quickly, and accurately;
- Computer literate, numerate, and comfortable handling varied and complex data sets;
- A commercial approach to their duties, a flexible approach to problem solving, and the ability to work effectively as part of a small, culturally diverse team;
- Proactive, independent and delivery-focused;
- Collaborative and able to build trust quickly with colleagues and stakeholders;
- Ability to absorb pressure, transmit clarity and communicate the path forward;
- Structured, organised and accountable;
- Capable to work autonomously is important but also to function as part of a cross-functional team;
- Ability to work within strict and tight deadlines and within policies;
- Ability to influence and persuade - to communicate effectively as well as positively interact with a variety of JERAGM functions, ultimately contributing to the success of the transformation projects;
Role Opportunity
This role offers an excellent opportunity to lead, and further apply and develop skills and responsibility within a growing and successful commodity trading business.
