Senior Analyst, Middle Office Transformation, SG

About Us

About the Company

JERA Global Markets (JERAGM) is a leading utility-backed seaborne energy trader. A joint venture between majority shareholder JERA Co., Inc. and EDF Trading Ltd, JERAGM's shareholders are among the world's major utilities.

JERAGM operates one of the most exciting energy portfolios in the world which gives it an in-depth understanding of the way local, regional and international energy markets behave. Its indepth knowledge and market insights enable us to capture trading opportunities, optimise portfolios, create value and enhance security of supply for our customers.

Headquartered in Singapore, JERAGM has a global talent pool of more than 400 people across offices located in four strategic locations: Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), the UK (London) and the US (Houston).

JERAGM is strongly capitalised with over US$500 million in paid up capital and a total equity of US$4 billion. JERAGM has an AA- Stable rating from R&I, attributable to a robust business model and solid financial base.

Job Description

Position Description

Within JERAGM, the Middle Office Department is responsible for supporting the full range of commercial activities, including physical and financial trading across all commodities, with an emphasis on the Risk and Control Functions within JERAGM.

The Middle Office Department covers the full range of product control, trade control, market risk and credit risk activities, and has interconnections into the quantitative modelling area and data area. Peripheral to the Middle Office Department, but central to the business activities, is the Control / Risk Management Framework and Internal Control activities.

JERAGM was set up as a global trading business with a mandate for sea-borne physical LNG, Coal and Power trading, as well as the associated paper activities.

As JERAGM expands into new products, markets and locations, we are strengthening our Middle Office Transformation team. This role is designed for an internal consulting position - offering the opportunity to contribute to business-critical transformation initiatives, while developing broad exposure to Market Risk, Credit Risk, Internal Control, Models & Valuations, Finance and Treasury (broadly referred to as the "Supporting Functions") as well as IT. There will also be opportunities to partner with Legal, Contracts & Compliance and HR & Admin supporting functions.

The Senior Analyst will assist the VP, MO Transformation and Senior Manager, MO Transformation in the development, design and implementation of the JERAGM platform, including the associated systems, data and processes.

The position will be located in JERAGM's Singapore office / headquarters.

JERAGM intends to build a best-in-class asset backed trading platform, and the non-Commercial, Supporting Functions will be a key component to enabling the vision of being agile to capture market opportunities, enabled by quick analytics and decision-making capabilities. The Supporting Functions platform should be flexible to add new activities, new markets and new commodities.

Key Role Responsibilities

As part of the Middle Office Department, the Senior Analyst, MO Transformation will be responsible for:

• Vision Setting: Working with the MO Transformation team, and non-commercial functions to engage, challenge and support the development of a vision for the future Supporting Function platform and for the JERAGM of tomorrow. This visioning considers the current limitations, our ambition to develop and manage a world class Middle Office platform, and our broader strategic objectives.
• Alignment with Control Framework: Ensuring alignment with our mandate, our risk policies and control framework, as well as providing input and co-developing changes in our control framework as our platform evolves.
• Strategic Projects: Playing a supporting role in our strategic projects (i.e. entry into new markets, our Technology Landscape Evolution project and subsequent strategic projects) as a key interface point with the working teams of the relevant Supporting Functions.
• Workflow and Process Design: Through engagement of, gathering of inputs from and closed-loop feedback communications with the relevant Supporting Functions, shape the associated workflow and processes.
• Operational Risk: Work with the respective Supporting Function teams to prevent and mitigate the Operational Risk associated with the change from the Strategic Projects, including working closely with Commercial Function representatives to remain responsive, and the relevant Supporting Functions to oversee the resolution and future mitigation.
• Engagement and Oversight of Project Managers: The project management activities for the strategic projects will be conducted by JERAGM IT and its third-party consultant project management teams. While not a project management role, knowledge of project management is required. This role is intended to work with these project management teams, to ensure oversight and governance, and to bring alignment to JERAGM's medium- and longer-term objectives.
• Middle Office Improvements: Taking a front-line role, you will work closely with the MO Transformation team to co-ideate, engage with stakeholders, and ultimately drive to implementation of these process and systems improvement initiatives.
• Project Assurance: Leveraging a strong understanding of the commodity trade lifecycle, ensure that all key elements are captured upfront in the requirements, and follow this throughout the project timeline to the planning and roll-out of testing, and in the overseeing of the hyper-care periods for the project implementations.

Qualifications

Key Qualifications and Experience

Experience

• Minimum 10 years of overall experience coming from global markets-focused roles, ideally, with experience in management consulting or risk consulting, internal advisory or transformation / change roles, preferably in commodity or energy trading;
• Experienced in working with challenging stakeholders with tight timelines and overseeing complex projects;
• Requires strong analytical skills to validate project requirements through quantitative analysis;
• Exposure to trading risks, operational risk, product control or risk, operations or finance functions would be desirable;
• An understanding of IT architecture, data structures and IT project lifecycles would be key to being successful in this role;
• Experience in engaging internal stakeholders and other non-commercial teams to ensure ongoing flows and minimizing potential disruptions to operations;
• Experience in working with Rapid Application Development or Bespoke Development teams, including the curation and prioritisation of application backlogs, and engagement with Development teams in support of the build out of a Supporting Function platform;

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;
• Knowledge of Oil, Coal, LNG, Dry-Freight, Emissions, and/or Power products;
• Strong communication skills in the English language (verbal and written) are required to liaise with various business stakeholders;
• Experience in working with project management for IT and business change projects for commodity trading companies, including end-to-end planning, engaging in high-level and detailed design, overseeing implementation, test planning and roll-out, and overseeing go-live / hyper-care;
• Structured and methodical approach to problem solving and systems testing;

Person Specification

• Ability to bring tactful leadership to the role, managing various internal and external constraints, while remaining calm, self-aware, and authentic;
• Ability to engage and empathise with stakeholders across the supporting functions;
• Proactive, collaborative and able to build trust quickly with colleagues and other stakeholders;
• High attention to detail, with a bias towards generating high-quality outcomes;
• Curious and eager to develop a broad understanding of commodity trading;
• Ability to absorb pressure, transmit clarity and communicate the path forward;
• Structured, organised and accountable;
• An active listener with the ability to engage stakeholders, solicit and understand requirements (both through direct and indirect communication), canvassing alternatives / options with an objective lens, and demonstrating intellectual flexibility and agility in problem solving - ultimately to adopt a "best-of-breed" approach;
• 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 play a key role in the transformation of the MO and Risk organisation to achieve its ambitions.

The candidate will have the ability to shape the role, aligning your work with both business priorities and your professional interest areas.

It would allow an experienced consultant to feed into the Vision for the future and achieve it by applying one's core functional and leadership skills and develop skills of influencing without direct authority and setting up a system of both individual and shared accountability of different teams - within a growing and successful commodity trading business.

This is ultimately an individual contributor role, with significant opportunity to influence indirectly, and manage large cross-functional teams and complex workstreams, to realise the Supporting Function platform vision for the JERAGM of tomorrow.