About the Company
Career Zoom has been retained by an international trading organisation to appoint a Head of Grains Desk to establish and profitably grow its physical grains trading business.
About the Role
Head of Grains Desk – Physical Commodity Trading Location: Singapore This is a hands-on trading and P&L ownership role, not a purely managerial position. The successful candidate will be expected to originate, structure, execute and manage physical commodity transactions and build sustainable trading flows using established supplier and customer relationships. The role is based in Singapore. International candidates may be considered, and relocation/Employment Pass sponsorship is possible for suitably qualified candidates.
Responsibilities
- You will establish and grow the physical grains business across wheat, maize/corn and rice.
- Personally originate both purchase and sales opportunities.
- Negotiate and conclude contracts.
- Manage transactions through pricing, contracting, financing, shipment, documentation, delivery, collection and claims.
- You will own the desk P&L and be accountable for realised trading margins, financing and working-capital costs, freight/logistics, insurance, hedging, claims, credit losses and overall risk-adjusted profitability.
- The role requires disciplined management of counterparty, credit, price, FX, inventory and execution risk, with particular emphasis on sustainable repeat business and return on working capital.
Qualifications
- Approximately 10+ years of physical agricultural commodity trading experience.
Required Skills
- Significant direct experience across at least two of wheat, maize/corn and rice.
- Demonstrable ownership of a profitable trading book, desk or business line.
- Proven ability to originate both purchase and sales sides of physical transactions.
- Established relationships with credible suppliers and customers.
- Experience managing P&L, working capital and trading risk.
- Strong knowledge of freight, Incoterms, trade finance, documentation, insurance, hedging and claims.
- Evidence of realised margins/net contribution rather than simply trading volume.
- The entrepreneurial ability to build a trading business from the ground up.
Preferred Skills
- Candidates whose experience is principally in procurement, brokerage, relationship management, processing or financial/derivatives trading without direct ownership of a profitable physical book are unlikely to fit this mandate.