Our client is a leader in Soft Commodities and operates in more than 40 major producing countries. An opportunity has arisen for a Trade Accountant to join the London Finance team. this is an exciting opportunity which offers exposure to a broad spectrum of financial and operational activities, in the context of a fast paced international trading desk.

The Role

Reporting into the Cocoa Head of Finance, this is an excellent role for a qualified accountant to get a hands-on role and develop their finance skills at a physical commodity trade house. The role involves responsibility for accounting and control activities of the trade desk, month-end accounting tasks, and time built in for work on projects & process improvements. We expect the combination of daily responsibilities, and training from our team of experienced commodity specialists, to allow the successful candidate to quickly take responsibility for their own trade book within the team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support continuous improvement in month-end reporting by streamlining processes, increasing accuracy, and enhancing the quality and depth of reporting
• Responsible for a structured rotation across month-end accounting processes to develop commodities accounting knowledge, covering accrual calculations, intercompany reconciliations, management reporting to cocoa origin offices, and certification
• Assist with the preparation of monthly forward books and the calculation of mark-to-market P&L for new physical trading
• Work with the trade, shipping and origin teams to improve business processes and field their queries
• Taking ownership of monthly cash-flow forecasting
• Assisting in FX exposure management, and new system
• Ad hoc cyclical finance activities such as assisting implementing a new trade accounting system.

Skills & Experience

This role will suit a focused self-starter with attention to detail, an analytical thought process, and strong team ethic. Effective communication skills, and enjoyment of teamwork are also crucial, as the role works very closely with the trade and operations teams. Time management and ability to prioritise workload, are also important attributes.

This role is ideally suited to a qualified accountant with some commodity trading industry experience.

Excellent knowledge of Excel is also essential, as there will be a high level of data manipulation to produce reports. Knowledge of Navision and Cognos would also be an advantage.