A key Optimus power generation client is seeking a senior-level Credit & Risk professional to join a lean team supporting power and natural gas trading activities. This is a highly hands-on role (not a people manager) that sits at the intersection of credit risk, market exposure, margin, liquidity, and commercial risk management.
This is not a pure quantitative or traditional credit underwriting role. The position requires strong commercial judgment, hands-on portfolio analysis, and the ability to manage the day-to-day mechanics of credit and exposure within a fast-moving energy trading environment.
What You'll Do
- Manage daily credit and counterparty exposure across power and natural gas trading portfolios, identifying significant changes and investigating the underlying drivers.
- Monitor exchange and clearing-related margin activity, including Initial Margin, Variation Margin, and other collateral requirements, and investigate material discrepancies or unexpected movements.
- Analyze portfolio concentrations, counterparty exposure, liquidity requirements, and longer-dated transactions to identify emerging risk.
- Apply Potential Future Exposure (PFE) concepts and other exposure measures to evaluate risk across extended deal horizons and changing market conditions.
- Assess the impact of market movements, volatility, portfolio composition, and valuation changes on credit exposure and liquidity.
- Partner with traders, commercial teams, treasury, legal, and other stakeholders to understand transactions and ensure appropriate risk protections are in place.
- Work with Legal on the development and negotiation of credit provisions within trading agreements, including ISDA and other credit support documentation.
- Help establish and maintain appropriate credit terms, collateral requirements, limits, and exposure parameters.
- Support stress testing and scenario analysis to evaluate potential exposure and liquidity needs under adverse market conditions.
- Investigate data and reporting issues, understand how risk information flows through systems, and ensure exposure and credit data is accurate and reliable.
- Identify opportunities to automate and improve existing credit and risk processes.
- Maintain strong documentation, controls, and auditability around credit and exposure management.
- Produce clear, decision-ready reporting for senior stakeholders and commercial leadership.
What We're Looking For
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related discipline.
- 8+ years of relevant experience in energy credit risk, market risk, trading risk, treasury, or a closely related function within the power and natural gas markets.
- Strong understanding of ISO/RTO power markets and the credit, collateral, settlement, and risk considerations associated with energy trading.
- Experience with derivatives, hedging strategies, and longer-dated energy transactions.
- Hands-on understanding of exchange-traded and cleared products, FCM relationships, margin requirements, and the drivers behind IM, VM, and other collateral movements.
- Ability to analyze counterparty and portfolio exposure and recognize when a material change requires further investigation.
- Working knowledge of Potential Future Exposure (PFE) and other quantitative exposure concepts.
- Strong financial analysis skills, including the ability to evaluate counterparty financial information and broader market conditions.
- Experience working with Legal and commercial teams on ISDA or other energy trading agreements and credit provisions.
- Strong understanding of data structures, data flows, and how risk information moves from source systems into reporting and analysis.
- Advanced Excel skills; experience with SQL, Python, VBA, or similar analytical tools is highly desirable.
- Ability to work independently in a lean, hands-on environment where initiative and sound judgment are critical.
- Strong communication skills and the confidence to respectfully challenge traders, banks, counterparties, and other stakeholders when the numbers or risk profile do not make sense.
- Experience with ETRM platforms is valuable. Familiarity with systems such as Endur, Allegro, SAP, or quantitative risk tools is a plus.
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