Job Summary
The Trade Finance Manager will lead and support corporate trade finance activities for the organization on a global basis, with primary responsibility for managing trade finance lines of credit and capacity, monthly and quarterly reporting, trade instruments, supporting import and export transactions, mitigating financial and commercial risk, and partnering with internal business leaders, banks, customers, and suppliers across multiple regions. This role is intentionally focused on corporate-side trade finance experience rather than traditional banking-only experience. The successful candidate will bring a strong understanding of letters of credit, bank guarantees, standby letters of credit, documentary requirements, credit support, and global trade processes within a corporate environment.
This position requires a seasoned trade finance professional with 10 or more years of relevant experience, strong business judgment, and demonstrated negotiation skills. The Trade Finance Manager must be able to negotiate trade finance terms, banking arrangements, guarantees, letters of credit, and related commercial requirements across domestic and international transactions while balancing business needs, customer expectations, regional requirements, risk exposure, compliance obligations, and working capital objectives.
Your Responsibilities Will Be:
• Manage corporate trade finance activities related to letters of credit, standby letters of credit, bank guarantees, documentary collections, parent company guarantees, and other trade-related financial instruments.
• Serve as the corporate subject matter expert for trade finance matters, advising internal stakeholders on appropriate structures, documentation requirements, risk considerations, and commercial implications.
• Negotiate trade finance terms with customers, suppliers, banks, and internal business partners to support commercial objectives while protecting the company's financial and contractual interests.
• Review, analyze, and approve trade finance language in customer contracts, purchase orders, bid packages, credit support requests, and related commercial agreements.
• Partner with Treasury, Finance, Legal, Sales, Operations, Project Management, Supply Chain, and Business Unit leadership to structure trade finance solutions that support global business activity.
• Provide global oversight for trade finance activities across regions, ensuring consistent standards, controls, documentation practices, and risk management approaches while adapting to local business and regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate with banking partners on issuance, amendment, renewal, cancellation, pricing, and administration of trade finance instruments, while ensuring banking involvement supports corporate needs.
• Evaluate trade finance risk, including country risk, customer risk, counterparty risk, documentary compliance, payment risk, performance obligations, and working capital impact.
• Support cross-border transactions by coordinating with regional finance teams, commercial teams, legal counsel, banking partners, customers, and suppliers to resolve trade finance issues and meet global business requirements.
• Maintain accurate records, reporting, forecasting, controls, and dashboards for outstanding letters of credit, guarantees, exposures, fees, expirations, and related obligations.
• Ensure compliance with company policies, delegated authority requirements, internal controls, international trade requirements, sanctions screening expectations, and applicable regulatory standards.
• Identify process improvements, automation opportunities, and standard practices to improve visibility, reduce risk, lower costs, and improve the efficiency of corporate trade finance activities.
Required Qualifications:
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive trade finance, treasury, corporate finance, international finance, or related experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, International Business, or a related field required.
• Corporate trade finance experience is required; candidates must have meaningful experience supporting trade finance from within a corporate environment, not solely from a banking environment.
• Strong knowledge of trade finance instruments, including letters of credit, standby letters of credit, bank guarantees, documentary collections, bid bonds, performance bonds, advance payment guarantees, and payment security structures.
• Banking experience may be considered beneficial when combined with strong corporate-side experience and demonstrated understanding of corporate business needs.
• Demonstrated experience negotiating letters of credit, bank guarantees, standby letters of credit, commercial terms, banking terms, credit support language, and related trade finance documentation.
• Demonstrated ability to work with global stakeholders across multiple countries, regions, time zones, currencies, and business practices.
• Train team-members and provide education as needed to internal stakeholders.
• Ability to partner effectively with Legal, Treasury, Finance, Sales, Operations, and executive stakeholders on complex commercial and financial matters.
Preferred Qualifications:
• Advanced degree or professional certification such as CTP, preferred.
• Experience supporting global import/export activity, cross-border transactions, project-based businesses, manufacturing, engineered products, industrial services, or other complex multinational corporate environments preferred.
• Working knowledge of international trade practices, documentary requirements, Incoterms, UCP 600, ISP98, and related trade finance principles preferred.
• Knowledge of global trade finance rules, international documentation standards, country-specific requirements, and regional banking practices preferred.
Travel Requirements:
• Limited domestic and international travel may be required to support business unit meetings, banking relationships, customer negotiations, regional finance teams, or global project requirements.
ADA Requirements:
Work Environment: This position will be located in the Addison, TX office. This is not a fully remote role. To be successful, the Trade Finance Manager must be available to collaborate in person with Treasury, Finance, Legal, Sales, Operations, and business leadership while also supporting global stakeholders, regional finance teams, and cross-border business requirements.
The ideal candidate will be comfortable working with cross-functional and geographically distributed teams and will be flexible in working hours when needed to support projects and stakeholders across multiple time zones (Americas, Europe, and Asia).
