Platform Risk Manager - Energy

Westrock Coffee is hiring a discretionary Trader to run its Energy trading platform. The role trades listed futures and options within firm-set loss limits, and its profits offset inflation in WEST's non-coffee input costs.

Title

Trader -- Energy (Discretionary Portfolio Manager)

Reports to

VP Commodity Risk; risk oversight by the Chief Risk Management Officer (CRMO)

Location

Little Rock, AR -- on site, with a trading-hours presence

Type

Full time, exempt

Westrock Coffee (Nasdaq: WEST) is a vertically integrated coffee, tea, extracts, ready to drink beverages, and ingredients company that supplies leading retail, restaurant and consumer brands. WEST is building commodity risk management platforms, each run by an experienced Platform Risk Manager, to generate profits that offset rising costs of inputs.

The Energy platform has its own capital, limits, P&L and independent risk oversight.

• Build and run a discretionary book of outright futures and options in the platform's markets, targeting 10--15% a year on allocated capital.
• Generate ideas from supply and demand analysis, weather, positioning (CFTC Commitments of Traders), seasonality and price action, etc.
• Size every position to the risk budget and place stops at entry.

• Operate within the risk-per-trade, daily loss, drawdown and notional limits in the mandate below, with no exceptions without written approval.
• Hold reduced size through major relevant organizations releases and exit or roll positions before first notice day. The platform never makes or takes delivery.
• Stay within CFTC and exchange position limits and accountability levels.

• Reconcile positions and P&L daily with Commodity Risk, and present a monthly review of performance, process and lessons learned.
• Write a short thesis for each significant position (entry, stop, target, catalyst).
• Follow WEST's risk policy, trading compliance rules and information barriers. The platform does not use WEST's customer or commercial hedging order flow.

• Help select the trading, data and analytics tools, and shape the risk reporting.
• Share market intelligence with WEST procurement and risk teams within the information-barrier rules.

The mandate limits losses, not exposure: every trade has a fixed dollar risk, and size steps down as losses build.

Markets

Includes, but not limited to: NYMEX and ICE

Instruments

Listed futures and options. Bought options and defined-risk option spreads allowed; short options, spreads between markets and OTC need written approval.

Risk per trade

0.75% of allocation ($75,000) at the initial stop

Stops

Set at entry, scaled to volatility; moved only toward the market

Daily loss limit

1.5% ($150,000): no new risk for the rest of the day

Drawdown ladder (from year-to-date peak)

−3% ($300K): half size · −5% ($500K): quarter size and review · −7.5% ($750K): flatten and suspend

Notional Average limits

$10M

Physical delivery

Not permitted; positions closed or rolled before first notice day

• 10+ years trading agricultural or soft commodity futures and options, with direct responsibility for a P&L.
• A verifiable record of at least five years of trading results, with monthly returns, capital or risk allocated, and maximum drawdown, confirmable by a prior employer, fund administrator or clearing statements.
• Average annual return of 10--15% on allocated capital, a Sharpe ratio of 1.0 or higher, and no year with a loss beyond the stop-loss limits in place at the time.
• Experience trading under a hard stop-loss and drawdown framework at a multi-manager fund, trading house, bank or commercial merchant.
• Deep knowledge of global energy markets fundamentals.
• Working knowledge of CFTC and exchange rules, position limits and trading compliance.
• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, agricultural economics or a related field.

• Experience on an energy desk at a multi-manager fund, global trading house or commercial merchant.
• Options trading experience, including volatility and skew.
• Proficiency with Bloomberg, a futures execution platform (e.g., CQG or Trading Technologies), and Excel or Python for supply and demand modeling.
• CFA, MBA or a graduate degree in a quantitative field.
• Experience helping build a new desk: systems, reporting and risk processes.

Performance is judged on risk-adjusted returns over rolling three-year periods, not on a single year.

• Return: compound annual return on allocated capital (time-weighted, monthly).
• Risk-adjusted return: Sharpe ratio, maximum drawdown and the share of months with a loss.
• Discipline: adherence to stops and limits; number of approved exceptions.
• Process: win rate, average win compared with average loss, quality of trade theses and reporting.

• Trading capital and margin funding, cleared through WEST's futures clearing broker.
• Bloomberg, market data and an execution platform.
• Independent risk management, daily P&L, operations and compliance support.
• A seat on a new platform, with room to shape its tools and processes and to grow the allocation with results.

Send the following:

1.  
2. Track record: monthly returns for at least five years, capital or risk allocated, maximum drawdown and the stop-loss limits you traded under, with a contact who can verify them.
3. A one-page description of your trading process: idea sources, sizing, stops and how you handle losing streaks.
4. Two closely related professional references.

Shortlisted candidates present two recent trades (one winner, one loser) to the hiring panel.

Westrock Coffee is an equal opportunity employer.

Internal notes (remove before posting): confirm the location, title and pay range with the People team; Legal and Compliance to confirm registration needs, information barriers and the trading policy; Finance to confirm accounting treatment of platform P&L.