Specialist - Market Risk

The Market Risk (MR) department is a specialized unit in Finance Operations (FO) that operates in Chennai, Bangalore, and Manila centers. The team has frontline responsibility for risk measurement, deal valuation, exposure reporting and price validation. The department pulls together a range of expert skills that ensure accurate, timely reporting and allow MR to offer professional advice on the wide range of issues that the department gets involved in. We are interested in attracting people to our business who share our core working values of honesty, integrity, and respect for others. We want those who can build on our business vision, are prepared to accept accountability, and can achieve great results through teamwork. The team has been continuously absorbing newly migrated activities over the last eight years with continued growth and more complex work will continue to be absorbed into the teams.

The primary function in the job role will be to detect, quantify and communicate potential for unforeseen or unidentified risk within trading activities. Additionally, this role liaises with Accounting/ Finance, Operations and Commercial teams to ensure deals are captured accurately and reflected correctly in our systems. Cross training will be required to provide cover on daily, monthly, and quarterly reporting processes for the Market Risk team. Individual will be frequently involved in development of the day-to-day and monthly processes and systems to keep pace with the ever-changing trading environment.

Where you fit in

This description details the role for a ‘Specialist’ who will be part of the SE-EA & EPTB (Shell Energy Europe and Africa & Environmental Product Trading Business) team in MR Chennai/Bangalore. The candidate will primarily assist with the desk reporting for SE-EA. Additionally, as part of the larger team covering SE-EA and EPT desk reporting, the analyst may need to cover the primary EPT analyst during their absence.

The SE-EA team follows daily P&L and exposure reporting as well as the additional structured activities that are operated either daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. The portfolio covers the New Energies business- Gas and Power trading portfolios in the Europe and Africa. The team relies heavily on the use of smart analytic tools for its core deliverables- working with multiple ETRM (Energy Trading Risk Management) systems, using queries to retrieve information from archived databases. The changes based on anticipated growth in trading activity and/or increasing complexity of deals will necessitate additional oversight into the trading portfolio.

As a Market Risk team member, the primary function will be to detect, quantify and communicate potential for unforeseen or unidentified risk within trading activities Additionally, this role liaises with Accounting/ Finance, Operations and Commercial teams to ensure deals are captured accurately and reflected correctly in our systems. Cross training will be required to provide cover on daily, monthly and quarterly reporting processes for the Market Risk team. Individual will be frequently involved in development of the day-to-day and monthly processes and systems in order to keep pace with the ever-changing trading environment.

About the role

The list below is intended to provide a brief glimpse of the day-to-day activities and also highlight the key areas of proficiency (strong business understanding, ability to navigate systems, managing stakeholder relationships and key technical skills) that would help the analyst succeed in the role.

The analyst is expected to:

• Understand key P&L drivers and articulate strategy-based P&L commentary whilst demonstrating a commercial understanding of the business
• Leverage Market Risk modelling practices including Value at Risk & Stress Testing to understand and communicate the risk in the portfolio
• Understand trading account structure, exposures and P&L generated by different transaction types in the book
• Provide ad-hoc analysis by running queries into the Trading Risk databases
• Monitor exposure limits daily within the Trading Control Framework and Manual of Authorities (MOA)
• Ensure activities are carried out with safety awareness and are performed in compliance with external regulation, the Shell Control Framework, SOX & Financial Reporting requirements; and Shell Trading mandate and policies
• Liaise with business users and technical support to identify, analyze and resolve application issues
• Monitor and report KPI for both external (traders) & internal performance metrics
• Be curious about the Shell’s trading business, seek to understand both ongoing/upcoming transactions, and dig into conflicting data to resolve issues while considering the impact upon the overall business
• Work closely with Senior Specialist(s) to help them carry out daily risk reporting and execute projects. Most projects are likely to come in with short deadlines- the candidate is expected to lead the project if there is a business need
• Be well versed/have hands-on experience in any or all of VBA, Advanced Excel, Power BI, MS Access, SQL, Spotfire, QlikView, Tableau. The job will have a techno-functional aspect where the analyst will frequently pull data, filter and process information, analyze, interpret and clearly communicate the results upwards for the consumption of senior management

Key Challenges:

• Balancing the reporting requirements on multiple businesses covering varied commodity types (NG, Power) in different geographies/markets
• Coming to terms with the complex system landscape: the candidate is expected to be comfortable with established/stable ETRMs. Future upgrade projects may require some time be devoted to work with other stakeholders in development/implementation of new software solutions
• Maintaining quality relationships and engagements with key business stakeholders to ensure timely and accurate data
• Understanding the numbers and convincingly explaining the ‘story behind them’ demonstrating and appreciation for trading strategies and risk payoffs
• Exploring opportunities to continuously improve tools and process
• Given how the business is growing, the candidate is asked to be flexible in terms of work scope. The role will become increasingly challenging and in-depth with every new activity rolled out. Whilst covering the daily reporting, then candidate may be pulled in for ad-hoc analysis/DAF reviews with typically short turnaround times
• The SE-EA team typically works in afternoon shift. The individual will need to be able to work extended hours if job requires due to monthly/quarterly close, new requirements/ critical project delivery timelines or unforeseen events. The candidate should be comfortable in working in these shifts

What we need from you

• The ideal candidate will be highly numerate, logical, can prioritize and multi-task, and is comfortable working in teams
• A good understanding of Commodity Markets (preferably crude oil/ oil products/ LNG/ natural gas/ power) business and/or familiarity with spot price assessments, forward curve methodologies, swap markets, and basics of options would be valuable
• Risk Management knowledge (demonstrate knowledge of different types of VaR, stress testing, sensitivity analysis, basis risk, volume risk, currency risk)
• Experience/ understanding of Risk Management systems Openlink Aligne and FIS Endur - ability to identify deal changes related to fees would be a strong plus.
• Working knowledge of SQL and Oracle is required.
• Working knowledge of Qlik - create new visualizations and drill down information for detailed analysis - is preferred
• An undergraduate degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Science, Finance or Economics from a leading academic institution

Other preferred qualifications include:

• Strong computing skills (Excel, programming, VBA) and analytical abilities
• Experience in Six-Sigma and/or other problem-solving methodologies to drive continuous improvement
• Strong analytical skills required; detail and accuracy oriented
• Strong communications and interpersonal skills
• Finance and accounting skills including ability to understand financial results and financial and management reports
• Experience in Gas & Power wholesale and retail trade instruments would be a plus
• Experience with risk analysis, Value-at-Risk, financial derivatives, or physical energy markets would be a plus
• Ability to work with cross-functional work group
• Ability to drill down into complex data and must have a keen eye for details
• Creativity in problem solving

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.