About the opportunity
Abbert Capital is a Houston-headquartered, long-horizon investment and advisory firm serving a small number of principal-led families. The firm is in the process of establishing a physical commodity trading arm and is looking for the person who will build its operational backbone.
This is a build role, not a caretaker role. The trading platform will handle both soft and hard commodities across international markets, and the back office does not yet exist. You will design it, staff it, and run it. You will report directly to the firm's senior leadership and will have the authority and the accountability that comes with standing up a function from first principles.
What you will do
- Design and stand up the full back- and mid-office for a physical trading operation: trade capture, contract administration, execution, settlement, invoicing, and reconciliation.
- Own contract execution end to end — working with traders, counterparties, banks, inspectors, and carriers to move cargoes from deal ticket to final settlement without surprises.
- Run physical logistics across modes: ocean freight (bulk, break-bulk, and container), chartering and freight negotiation, inland movement by rail, truck, and barge, warehousing and terminal arrangements, cargo inspection and superintendence, and laytime and demurrage management.
- Manage trade documentation to a standard banks will finance against: bills of lading, certificates of origin and quality, letters of credit under UCP 600, documentary collections, and correct application of Incoterms 2020.
- Build the trade-finance operations function: LC issuance and negotiation, borrowing-base and transactional credit lines, and day-to-day working relationships with trade-finance banks.
- Establish counterparty onboarding and trade compliance: KYC and AML procedures, sanctions screening, and the documentation discipline that keeps a trading book auditable.
- Select and implement the CTRM system and surrounding tools; define position, exposure, and P&L reporting with the risk function; reconcile futures and broker (FCM) accounts against the physical book.
- Write the operating procedures, hire and develop the operations team, and set the standard the platform will run on for years.
What we are looking for
- Twelve or more years in physical commodity trade operations and logistics, with meaningful time at a trading house, merchant, or the trading division of a producer or major.
- Experience across more than one commodity class e.g. agricultural products, metals and minerals, energy, or petrochemicals and comfort operating outside a single playbook.
- Demonstrated experience building or substantially rebuilding an operations function: you have written the procedures, chosen the systems, and hired the people, not merely inherited them.
- Fluency in the instruments of trade finance, letters of credit, guarantees, documentary collections and a working relationship with how banks look at collateral and documentation.
- Deep familiarity with charter parties, standard-form contracts (GAFTA, FOSFA, or equivalent), Incoterms 2020, and the practical resolution of quality, quantity, and demurrage disputes.
- Hands-on experience with at least one major CTRM platform, ideally including selection or implementation.
- A compliance-first disposition: you regard KYC, sanctions screening, and documentation discipline as the foundation of a durable trading business.
- A bachelor's degree in supply chain, business, finance, or a related field. Additional languages are an advantage; the firm's senior team works across many.
What we offer
- The rare opportunity to build a trading operation from the ground up, backed by patient capital and a firm that thinks in decades rather than quarters.
- Direct access to senior leadership and a flat structure as decisions are taken quickly, by people you can walk in and see.
- Compensation commensurate with the seniority of the role, including participation in the performance of the platform you build.
How to apply
Apply via LinkedIn and write to us with a short note on the most complex trade flow you have personally executed incl. the commodity, the route, the financing, and what went wrong. We read every application.
Abbert Capital is an equal opportunity employer. All applications are treated in confidence.
