Director, Risk Management & Sourcing (RMS) - Ecuador

Cargill • Duran, NM

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

This position is in Cargill's specialized portfolio enterprise where they serve diverse businesses that support unique customers or markets, including animal nutrition and health, bioindustrial, road safety salt and Cargill joint ventures. The Risk Management & Sourcing Director will lead and direct complex and multi-dimensional merchandising work. In this role, you will drive the coordination of a supplier base and fulfill transactions, delivering commodities that meet production requirements and specifications in terms of timing, volume, quantity and cost. You will develop a team that buys and sells commodities from and to country elevators, producers, feed mills and processors.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience
• Minimum of six years of related work experience (merchandising, trading, sourcing or risk management roles within globally traded animal feed ingredients)
• Strong understanding of supply and demand dynamics and their impact on ingredient and feed pricing, with demonstrated ability to translate this into actionable risk management strategies.
• Solid knowledge of futures, basis and hedging tools, with practical experience in managing price risk within defined limits and controls.
• Fluent English, both written and spoken.

Nice To Haves

• Three years of supervisory experience
• Good understanding of macro-economic drivers, including foreign exchange, and their impact on commodity markets.
• Strong analytical skills, including comfort with quantitative analysis, forecasting models and data tools to support scenario-based decision-making.
• Proven ability to plan and prioritize work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals, and to solve problems using complex (and sometimes contradictory) information.
• Strong communication skills, with demonstrated ability to tailor messages across formats and audiences and drive alignment and decisions in cross-functional settings.
• Experience working in cross-functional environments, aligning commercial, finance and supply chain stakeholders around common objectives.
• Demonstrated leadership capability, including influencing across regions and developing talent.
• International or multi-regional experience or global sourcing environments.
• Demonstrated commercial acumen, including negotiation skills and experience managing supplier relationships and performance.
• Experience in animal or aqua nutrition markets, with understanding of ingredient substitution and formulation dynamics.
• Strong strategic thinking ability, with understanding of competitive economics and margin drivers.
• Proven ability to manage complexity and operate effectively in a global matrix organization.
• Confident communicator with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, translate complex risk/market topics into clear recommendations, and drive decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Own and actively manage agricultural commodity position risk across assigned countries, including development and execution of merchandising and trading strategies to optimize cost and margin outcomes, in line with risk limits, governance and controls.
• Lead the sourcing and physical pipeline management of key raw materials and commodities, ensuring continuity of supply and delivery against production requirements and specifications (timing, volume, quantity, cost), including supplier performance management and commercial negotiation support as needed.
• Identify opportunities to balance long-term strategic sourcing plans and supplier relationship development with shorter-term, opportunistic risk/reward management opportunities, ensuring decisions support both resilience and margin optimisation.
• Drive forward-looking Cost of Goods forecasting and scenario planning, providing clear, data-driven visibility on market movements, risks and opportunities to commercial and finance stakeholders.
• Integrate global and regional market intelligence to inform decision-making, maintaining close alignment with global trading teams and ensuring local implications are fully understood.
• Provide direction and oversight to ensure customer and supplier strategies are developed and executed properly, in close partnership with plant operations, transportation/logistics, sales and quality assurance.
• Work closely with formulation, commercial and supply chain teams to optimize ingredient selection, substitution strategies and overall value-in-use for customers, and to develop and execute customer and supplier strategies that grow margins.
• Lead a team of merchants and formulators to develop the short or long term strategies for one commodity or market.
• Build and lead a high-performing merchandising capability through coaching, development and clear accountability, fostering a culture of ownership, performance and continuous improvement.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director