Junior Merchandiser

Louis Dreyfus Company • Claypool, IN

3h • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Junior Merchandiser, you'll gain hands-on experience supporting the commercialization of soybean meal produced at one of our major processing facilities while learning the fundamentals of merchandising, logistics, market analysis, and customer engagement. In this role, you'll work closely with farmers, feed manufacturers, transportation providers, and internal commercial teams to help move products efficiently from the plant to customers. You'll develop a strong understanding of agricultural supply chains, commodity pricing, market dynamics, and customer service while building the skills needed for future growth within the organization.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Agricultural Economics, Finance, Business Administration or other business discipline.
• 1-3 years in the grain business in a merchandising capacity
• Experience arranging freight logistics and dispatching trucks
• Working knowledge of futures markets, hedging and arbitrage
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Strong quantitative skills, including basic knowledge of statistics, algebra (e.g., supply and demand relationships, analysis of price relationships)
• Ability to organize multiple responsibilities, prioritize workload and perform multiple tasks simultaneously
• Ability to work with minimal supervision
• Proficiency with spreadsheet and word processing software, (e.g., Excel and MS Word).
• Must have valid driver’s license

Nice To Haves

• Experience with rail logistics and a familiarity with the eastern rail market

Responsibilities

• Merchandises soybean meal produced at a large soybean processing facility
• Maintains daily communication with buyers to coordinate logistics services and assists with accounting issues
• Works with soybean origination team to maximize backhaul opportunities
• Defines and updates team regularly with merchandising and pricing strategy as well as SHP/SBM market outlook
• Reviews the daily position to confirm accuracy & follows up with customers to ensure timely payment of invoices
• Stays up to date on competitive landscape through regular engagement with peers & end users
• Signs up new farmers with LDC using the MyLDC customer portal
• Works with soybean meal and soy hull pellet customers to address, evaluate and settle quality claims
• Answer phone calls and provide merchandising services to farmers.
• Gathers news, statistics and information related to individual commodity supply and demand from customers and trade sources, and distributes that information to the remainder of the group to support overall strategic trading/positioning (i.e., contributes to research function).
• Helps manage receivables and facilitates innovative methods to keep accounts receivable and average number of days to pay at a minimum.
• Identifies, qualifies and captures new business; develops and contributes to customer/supplier list.
• Assists other team members when needed (soybean origination team, soybean meal merchandising team, etc.)
• Works closely with soybean receiving office, learns Compuweigh and probing / grading operations.
• Occasionally communicates with truckers/suppliers regarding quality.
• Weekend work.
• Customer visits.
• Crop tours.
• Other duties as assigned

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental and vision care coverage, flexible spending account plans, employee assistance program, life insurance and disability coverage
• 401k with Company Match
• Family Friendly Benefits including childbirth and parental leave, fertility and family building benefits
• Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays

What This Job Offers

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