Trader, US Rail Freight

Louis Dreyfus Company • Kansas City, MO

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

This position is responsible for developing and executing rail freight trading strategies focused on maximizing the return to the Company. Responsibilities include developing a trade book and functional P&L for various rail freight activities, collaborating with grain desks to ensure timely execution of physical grain movements, and optimizing rail positions across all desks. The role involves managing freight positions, guiding regional freight positioning, ensuring secondary freight positions are accurately reflected, staying abreast of market developments, and acting as a key member of the Grains and Oilseeds origination team. The position also coordinates information flow, assists in developing transportation strategies, receives and matches rail freight applications, manages timely billing or assignment of coverage (including nights and weekends), markets secondary freight to grow the origination base, maintains a live rail freight balance sheet, analyzes pricing trends, provides consultation to accounting, and collaborates with the Transportation desk on refunds and payments.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Five to seven years of experience in an agribusiness firm, railroad or related transportation field
• Three or more years of direct ownership of rail grain or freight trading & position management
• Demonstrated strong negotiating skills and commercial understanding combined with the right commercial attitude and results orientation
• Capability to consolidate global and domestic market drivers into a point of view and executable trading strategy
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to select relevant information from a flow of information (distinction between main and side issues)
• Demonstrated ability to manage trading risks
• Must have an extensive knowledge of the U.S. transportation systems, relationships with all the major transportation providers and a good working knowledge of grain trading and transportation
• Knowledge of rules and regulations for shippers and receivers (e.g., Surface Transportation Board, Federal Railroad Authority, HazMat, Department of Transportation, Food and Drug Administration), including awareness of nonperformance issues and penalties
• Knowledge of railroad logistics specifically and vessel logistics preferably
• Familiarity with current commodity transportation issues
• Proficiency with MS Excel, database administration and online systems/websites
• Knowledge of fundamentals of grain accounting, basis/flat price trading and futures markets
• Knowledge/Ability to set up accruals for freight, costs, demurrage, etc.
• Must have good negotiating skills and understand how to leverage opportunities

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge of demurrage/despatch concepts helpful
• Advanced proficiency with spreadsheet and word-processing software (e.g., Excel and MS Word, Power Bi, AI Copilot).
• Strong organizational skills, and the ability to prioritize multiple tasks, prioritize workload, and meet tight deadlines.
• Strong communication and documentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Manages the BNSF, UPRR, and CPKCS freight position for the Grains & Oilseeds platform
• Guides regions freight positioning suit export flows & freight hedge positions
• Ensures secondary freight positions are accurately reflected and distributed to regional traders
• Stays abreast of market developments, ensuring timely group updates & interpretation of market data
• Key member of the Grains and Oilseeds origination team, actively engaging customers for the procurement of grains and oilseeds for domestic and export markets.
• Coordinate information flow between departments to meet internal and external customer requirements
• Assist in the development and implementation of transportation strategies for NAM G&O team
• Receives rail freight applications from third parties and matches trains to the freight needs of the internal team.
• Responsible for timely billing of trains, or assigning coverage, including nights and weekends.
• Markets secondary UP, CPKCS & BNSF freight to country elevators to grow grain origination base
• Maintains a live rail freight balance sheet forecasting rail freight S&D basis G&O export forecasts
• Uses historical information to analyze pricing trends and project forward market pricing outlook
• Provide consultation to accounting personnel regarding settlements of rail freight pricing
• Collaborates with the Transportation desk in collecting refunds on contracts; assists with managing and analysis of payments for freight bills and demurrage
• Coordinates with transportation desk the accurate rail rate database management for all applicable BN, UP, KCS and CP origins to target destinations.
• Provide rail rate quotations for grain shipments and other commodities to regional traders.
• Distributes monthly updates with rail fuel surcharges along with company’s exposure.
• 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: Mid Level