Ingredient Sales Manager - Oils

Louis Dreyfus Company is a leading merchant and processor of agricultural goods. Our activities span the entire value chain from farm to fork, across a broad range of business lines, we leverage our global reach and extensive asset network to serve our customers and consumers around the world. Structured as a matrix organization of six geographical regions and ten platforms, Louis Dreyfus Company is active in over 100 countries and employs approximately 15,000 people globally.

This role will support commercial efforts of the LDC NAM Ingredients Team, with a focus on vegetable oil sales and business strategy.  Successful candidates will leverage their existing customer relationships and oil market knowledge to elevate LDC’s customer portfolio.  The candidate will negotiate trades, build relationships with trading partners, and seek opportunities to generate margin and support business growth.  The candidate will also help guide LDC to determine the best new oil investments and guide our industry to meet product specifications that customers seek.

Primary Responsibilities/Essential Functions

• Manage key customer accounts for oils and relationships with suppliers
• Bring in new customers and trading partners, and lead product approvals

• Conduct trades and execute contracts

• Balance plant production and/or purchases with product sales book to maintain comfortable inventory levels
• Understand market trends, pricing, risk management, and commercial landscape for veg oils in North America
• Hedge oil sales and manage portfolio risk on basis, flat price, and spreads
• Balance inventory of supply with customer demand
• Optimize customer book for the best margins and contract performance

• Collaborate with industry and logistics teams to ensure commercial contract obligations are met

Additional Responsibilities

• Report on sales activity and contribute to PNL discussions
• Become knowledgeable of LDC products outside of oils with an expectation to cross market those products. 
• Communicate customer purchasing specifications with LDC team and liase with the industry and quality teams to support them to achieve best product quality to meet customer needs
• Follow up with customers on a regular cadence to ensure their needs are met in a timely manner
• Liaise with logistics and back-office team members to ensure smooth fulfillment of customer contracts

• Develop a good working relationship with the production plants, warehouse, logistics, quality, credit, legal, and back-office teams and drive information flow between groups as needed for business success
• Create presentations for customers or for internal management as needed

• Maintain customer knowledge in CRM

• Contribute to team discussions with trading ideas and risk management, inside & outside the ingredients group

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in a business discipline, economics, or statistics

Experience:

Basic qualifications:

• 3-5 years commercial experience selling vegetable oils, with customer relationship ownership
• Proven track record of building a customer book and successfully adding/keeping new business relationships
• Current contacts and relationships with veg oil customers in North America, particularly in the food, personal care and cosmetic space
• Fundamental understanding of vegetable oil market movers and price history, with knowledge of supply/demand figures
• Experience across multiple oil types

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience selling palm oil, palm olein, palm stearin, coconut oil, soybean oil, canola oil, sun oil and custom oil blends
• Having a proven track record of edible oil sales to a Fortune 1000 level customer base and the ability to forge and execute contracts accordingly
• Food safety knowledge
• Experience importing bulk vessels into the US
• International trade experience with firm comprehension of Incoterms, bulk vessel movements and terminology, and commercial settlement associated with large scale movements of oils
• Familiarity with rail, bulk truck, and dry van shipments
• Familiarity with packaging food products and warehouse storage
• Marketing and sales presentation experience
• Previous experience managing commodity arbitrage opportunities
• Been part of a team that saw the start-up of a new processing plant or asset and contributed to that plant’s success

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities (including any physical demands)

Basic qualifications:

• Interpersonal relationship skills
• Ability to work as part of a global team
• Advanced negotiation skills
• High mathematic aptitude
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Understanding of commonly used trade terms
• A self-starter that doesn’t require help to organize their day

Preferred qualifications:

• Risk management and risk mitigation strategies
• Understanding of complex business strategy/commercial game theories

Equipment Used

• MS Office
• Proprietary systems for execution, analysis, accounting
• Commodities trading software

Working Conditions

• Extensions of regular working hours are occasionally necessary to complete time-sensitive projects or to respond to emergencies. 
• Some travel expected – industry conferences, internal meetings, customer meetings. 15-20%

What We Offer

We provide a dynamic and stimulating international environment, which will stretch and develop your abilities and channel your skills and expertise with outstanding career development opportunities in one of the largest and most solid private companies in the world.

- 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
- Hybrid work available (not applicable to all roles)

Diversity & Inclusion

LDC is driven by a set of shared values and high ethical standards, with diversity and inclusion being part of our DNA. LDC is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity, equity and inclusion.

LDC encourages diversity, supports local communities and environmental initiatives. We encourage people of all backgrounds to apply.

Equal employment opportunity (EEO)

Louis Dreyfus Company provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Sustainability

Sustainable value is at the heart of our purpose as a company.

We are passionate about creating fair and sustainable value, both for our business and for other value chain stakeholders: our people, our business partners, the communities we touch and the environment around us