Junior Trader & Originator (Biofuels)

Location: York, England with regular travel across Europe and beyond

Salary: Competitive salary and bonus potential designed to scale in line with the individual’s commercial contribution to business growth.

Overview

We are working on behalf of a leading global commodity trading firm seeking to hire an exceptional early-career candidate to join a commercially driven business focused on the biofuels and energy transition sector. This is not a traditional junior trader or analyst role. The successful candidate will be involved in commercial origination, opportunity development, relationship management, and strategic decision-making from day one. The role sits at the intersection of energy markets, commodities, policy, and capital. You will work directly on identifying and developing opportunities across the biofuels value chain, engaging with counterparties, producers, traders, investors, and market participants in a fast-moving and evolving sector. This position is designed for someone with the intellectual capability and maturity to operate beyond a standard graduate or junior analytical role, and who is looking for significantly greater ownership and commercial exposure early in their career.

Key Responsibilities

• Originate and develop commercial opportunities across biofuels and related energy markets.
• Build and maintain relationships with producers, traders, investors, counterparties, and strategic partners.
• Identify opportunities arising from market dislocations, regulation, supply-demand dynamics, and policy developments.
• Analyse biofuels markets, feedstocks, pricing mechanisms, and energy transition trends.
• Support commercial negotiations, structuring discussions, and strategic transactions.
• Produce concise, high-quality market analysis and commercial materials.
• Work directly with senior leadership on origination initiatives and strategic projects.
• Take ownership of projects and commercial workstreams with minimal supervision.

What we are looking for

• Exceptional intellectual ability: You are an original thinker with strong abstract reasoning skills and the ability to learn quickly. You can connect ideas across disciplines, think independently, and operate comfortably in ambiguous commercial situations.
• Maturity and composure: You are credible, articulate, and able to represent the business professionally in external meetings. You communicate clearly and can hold your own in senior commercial environments.
• Commercial instinct: You have a genuine curiosity about how markets, policy, capital, and incentives interact. You naturally think about opportunities, risks, and strategic outcomes.
• Ownership mentality: You are proactive, self-directed, and comfortable taking responsibility. You do not require close management to deliver high-quality work.

Education and Experience

• Strong academic record with a degree in quantitative or analytical discipline, ideally Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering or similar.
• Candidates ranging from recent graduates through to individuals with 2–3 years of experience in analytical or commercial roles.
• Backgrounds such as biofuels, energy, commodities, trading, banking, advisory, or other high-performance analytical and commercial environments.
• Clear evidence of commercial awareness through internships, placements, entrepreneurial activity, or independent projects will also be considered.

What the Role Offers

• Direct exposure to senior commercial decision-making.
• Significant responsibility and autonomy from an early stage.
• Opportunity to build relationships and initiate opportunities in a rapidly growing sector.
• High learning velocity and steep development curve.
• Regular travel across Europe and beyond, with exposure to counterparties and markets at an international level.
• A meritocratic environment focused on capability, judgment, and initiative rather than tenure.
• Exposure to one of the most dynamic areas of global energy and commodities markets.