Energy-Trading P&L Control Recovery Leader

The mandate

Physical scheduling, exchange positions, bilateral contracts, transport, storage and environmental instruments are represented differently across trading and settlement systems. Product Control explains daily marks, but collateral movements, imbalance charges, volume true-ups and invoice disputes reach cash on another timeline. A volatile month produced an unexplained earnings reversal and the control head’s departure before the annual valuation and liquidity review.

The thirteen-month assignment begins within fifteen days and covers position completeness, curve and model governance, valuation adjustment, physical-versus-financial linkage, realised margin, settlement, collateral, close and management reporting. It must stabilise daily control without taking trading or risk decisions, then deliver four quarter-ends and one audited year-end with clear bridges across economic P&L, accounting result and cash.

Permanent recruitment opens in month seven. Handover requires 120 controlled trading days, valuation and reserve inventories, aged settlement breaks, collateral lineage, four quarter closes and three stressed simulations. During a seven-week overlap, the successor must resolve an unseen pipeline constraint and margin-call event, challenge a valuation reserve and present the position-to-cash bridge independently.

The leader may suspend unsupported P&L recognition, require position and price attestations, set valuation-control thresholds, approve delegated adjustments, redirect the authorised CHF 70 million remediation budget and replace temporary product-control leads. Trading strategy, limits, hedges, curve ownership, credit appetite, collateral agreements, accounting policy, public guidance and permanent appointments remain with authorised executives and committees.

Commercial dispatch, market-risk modelling, credit approval, treasury dealing, contract negotiation and system replacement sit outside scope. The leader may demand their evidence but cannot execute trades, alter nominations or certify a valuation model. Recovery cannot be claimed by moving breaks into unexplained reserves or postponing physical invoices, and the assignment closes after tested succession.

Why this seat is open

Trading explains positions, Operations settles physical flows, Risk controls exposure and Finance closes results; the unexplained reversal showed that their interfaces depended on one departing executive. Temporary authority is needed to rebuild daily evidence, arbitrate ownership and survive the full seasonal and audit cycle before permanent leadership takes control.

What you will own

• Reconcile physical nominations, metering, exchange and bilateral positions, transport, storage, certificates and derivative hedges daily.
• Bridge new deals, market movement, volume change, shape, optionality, reserve, settlement and prior-period correction into reported P&L.
• Govern price sources, curves, model use, valuation adjustments, independent verification, overrides and stale or illiquid inputs.
• Connect collateral calls, credit support, settlement timing, imbalance, invoice dispute and true-up to liquidity and realised margin.
• Command stressed closes involving pipeline constraint, weather shock, exchange outage, margin call and delayed physical evidence.
• Maintain issue ageing, trader attestation, adjustment authority, reserve release, audit evidence and committee escalation.
• Transfer 120 controlled days, four quarter-ends, year-end evidence and three simulations to the permanent leader.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior product-control or trading-finance authority across physical power, gas and environmental instruments.
• Reconciled trading positions, valuation, reserves, settlement, collateral and cash through volatile physical-market events.
• Understands transport, storage, imbalance, optionality, shaping and volume true-up effects on economic and accounting results.
• Challenged traders, quants, risk and operations without assuming deal, model-validation or risk-limit ownership.
• Led audited closes and liquidity explanations where physical and derivative systems used different event histories.
• Completed succession through live daily control and an unseen combined operational-and-collateral stress.

Non-negotiables

• Can start within fifteen days and remain onsite through all seasonal closes and three stress simulations.
• Will disclose interests involving utilities, traders, exchanges, brokers, model vendors, auditors and major counterparties.
• Brings physical energy product-control recovery; financial-markets valuation experience alone is insufficient.
• Will not trade, nominate, set limits, own curves, approve credit, negotiate collateral or conceal breaks in reserves.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe an energy P&L reversal you traced from physical event to settlement cash.
2. 49 words maximum. Which pipeline-and-margin event would you use to test daily control?
3. 49 words maximum. What evidence must the permanent leader challenge before releasing a valuation reserve?