Operations Analyst

Boba; London; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A growing commodities trading firm in London seeks a detail-oriented individual for operational support within the Trading Product development team. The role involves P&L reconciliation, data analysis, and enhancing trading workflows. Ideal candidates will have strong Excel and SQL skills, a proactive approach to problem-solving, and a passion for process improvement. The company values inclusivity and personal growth, offering a supportive work environment with flexible hours.

Benefits

Annual discretionary performance bonus

Comprehensive health care cover

Life Insurance and Income Protection

Physical health allowance

39 days holiday

Up to £1K for personal growth goals

Pension contribution

A book a month for personal development

Support for professional certifications

Annual away day for socializing

Qualifications

• Strong skills in Excel and VBA.
• Fundamental SQL skills to build queries.
• Exceptional data manipulation skills.

Responsibilities

• Daily P&L reconciliation processes.
• Monitoring live P&L and issue alerts.
• Improving and automating workflows.

Skills

Excel

VBA

SQL

Data Manipulation

Analytical Thinking

Communication

Problem Solving

Job description

Who We Are

Boba Commodities are a successful, rapidly growing commodities trading firm with the wider purpose of investing into a better future for us all.

Our vision

To invest our trading profits into community enhancing businesses across the globe that share our values.

Our mission

Through our trading strategies, maximise the opportunity in the commodities and other markets to help us realise our vision.

We believe

Social value and long-term profit are inextricably linked. We carry this philosophy through to the role we play in the commodities markets. As part of this belief, we have ensured we are a carbon negative company, and we double offset our carbon footprint, backdated from our inception as a company.

Where we are in our journey

From being founded in 2013, we have grown significantly over the past 12 years. We are now looking to scale our business processes, technology infrastructure and levels of automation of our trading processes. To add to the team, we are looking for a hands-on person who has a passion for enabling others, strong administrative, organisation and time management skills, commercial focus and excellent communication to help support us and make our vision a reality.

Our values

• We believe in 80/20, the pursuit of non-perfectionism: We ensure we are always focused on the most impactful drivers and results and its value over time. We move fast and get things done
• Adapt & Evolve: We are agile and growth oriented. We won't get everything right first time, but we are open-minded to learning from mistakes and failures. We adapt and evolve whenever needed.
• Best Ideas Rise To The Top: We champion the best ideas, not our own ideas. We ensure we listen to other ideas, regardless of the source and embrace cognitive diversity and creating a psychologically safe environment where every voice is heard
• Care Personally: We care about each other at a personal level as well as ourselves. The more we understand each other, the more effective we will be.
  
  

These core values are intrinsic in our culture and in everything we do.

What are you going to do?

The role sits within the Trading Product development team, reporting directly into the Trading Product Manager with a mandate to take ownership for performing the essential operational processes that support our trading team. These include:

• Daily P&L reconciliation processes and error/break resolution
• Monitoring live P&L and issue alerts through the day for the trading team
• Maintenance and taking ownership of a variety of models and reports, working directly with your immediate team, Engineering team and trading team to communicate issues or changes
• Monitor and manage trade flows, ensuring all deadlines are met
• Monitoring and updating key market alerts
• Improving and automating workflows across the business
• Liaising with 3rd parties (e.g. brokers, vendors) and IT support to resolve issues
  
  
  

Requirements

We need someone who is or must have the following to allow them to thrive in this role...

• Strong skills in Excel and VBA and an aptitude to learn more
• Fundamental SQL skills to build queries and analyse data
• Exceptional data manipulation skills, demonstrated through previous projects/work
• Strong attention to detail
• Strong ownership of outcomes and the drive to deliver them
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with an ability to liaise with co-workers at all levels of the business. Specifically skilled at presenting complex information in concise and clear ways
• Analytical, structured, logical thinking and problem solving. Process based approach to each task
• Evidence of being able to clearly establish priorities but remain adaptable in a constantly changing environment
• Strong team player, with high levels of self-motivation and cares personally for their co-workers
• Reliable and dependable to get the critical work done without close supervision or management
• Flexible approach to working hours. We work in two main shifts to support coverage for the trading team of either 7:30am-3:30pm or 12pm-8pm but are flexible on whether that is from home or the office and subject to coverage and completing onboarding training to be able to work autonomously
• Thirst for improving processes and ways of working for greater productivity
• Strong logical problem-solving skills
• Proactive approach to figuring out how systems work
• Evidence to clearly prioritise and remain adaptable in a constantly changing environment
  
  
  

Examples of success in this role include the following...

• The daily operational processes are performed accurately and consistently
• Issues are raised and escalated to management on a timely basis
• Ideas for improving efficiency or automation of the processes are either enacted on or raised as a clear requirement request to the wider Trading Product team
• Through developing a strong understanding of the trade lifecycle, an understanding of the urgent work versus the important work for effective prioritisation
• Contributes to the binding the team and company together through being proactive and offering to support others in their role
• Grow their technical skills to learn how to automate, improve or streamline the current processes
  
  
  

It would be even better, but not essential, if you have one or more of...

• Operations experience in a financial services environment
• Middle/Back office experience
• Experience of using Bloomberg/Reuters
• Experience of working in a support role focused on error resolution
• Understanding of derivatives trading and/or trade lifecycle
• Understanding of agile/scrum/Kanban methodologies of working
  
  
  

Personal Fit

Our values run deep. You can come from any background, but championing our culture is critical. We're looking for a team member who:

• Shares our vision
• Embodies the Boba culture
• Reliable, accountable and dependable to be the "rock" in the team
• Someone that likes process and thrives in it. They enjoy the dopamine-hit releasing nature of completing a regular set of tasks, that enables our business engine to run every day
• Curious about the "why" but very content with doing the "what" really well
• Loves solving problems and finding more efficient ways to work
• Leads by first deeply understanding a problem and then works with the teams to find solutions
• Has a keen interest and seeks understanding of the wider business processes across teams; is intellectually curious and able to connect the dots to find better ways of working
• Does not sit back and wait to be assigned work, proactively finds meaningful and valuable work to support the team and business
  
  
  

Why diversity and inclusion is highly important to us

An inclusive and diverse workplace means we highly value differences in race, gender, nationality, culture, sexual orientation, physical ability, cognition, age and background as these differences bring new or different ways of thinking about our work. Therefore, creating a workplace culture that advances belonging and psychological safety brings a mutual respect and acceptance of others and fuels our values of caring personally, adapting and evolving and the best ideas rising to the top.

Application and Interview Process

We are small but growing fast and we need the right people who can help us grow and retain and embed our culture and values. Our selection process is both rigorous and compassionate, but we highly encourage you to approach the journey as your authentic self. You are deciding about whether this role is for you as much as we are, so if we are a natural fit for you and you find yourself enjoying this process then you will likely thrive working at Boba. Below is an outline of what you can expect from the process, but this may change or evolve.

How To Apply

If you apply directly, please include your CV and a cover letter. Whilst your CV can cover what you have experienced, achieved, and accomplished, we really encourage you to take the opportunity to describe your personal 'why' and 'how' in your cover letter to tell us more about you as a person. e.g., Why you are interested in the role with us, and how you work with people or projects or problems, what do our purpose and values mean to you.

If you are applying through one of our recruitment partners, please share this with them so they can brief us about you. We want to know who you are as a person and not just what you have done in the past. Applicants we think could be a good fit will be invited to Round 1 which will be done in two parts:

Round 1 - Part 1 of 2: Online Assessment

We will ask you to complete a basic values and aptitudes assessment exercise that takes about 10 minutes. This has been calibrated by our own teams taking this assessment to ensure it represents the strengths that a person will need to have to thrive in the role. It allows us to understand your strengths and most importantly removes a large part of the subjectivity that can enter the first stage of candidate selection and provides a consistent and level starting point for all applicants. It also significantly reduces the risk of unconscious bias at the application stage, so we can ensure each applicant has the same starting point and we can find the best talent.

The workplace personality assessment part does not have a minimum threshold, and we only use this to guide us on areas to interview in future stages. We highly value cognitive diversity, so this has no right or wrong answers, so please answer as your authentic self.

Round 1 - Part 2 of 2: Video Interview

Our next stage will be a 30min video interview (via MSTeams) with Tamas (Head of Trading Product Development) to get to know you a bit better. It allows us to see and hear how you communicate and allows you the opportunity to tell us a bit more about yourself than a CV or cover letter can do. Just relax and be yourself. We may throw a curveball question to you which is just to give us an idea of how you might approach a situation or scenario.

Round 2: Getting to know each other

Approx. 2hrs with breaks. We would love to host you at our office and meet you in person, and we will pay any reasonable associated travel costs. Typical format will be:

• Meet with our Head of Trading Product (Tamas) for up to 45mins
• Problem solving/situational case study exercise for 30mins
  
  

Break: One of the team will take you for a tea/coffee and informal Q&A/chat (15mins)

• Meet with our Chief of Staff & Chief People and Culture Officer (Iain) for a 30min interview (part 1)
• Wrap Up - 5 mins
  
  
  

We will typically be in touch within a week on next steps after this stage.

Round 3: Final Round

Approx. 1.5 hours with breaks. This will be in-person in our office again, and we will pay any associated travel costs. The structure will likely be:

• Meet with our Chief of Staff & Chief People and Culture Office (Iain)for a 2nd round interview (part 2)
• Meet with our Head of Trading (Marc) for up to 30mins inc. any questions you may have
  
  

Break. (We typically ask one of the team you've not met yet to take you for a tea/coffee for about 15mins). If we both wish to continue, then:

• Meet with our CEO (Samir) for up to 30mins inc. any questions you may have
  
  

If you have any questions about the process along the way, just ask us at [e-mail].

Good luck and we look forward to meeting you!

Benefits

What we can offer you

We are growing and adding to how we want to make Boba the best place to work on the planet and are always listening to what our team think we can do to achieve that. On top of a culture of personal growth, caring personally, inclusivity where your ideas are heard and often implemented, we can offer:

• £25-30K per annum (depending on experience) salary plus annual discretionary performance bonus
• Work/life balance. We mainly trade in US markets, and as a result need to ensure we have Engineering available to support the Trading team. However, outside of having appropriate coverage in place, we work hard to stick to an average 8 hour day and you will have a large amount of autonomy over your work. We value output and engagement and we do not like presenteeism, we know that everyone has a life outside of work
• Comprehensive health care cover, including mental health, dental and optical cover, with zero excess for the employee (and tax is paid by us!) via Aviva
• Life Insurance and Income Protection via YuLife
• Physical health allowance where we provide an allowance to each employee to use towards a physical activity of their choice (e.g., gym membership, Brazilian ju-jitsu, personal trainer, running club; pretty much anything as long as it gets you moving!)
• 39 days holiday, to be taken whenever you want subject to ensuring we have operational and trading coverage. We do not mandate you work public holidays nor do we mandate you must take them off, instead we recognise that UK bank holidays do not always align to important dates for everyone so give our employees the choice
• Up to £1K a year to support one personal amazing growth goal. Our only guidelines are that it cannot be incongruent to our purpose or values, and it must push you out of your comfort zone
• Pension contribution
• A book a month for personal development
• A gift on your birthday
• Support to pursue professional certifications/qualifications
• Boba Day - an optional annual away day for socialising and training together
• ‘Bobaversary' recognition for reaching significant milestones in your career with us
  
  

Other examples of situational/ad-hoc schemes we have run for our employees:

• Surprise and delight - we sent our people gifts from us during mandatory WFH periods, just to show we are thinking about them
• Social events & celebratory gifts for achieving team goals
• Fridge full of snacks and drinks (healthy and less-healthy options are available!)