Business Analyst - Energy Trading & Risk (Zema)

Programmers.io; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Programmers.io is seeking a Senior Business Analyst to bridge energy trading, risk management, and market data teams. You will translate front, middle, and back-office needs into clear requirements and own how oil and gas prices and forward curves are sourced, built, validated, and analyzed using ZEMA Analyzer.

You will partner with traders, risk managers, schedulers, settlements, and finance to document requirements, build functional specs, and drive UAT and go-live.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience as a business analyst, with 5+ years in energy or commodity trading and risk management.
• Hands-on experience with ZEMA Analyzer (ZE PowerGroup), including building reports, curves, formulas, and data profiles.
• Solid understanding of physical and financial commodity trading (crude, refined products, NGLs, natural gas, or power) and the deal lifecycle.
• 5+ years of hands-on oil and gas commodity curve and pricing experience, including forward curve construction, price assessments, benchmarks, and differentials (e.g., WTI, Brent, Henry Hub, Mont Belvieu, Gulf Coast products).
• Working knowledge of risk concepts, including mark-to-market, P&L attribution, VaR, exposure, hedging, and limits.
• Advanced Excel skills, including complex formulas, pivot tables, Power Query, data validation, and lookup functions; VBA or macros are a plus.
• Strong business communication skills, including clear writing, confident presentation, and the ability to explain technical topics to traders and executives.
• Proven ability to write requirements, user stories, process maps, and test cases.

Responsibilities

• Partner with traders, risk managers, schedulers, settlements, and finance teams to gather and document business requirements.
• Translate trading and risk workflows into functional specifications, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Run workshops, process walkthroughs, and gap analyses across front, middle, and back offices.
• Act as the primary liaison between business users and technology, data, and vendor teams.
• Configure and maintain ZEMA Analyzer reports, profiles, curves, and data views for trading and risk users.
• Define data requirements for market prices, forward curves, fundamentals, and reference data loaded through ZEMA.
• Build and validate derived curves, spreads, formulas, and time-series transformations.
• Monitor data quality, investigate gaps or anomalies, and coordinate fixes with data owners and the vendor.
• Train and support end users and document standard ZEMA workflows.
• Build and maintain forward curves for crude, refined products, NGLs, and natural gas, including basis, location, and grade differentials.
• Map price assessments (Platts, Argus, OPIS, NYMEX, ICE) to curves, contracts, and pricing formulas.
• Support deal pricing logic, including index averages, trigger and fixed pricing, roll and holiday calendars, and unit or currency conversions.
• Validate end-of-day settlements and curve marks and explain curve movements to traders and risk teams.
• Define curve governance, including ownership, construction methodology, interpolation and extrapolation rules, and approval controls.
• Support P&L, mark-to-market, position, and exposure reporting requirements.
• Define requirements for risk measures such as VaR, Greeks, credit exposure, and limit monitoring.
• Analyze curve and price data to support valuation, end-of-day processes, and risk controls.
• Contribute to system implementations and integrations across CTRM/ETRM, market data, and data platforms.
• Write test scenarios, lead UAT, and support go-live and hypercare.
• Maintain process maps, data dictionaries, and business rules documentation.
• Present findings and recommendations to managers and senior stakeholders.

Skills

Business analysis

Energy trading

ZEMA Analyzer

Data analysis

Excel

VBA

Stakeholder management

Requirements gathering

UAT

Document writing

Education

Bachelor's degree in finance/economics/engineering/computer science

Tools

ZEMA Analyzer

Job description

We are hiring a Senior Business Analyst to bridge energy trading, risk management, and market data teams. You will translate front, middle, and back-office needs into clear requirements and own how oil and gas prices and forward curves are sourced, built, validated, and analyzed using ZEMA Analyzer.

Key responsibilities:

Business analysis and stakeholder engagement

• Partner with traders, risk managers, schedulers, settlements, and finance teams to gather and document business requirements.
• Translate trading and risk workflows into functional specifications, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Run workshops, process walkthroughs, and gap analyses across front, middle, and back offices.
• Act as the primary liaison between business users and technology, data, and vendor teams.

ZEMA Analyzer and market data

• Configure and maintain ZEMA Analyzer reports, profiles, curves, and data views for trading and risk users.
• Define data requirements for market prices, forward curves, fundamentals, and reference data loaded through ZEMA.
• Build and validate derived curves, spreads, formulas, and time-series transformations.
• Monitor data quality, investigate gaps or anomalies, and coordinate fixes with data owners and the vendor.
• Train and support end users and document standard ZEMA workflows.

Oil and gas curves and pricing:

• Build and maintain forward curves for crude, refined products, NGLs, and natural gas, including basis, location, and grade differentials.
• Map price assessments (Platts, Argus, OPIS, NYMEX, ICE) to curves, contracts, and pricing formulas.
• Support deal pricing logic, including index averages, trigger and fixed pricing, roll and holiday calendars, and unit or currency conversions.
• Validate end-of-day settlements and curve marks and explain curve movements to traders and risk teams.
• Define curve governance, including ownership, construction methodology, interpolation and extrapolation rules, and approval controls.

Trading and Risk analytics

• Support P&L, mark-to-market, position, and exposure reporting requirements.
• Define requirements for risk measures such as VaR, Greeks, credit exposure, and limit monitoring.
• Analyze curve and price data to support valuation, end-of-day processes, and risk controls.

Delivery and testing

• Contribute to system implementations and integrations across CTRM/ETRM, market data, and data platforms.
• Write test scenarios, lead UAT, and support go-live and hypercare.
• Maintain process maps, data dictionaries, and business rules documentation.
• Present findings and recommendations to managers and senior stakeholders.

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience as a business analyst, with 5+ years in energy or commodity trading and risk management.
• Hands-on experience with ZEMA Analyzer (ZE PowerGroup), including building reports, curves, formulas, and data profiles.
• Solid understanding of physical and financial commodity trading (crude, refined products, NGLs, natural gas, or power) and the deal lifecycle.
• 5+ years of hands-on oil and gas commodity curve and pricing experience, including forward curve construction, price assessments, benchmarks, and differentials (e.g., WTI, Brent, Henry Hub, Mont Belvieu, Gulf Coast products).
• Working knowledge of risk concepts, including mark-to-market, P&L attribution, VaR, exposure, hedging, and limits.
• Advanced Excel skills, including complex formulas, pivot tables, Power Query, data validation, and lookup functions; VBA or macros are a plus.
• Strong business communication skills, including clear writing, confident presentation, and the ability to explain technical topics to traders and executives.
• Proven ability to write requirements, user stories, process maps, and test cases.