ETRM Business Systems Analyst

Vaco LLC; Kitchener (MS); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Vaco in Houston, TX is hiring a Business Analyst for an onsite role focused on energy trading and ETRM systems. You will learn the end-to-end trade lifecycle, provide user support, and translate business needs into actionable requirements.

You will work with traders, schedulers, and accounting to document processes, run SQL data checks, and contribute to testing and training materials as part of a growing ETRM team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative or analytical field.
• Strong numerical problem solving; can reason about numbers and formulas.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Solid Excel skills with lookups and pivot tables.
• Precision in settlement and invoicing; small errors matter.
• Willingness to learn the commodity trading business.

Responsibilities

• Learn the end-to-end trade lifecycle and how the ETRM platform supports each step.
• Provide day-to-day application support; triage questions and reproduce issues.
• Investigate data questions using SQL and validate volumes, prices, positions.
• Document current-state processes and maintain glossaries.
• Gather and write requirements for enhancements and projects.
• Support testing: create test cases and track defects.
• Assist with onboarding, security setups, and training material.
• Support system interfaces and scheduled jobs including monitoring.
• Contribute to implementation, upgrades, and post-go-live support.

Skills

Quantitative skills

Communication skills

Excel proficient

Attention to detail

Willingness to learn

Problem solving

SQL exposure

Markets coursework

Programming basics

Education

Bachelor's degree (analytic field)

Tools

Python

C#

VBA

R

Job description

Business Analyst

Full time

Onsite - Houston, TX

ABOUT THE ROLE

Supplies and markets refined products and marine fuels, and that business runs on energy trading and risk management (ETRM) software — the systems that capture trades, schedule and move product, track inventory, value positions, and settle and invoice with counterparties. The IT Business Analyst I – ETRM role supports the business users who live in those systems every day (traders, schedulers, supply and logistics, operations, accounting), along with helping to configure and troubleshoot the other systems these groups rely on daily.

You do not need to know the commodity trading business on day one. You need to be analytical, curious, careful with detail, and genuinely interested in learning how physical and financial energy markets work. We will teach you the domain; we are hiring for aptitude and work ethic.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Learn the end-to-end trade lifecycle — deal capture, confirmation, scheduling and logistics, inventory movement, valuation, settlement, invoicing, and accounting hand-off — and how our ETRM platform supports each step.
• Provide day-to-day application support: triage user questions and issues, reproduce problems, document them clearly, and drive them to resolution with internal teams or the software vendor.
• Investigate data questions using SQL — validate volumes, prices, positions, and invoice amounts across source systems and the ETRM database.
• Document current-state processes as written procedures, process maps, and swim-lane diagrams; keep reference material and terminology glossaries current.
• Gather and write requirements for enhancements and projects, and translate business language into specifications developers and configurators can build from.
• Support testing: build test cases, execute functional and regression testing, and track defects through to closure.
• Assist with user onboarding, security group and permission setup, and training material.
• Support system interfaces and scheduled jobs — market data feeds, pricing, accounting exports — including monitoring and basic troubleshooting.
• Contribute to implementation, upgrade, and system replacement projects: data validation, reconciliation, cutover checklists, and post-go-live support.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Bachelor's degree, completed or completing, in physics, mathematics, statistics, finance, economics, engineering, computer science, information systems, or a comparable analytical field.
• Strong quantitative and problem-solving skills; comfort reasoning about numbers, units, and formulas, and the instinct to notice when something does not tie out.
• Strong written and verbal communication — the ability to explain a technical finding to a non-technical audience.
• Solid Excel skills, including lookups, pivot tables, and work with large data sets.
• Precision and follow-through. In settlement and invoicing work, small errors carry real dollars.
• Willingness to learn the commodity trading business and to ask questions until the answer makes sense.

Preferred

• Exposure to SQL or any relational database.
• Coursework, internship, or project work involving markets, derivatives, pricing, risk, or time-series data.
• Scripting or programming experience in any language (Python, C#, VBA, R).
• Familiarity with process mapping, requirements documentation, or Agile delivery.
• Interest in refined products, marine fuels, or physical commodity supply and logistics.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• 90 days: You can navigate the ETRM system confidently, handle routine user requests independently, and describe the trade lifecycle in your own words.
• 6 months: You own a functional area of support, write your own requirements and test cases, and answer data questions with SQL without hand-holding.
• 12 months: You are a trusted point of contact for a business group and contribute meaningfully to enhancement and project work.

WHY THIS ROLE

ETRM is a narrow, well-paid specialty at the intersection of commodity markets, accounting, and enterprise systems, and there is no college major that produces it. This role is a deliberate on-ramp: direct exposure to traders, schedulers, and accountants, hands-on work in a live trading platform, and

the kind of domain knowledge that takes most people years to assemble. COI is actively modernizing its ETRM footprint, so you will see requirements, selection, and implementation work early rather than years into your career.