Forward Deployed Engineer, Commodities Trading

Cedar Peak Partners; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Paid vacation

401(k) with company contributions

Life and disability coverage

Job summary

Cedar Peak Partners in Houston is seeking an experienced AI/Software Engineer to design and ship agentic tools for traders, analysts and operations, extending the firm's GenAI platform with connectors to trading systems and market data. You will work with commercial teams on prototypes that move to production, explain model capabilities to traders and management, and help decide what to build next.

5+ years in software/AI, fluent Python, and GenAI experience are required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years hands-on in software engineering, AI engineering, ML or data science.
• Fluent Python with modular code, tests, version control and reviews.
• Shipped GenAI work: prompting, RAG, tool use, agentic workflows; at least one orchestration framework (LangChain, LlamaIndex or similar).
• Clear with both engineers and traders, comfortable working independently.

Responsibilities

• Design and ship agentic tools for traders, analysts and operations.
• Extend the firm's GenAI platform with connectors to trading systems and market data.
• Build LLM/RAG solutions for pricing, supply/demand, and trade flows.
• Explain model capabilities and limitations to traders and management.

Skills

Hands-on software/AI engineering

Fluent Python

GenAI work experience

Orchestration frameworks

Cross-functional communication

Domain curiosity about commodities

Tools

LangChain

LlamaIndex

Job description

Our client is one of the global merchant energy and commodities trading houses: physical and financial desks across Europe, Asia and the Americas, long-term assets behind them, and a management team that has decided the next phase of the business gets built on AI. This is one of the engineering seats that makes that real on the trading floor.

The seat

This is a forward deployed seat. You sit with the commercial teams, not in a central function. You find the workflow problems worth solving, design the fix, ship it from prototype to production, and feed what you learn back to the platform engineers who own the core stack. As the AI portfolio grows you help decide what gets built, in what order, and whether it is actually being used.

What you will build

• Agentic tools for traders, analysts and operations: scoped with the desk, shipped by you
• Extensions to the firm's in-house GenAI platform: connectors into trading systems and market data, MCP servers, tool use, and skills specific to the trading domain
• Whatever the problem needs: LLMs and RAG for the unstructured work; forecasting and optimization for pricing, supply and demand, trade flows and operations
• Trust: you explain to traders and senior management what a model can and cannot do, so they use it with confidence
• The standard: reviews, evals, tooling decisions, and bringing other engineers up with you

What you bring

• 5+ years hands-on in software engineering, AI engineering, ML or data science
• Fluent Python with proper engineering habits: modular code, tests, version control, review
• Shipped GenAI work: prompting, RAG, tool use, agentic workflows, evaluation, and at least one orchestration framework (LangChain, LlamaIndex or similar)
• Clear with both engineers and traders, comfortable working on your own, no politics
• Real curiosity about how commodities markets and trading desks make money, and the appetite to learn the domain properly

Why this seat

• Short path from idea to production: flat structure, small teams, decisions made quickly
• Daily contact with trading desks and business units across the firm's main regions
• An experienced, well-funded AI team with the backing of senior management
• Competitive salary and full US benefits: medical, dental, vision, paid vacation, 401(k) with company contributions, life and disability coverage