Senior Director, Dairy Commodity Risk Management

Darigold; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Darigold is seeking an experienced Senior Director of Dairy Commodity Risk Management to lead the company’s risk program, oversee trading and hedging, and partner with the B2B Commercial Team to protect margins.

This role reports to the CFO and collaborates with risk governance, portfolio managers, and legal to ensure policy compliance, disciplined risk limiting, and timely risk reporting. Strong derivatives knowledge is required.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and apply knowledge of Darigold's Corporate Risk Management Policy and applicable regulations.
• Support Finance & Risk Committee and senior leadership with policy amendments as market conditions evolve.
• Coordinate with General Counsel to ensure trading and hedging activities meet legal obligations.
• Participate in Finance & Risk Committee reporting on risk exposures and market conditions.
• Execute derivative transactions across dairy commodities (butter, cheese, whey, NFDM, milk powders, raw milk).
• Manage net open positions daily within VaR limits and monitor cascade of risk across the book.
• Monitor mark-to-market valuations daily and take corrective action when limits are approached or breached.
• Adhere to grace period requirements and escalate with rationale when exemptions may be needed.
• Enter derivative positions in the CTRM system per established deal-entry workflow.
• Design and execute hedging strategies to protect margins against adverse market moves.
• Manage inventory hedge timing and tenor aligned with turnover windows.
• Oversee forward sales hedges and match hedges to delivery months for core dairy products.
• Evaluate use of NDA Forward Milk Pricing Contract Program instruments within limits.
• Identify insight-driven trading opportunities and prepare proposals for CFO approval.

Job description

Darigold is seeking an experienced and motivated Senior Director, Dairy Commodity Risk Management to join our growing team. The Senior Director, Dairy Commodity Risk Management is a leadership role responsible for overseeing Darigold's Commodity Risk Management Program, executing authorized trading and hedging strategies and partnering closely with the B2B Commercial Team to protect and optimize company margins. This role operates within the governance framework established by Darigold's Corporate Risk Management Policy and reports functionally to the Chief Financial Officer, in close collaboration with the Vice President of B2B, B2B Portfolio Managers as well as the Head of Risk Management (Governance).

Darigold is the fifth largest dairy cooperative in the United States based on milk volume and one of the largest privately held organizations headquartered in the state of Washington. Since 1918, our producers have taken pride in producing dairy products with unsurpassed quality. Today, we are one of the nation's largest agricultural cooperatives, producing over 8.5 billion pounds of milk every year. Through innovative technology and our efficient, flexible production capabilities, we deliver value added products and customer-driven solutions. Darigold is now known throughout the world for bringing fresh, wholesome dairy products and ingredients from the Northwest to people all around the globe.

What You Will Do

Risk Governance & Policy Compliance -

• Maintain deep knowledge of and ensure compliance with Darigold's Corporate Risk Management Policy, all applicable CFTC regulations, CME Exchange rules and IRS requirements related to derivative trading and hedging activities.
• Support the Finance & Risk Committee, Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Head of Risk Management in proposing amendments to the risk management policy as market and business conditions evolve.
• Coordinate with the General Counsel and Risk Management Governance to ensure all trading and hedging activities adhere to legal and regulatory obligations.
• Participate in Finance & Risk Committee reporting, providing timely updates on risk exposures, limit utilization and market conditions.

Trading & Position Management -

• Execute authorized derivative transactions --- including exchange-traded futures, options, swaps, and OTC instruments --- across approved dairy commodities (butter, cheese, whey, NFDM, milk powders, raw milk and natural gas).
• Manage net open positions daily within established $VaR limits, ensuring the total ingredient portfolio remains within defined $VaR threshold and individual commodity and book-level limits.
• Monitor and confirm mark-to-market valuations daily using approved methodologies (CME daily settle prices, Black-Scholes valuation) and take prompt corrective action when positions approach or breach risk limits.
• Adhere to the five-business-day grace period for returning positions to compliance when limits are exceeded and elevate promptly to SLT and the Finance & Risk Committee with documented business rationale when a limit exemption may be warranted.
• Enter derivative positions across the full book structure (forward sales hedging, inventory hedging and insight-driven books) in the Aegis CTRM system in accordance with the established deal entry and approval workflow.

Hedging Program Execution -

• Design and execute hedging strategies to protect Darigold's margin from adverse market movements related to uncommitted inventory, fixed-price forward sales contracts and milk input costs.
• Manage inventory hedge timing and tenor in alignment with expected inventory turnover windows.
• Oversee forward sales hedges matched to the appropriate delivery months for butter, cheese, whey and NFDM. Mitigate risks and quantify impact to sales as appropriate.
• Evaluate and recommend use of NDA Forward Milk Pricing Contract Program (FMPCP) instruments as hedging tools within authorized position limits, ensuring daily position reporting reflects all accepted forward contracted milk.

Insight-Driven Trading -

• Identify and formally propose insight-driven trading strategies (e.g., expiration arbitrage, NDPSR/CME, NDPSR/GDT, crush spread) that leverage Darigold's market knowledge and position as a significant dairy market participant.
• Prepare written trading proposals using the approved template, including background analysis, data and fundamental analysis, trading plan, scenario analysis, risk factors and specific approval requests covering book, strategy, term, volume, capital and risk limits.
• Submit strategy proposals for review by the Risk Management Team and obtain approval from the CFO prior to execution.
• Monitor all active insight-driven strategies daily against assigned $VaR and stop-loss limits and elevate performance concerns promptly.

Commercial Team Partnership -

• Serve as a primary risk management partner to the Commercial Team (portfolio directors and governance), providing market risk analysis – internal and external, hedging recommendations and real-time position feedback to inform commercial decision-making.
• Collaborate with portfolio directors on commercial sales strategy to address basis risks that cannot be fully managed through derivatives (e.g., CME Spot vs. NDPSR basis exposure).
• Provide the Commercial Team with daily net position reports and $VaR analytics to ensure informed, risk-aware business and trading decisions.
• Engage proactively with B2B and B2C division leadership to align hedging strategies with forward sales pipelines and inventory management plans.
• Advise NDA on forward contracted milk volumes