Global Head of Procurement for Financial Hedging

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.

As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact

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The Team:

The Procurement team is made of 110 professionals working across the world to create competitive advantage for pladis through mid-term sourcing strategies and strong supplier relationships. Our 2025 Procurement vision aims at delivering more value for the business along 5 key business deliverables: Supply Continuity, Cost Out, Cash Flow optimization, Sustainability and Supplier Innovation.

We work as a matrix organization, with Global Categories leveraging the pladis global size and Local Procurement ensuring a strong connection and proximity with our 5 regions (UK & Ireland, Western Europe & Emerging markets, Middle East – North Africa – India, Turkey – Eastern Europe – Central Asia, and North America).

The Role:

The role holder of Global Procurement Head for Financial Hedging reports directly to the Raw Materials Categories Lead, who in turn reports into the CPO. 

Primary purpose is to be the Leader of the strategy and implementation of Commodity Price Risk Management framework, for £1bn of spend across multiple categories ranging from Cocoa, Wheat, Fats &Oils, Sugar, Dairy, Diesel, Energy to Packaging  

Key responsibilities include:

• Responsible for monitoring exchange traded commodity markets on a real time basis in order to execute against the approved trading strategies and CPRM policy. Is an as authorised trader for hedging wheat, cocoa, gas and power, diesel and palm oil markets via financial instruments. (Futures, SWAPS , Options, Structured Products)  

• Responsible for maintaining the commodities Futures & Swaps trading book on a daily basis, so as to be able to have a view in real time of the companys exposure. 

• Work closely with Treasury and Finance to report futures purchases, hedge gains & losses and cashflow impacts from hedging activities. Keep treasury appraised of currency requirements.  

• Responsible for utilising Technical Analysis, Econometrics and Regression Modelling to analyse past market price movements, and provide Global Lead for CPRM with a view of market direction and price forecast. 

• Monitoring the global macroeconomic environment for issues that could have repercussions for commodity prices. 

• Propose timely risk management strategies for key exchange traded commodities to Global Lead for CPRM on a monthly basis, and support with obtaining approval at the Procurement Board. 

• Work with global and regional procurement teams to maintain a Financial Dashboard for key commodities purchases & PPV across all clusters. 

• Work closely with commercial teams, to support them with market insights that will help them justify pricing proposal to retail customers 

• Take the lead in AOP price setting process for exchange traded commodities across all clusters. 

• Support Global Lead  for Raw Materials in continuing to evolve the risk management tool kit. 

• Support the Research & Insights Manager with fundamentals research into the key commodities 

Education, Qualifications and Experience:

•  Graduate qualification, Masters desirable
• Market interest, Technical analysis, fundamental analysis and hedging tool knowledge 
•  Knowledge of commodity markets, risk management, forward buying, spot market transactions, exchange rates & tax implications. Understands the principles of price risk management, supply risk & cost minimisation 
• Experience in trading financial derivatives, Futures & Options, SWAPS. A min. of 5 years, with a proven success in risk management at regional or global level, in a worldwide organization
• Procurement experience preferably within the food ingredients arena 
• Ability to deal with ambiguity within a complex and multicultural environment
• Proven ability to work with cross-functional team, with a collaborative mindset.
• Natural leadership & influence skills
• Strong analytical skills
• Ability to be hands on operationally as well as building a long term strategic vision
• English is a must, proficiency in another language is desirable
• Previous work experience in matrix procurement organization
• Advanced Excel & Power Point skills
• Available to work in Chiswick 3 days a week / travel on request to suppliers.

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidate to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business.
We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.