Senior Trading Manager (Dry Bulk Commodities) - Fluency in Korean or Japanese Required

The Senior Trading Manager is responsible for driving and executing the Holcim Trading strategy in his/her geographical region. Thus includes:

• Lead  import/export efforts mineral materials, cement, and construction chemicals, managing commercial development with contractors and key stakeholders.
• Develop and execute export strategy, key account plans, and long-term commercial objectives in alignment with Trading, Operations, Marketing, and Innovation teams.
• Manage contract negotiation and execution for sales and purchases across product lines, ensuring compliance with internal processes, standards, and risk controls.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with key accounts and suppliers, acting as a liaison between management and Holcim teams to support business growth.
• Monitor and influence destination market development within the Holcim footprint, optimizing trade flows and supporting Group countries’ import/export strategies.
• Drive market intelligence and application-based insights to anticipate trends, identify opportunities, and attract new customers and suppliers.
• Oversee annual budgets, volume targets, and cost optimization, while prioritizing high-value projects and aligning internal resources for execution success.

MAIN ACTIVITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategy - Generate information for the purpose of market intelligence and business planning such as:

• Supports mid- to long-term planning and budgeting by providing market insights on supply and demand.
• Builds and maintains a strong industry network to stay informed and responsive.
• Contributes to projects and ad-hoc requests, ensuring alignment with strategic goals.

Business Objectives - Drive the value creation for and with existing customers and suppliers across all products, services and freight characterized by activities such as:

• Manages key customer and supplier relationships through regular engagement, contract handling, and proactive risk mitigation.
• Understands evolving customer/supplier needs and risk profiles to anticipate challenges and opportunities.
• Collaborates to enhance operations and product value, negotiating fair, compliant deals that support long-term partnerships and financial goals.

Grow the business - through the identification of new opportunities with new customers or suppliers. Activities include for example:

• Identifies and prioritizes new prospects with clear value propositions and engagement plans.
• Conducts visits and gathers insights from potential customers, suppliers, and market influencers to assess opportunities and risks.
• Builds trust and business cases to initiate transactions, aiming for long-term, repeatable business relationships.

Contribute to the execution of trade transactions through close coordination with support functions:

• Ensuring that Chartering and Operations are supplied with all information in a timely manner
• Responding to the information requests of Operations to ensure transactions are properly documented and executed in line with the defined standards.
• Supervising and supporting the Operations teams where required in the interaction with customers and suppliers.

People Development

• Coach, mentor and develop traders and junior colleagues, including newcomers and those from other functions, serving as a mentor and reference for business practices, market approach, customer management, product knowledge, and strategy development.
• Support team members by reviewing and approving work, assisting with performance reviews, helping set objectives, managing tasks like holiday approvals, sharing important updates, mediating team interactions, and coordinating workload and travel priorities.

Risk Management

• Ensures compliance with Holcim's Code of Business Conduct, Trading & Shipping policies, and Delegation of Authority (DOA) for trade approvals and contract execution.
• Safeguards Holcim’s reputation and brand by managing trading risks, resolving challenges, and upholding ethical standards.
• Conducts technical assessments of suppliers/products and actively manages open trading positions within approved authority levels.

PROFILE REQUIRED

Education/ Qualification:

• University degree in business, commercial or engineering preferred

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of experience in trading or comparable commercial activities within construction, chemicals, mineral materials, or related industries, including key account or supplier management with strong skills in negotiation, profit analysis, and customer relationship management.

Knowledge and skills:

Technical competencies:

• Knowledge of Building materials industry
• Knowledge of Shipping (preferably dry bulk)
• Knowledge of commodity Trading

Behavioral competencies:

• Leadership skills
• Proven ability to influence-cross functional teams without formal authority
• Politically savvy and diplomacy

Languages: 

• Fluency in English and either Korean or Japanese is required.