Senior Market Risk Specialist

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) • Sacramento, CA, United States • $200k - $250k / year • 3w ago

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)

This posting may close at any time without notice after October 29th, 2024 so interested applicants are encouraged to apply early. This posting intends to fill one (1) regular full-time position, and establish an eligibility list which may be used to fill future vacancies over the next two (2) years.

The Commodity Risk team is thrilled to announce an exciting opportunity for a Senior Market Risk Specialist. This pivotal role will be at the forefront of a newly established stochastic forecasting initiative within commodity risk, offering a unique chance to influence the future direction and strategy at SMUD.

In this dynamic position, you will be responsible for building and modeling in Python, R, and SQL, as well as working with industry models for stochastic analysis. Collaborating closely with the trading and settlements groups, you will ensure accurate and timely execution of trades while developing and managing budgets, forecasting market trends, and conducting comprehensive risk assessments.

As a Senior Market Risk Specialist your expertise will directly contribute to SMUD’s ambitious goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2030. By minimizing commodity risk, you will play a crucial role in keeping costs low for the community, ensuring both environmental and economic sustainability.

Join us and become part of a team dedicated to driving innovation and excellence in commodity risk management. Your contributions will shape the future of SMUD and the broader energy landscape, making a tangible impact on our community and environment.

Purpose

To perform portfolio risk assessment by providing technical analysis and review of physical and financial power purchase options and hedges and alternative power production, correlations between energy prices and other variables, financial and commodity market futures prices and basis differentials and profitable opportunities in the medium-term wholesale energy market to ascertain the trade-off between profitability and cost stability, provide practical and feasible risk-neutral, cost effective energy trading solutions, and support SMUDs ability to manage its energy portfolio and financial risk.

Nature and Scope

Serves as a technical or functional expert or consultant providing expertise and/or direction in one or more areas of a professional discipline and assists in resolving complex problems and working on complex projects. May assist in developing lower level personnel.

Duties and Responsibilities

Synthesizes energy risk management and portfolio optimization theories and techniques with market results by evaluating the risk characteristics and market value of physical and financial power and gas purchases and sales to SMUD; and developing the risk/profit trade-off associated with changes in the operation of SMUD owned and/or controlled power plants.
Estimates the risk premiums embedded in retail energy sales contracts to support SMUD rate design efforts.
Coordinates data capture with various SMUD units and develops and maintains a database of future, current and historical bulk power and gas prices and data related to other variables having an impact on bulk power and gas prices.
Model retail contracts and evaluates their impact on SMUDs overall risk exposure.
Applies statistical and mathematical techniques to market data to analyze pricing trends and volatility.
Performs the technical analysis needed to estimate the risk characteristics and value to SMUD of alternative power supply and retail contract options.
Develops and provides effective reports and presentations for management of findings of analyses and evaluations of various market, portfolio and economic factors to support management decision making and formulation of risk management policies.
Maintains technical skills by keeping current in energy and financial commodities trading techniques; understanding the financial and risk implications of current and emerging bulk power and gas issues.
Assists in planning, coordinating, prioritizing, monitoring, and guiding work activities with work-unit employees to meet established task objectives and deadlines.
Performs related duties as required.

Required Education

BS/MA degree from an accredited college or university majoring in Economics, Engineering, Business Administration, Mathematics, Statistics or related field or equivalent experience. If no degree, at least nine (9+) years of relevant experience is required.

Required Experience Qualifications

At least five (5+) years of progressively responsible relevant work experience in a combination of resource/portfolio planning, pricing, contract analysis, operations, finance, engineering, energy trading, energy marketing or related fields.

Knowledge Of

SMUD policies, procedures, applicable MOUs and other special agreements; energy or financial commodities trading; financial and physical commodity markets and practices; electric power industry at an advanced level; WSPP power markets; restructured California power markets; California ISO, FERC and other applicable regulatory rules and procedures; physical generation resources and their operation; utility scheduling and trading practices; micro-economics and quantitative and statistical methods; decision analysis portfolio optimization, operations research and options pricing; safety policies, practices and procedures; standard operating procedures for modern office equipment including a computer and applicable software; and, English grammar, punctuation and vocabulary standards.

Skills To

Develop advanced quantitative analytical techniques for data analysis; develop analytical applications in person computer based spreadsheets and databases; effectively communicate findings to internal/external audiences; interpret and apply SMUD policies, procedures, applicable MOU and/or other special agreements; synthesize energy risk management and portfolio optimization theories and techniques with market realities; provide practical and feasible risk-neutral and cost-effective energy trading solutions; assist in developing and presenting comprehensive energy risk management and financial recommendations balancing analytical results with market realities; solve problems of medium complexity creatively and pragmatically; handle stress well under time pressure; collaborate and achieve “win-win” solutions with cross-departmental team members; utilize a personal computer and/or computer terminal systems and software relevant to the job; communicate effectively orally and in writing internally/externally; establish and maintain effective working relationships internally/externally.

Desirable Qualifications

Advanced proficiency in statistical analysis and modeling using Python, R, and/or SQL.
Experience with data visualization tools (e.g. Jupyter Notebook, R Shiny, PowerBI)
In-depth knowledge of the energy and gas sectors.