Role Overview
We’re looking for a Quantitative Analyst to join our agricultural commodities trading desk in Amsterdam. This is an exciting opportunity for someone with quantitative and programming skills who is eager to apply data science and statistical modelling in a real trading environment. You’ll become a key part of a research-driven trading operation, working with cross-functional teams to transform market data into robust analytical tools that support trading decisions. The role has a particular focus on crop yield and acreage forecasting, supply/demand fundamentals and price dynamics across agricultural futures markets.
Over time, you’ll play a key role in building and improving the desk’s quantitative infrastructure, developing models and data systems that directly inform trading strategies and risk management. The role provides long term development potential for someone eager to demonstrate their skills and experience in the fast-paced soft commodities environment.
Business Overview
Established in 1783, ED&F Man is an employee-owned agricultural commodities merchant with 2,800 people in 43 countries and annual revenue in excess of $8bn. We trade sugar, coffee, molasses, cotton, animal feed and fish oils. Corporate responsibility is ingrained in our culture. We are passionate about sustainable production, take care to limit the environmental impact of our operations and actively support the communities in which we work.
Key Accountabilities
- Design, develop and maintain crop yield and acreage forecasting models using statistical and machine learning techniques.
- Build and manage data pipelines to ingest, clean and process large datasets from government sources, satellite imagery, weather feeds and proprietary data providers.
- Conduct quantitative research on supply/demand fundamentals, price relationships and seasonal patterns across agricultural commodities markets.
- Develop systematic, rules-based models to identify trading signals and opportunities across futures markets.
- Build price forecasting frameworks incorporating supply/demand fundamentals, macroeconomic variables and historical price relationships.
- Collaborate closely with traders to translate quantitative model outputs into actionable trading insights and risk signals.
- Develop and maintain Python-based tooling for data visualization, backtesting and model performance monitoring.
- Integrate third-party APIs and external data vendors into the desk’s analytics infrastructure.
- Document models, research processes, and results clearly and communicate findings to traders and senior stakeholders.
Skills and Experience
- 4+ years of experience in a quantitative, data science or research role within commodities trading, finance or a related analytical field.
- Bachelors Degree educated ideally in the fields of maths, economics or statistics.
- Strong Python programming skills, including experience with libraries such as pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn and data visualization tools.
- Experience building and maintaining data pipelines, including ETL processes and API integrations.
- Solid grounding in statistical modelling, regression analysis and quantitative research methods.
- Familiarity with commodities markets and supply/demand fundamentals.
- Ability to work independently, prioritize multiple projects and operate effectively in a fast-paced trading environment.
- Experience with crop modelling, remote sensing data or weather and climate datasets (e.g. ENSO indicators or soil moisture indices) would be desirable.
- Experience developing systematic or quantitative trading models, including price forecasting or signal generation in commodity or financial markets.
- Familiarity with SQL databases and cloud data platforms such as AWS, GCP or Azure.
- Understanding of futures markets and commodity price dynamics.
- Experience using version control systems such as Git and working in collaborative code development environments.
We recognise that talent comes in many forms, and we value potential just as much as experience. If this role excites you but you don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply.
Our Offer
We provide a fast-paced, stimulating and truly global environment, which will stretch your abilities and channel your talents. We also offer competitive salary and benefits combined with outstanding career development opportunities in one of the global leaders in soft commodity trading.
Our Values
Respect, Integrity, Meritocracy, Client Focus, Entrepreneurship
Our values define who we are. They are the fundamental beliefs that determine our actions and guide our behaviour. They influence the way we communicate and collaborate, and define the way we engage with our clients, partners, and communities. Our values are underpinned by a set of essential behaviours, which form part of our performance management approach. Delivering on our objectives is very much about ‘what’ we do, but these essential behaviours also provide a guide and measure for ‘how’ we do things. Our performance essentials are Take Initiative, Self‐Management, Deliver Results and Collaboration.
Our Commitment
We are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive and diverse work environment where all employees are treated with dignity and respect. We are committed to promoting equal opportunities in employment and are focussed on actively building and developing diverse teams. All qualified applicants will receive equal treatment without regard to race, colour, sex, gender, age, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, marital or civil partner status, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender reassignment (identity, gender expression), genetic information or any characteristic protected by local law.
