Head of Trade

BAFT is the leading global forum for bringing the financial community, its solution providers and stakeholders together to collaborate on defining best market practices that facilitate efficient delivery of trade and cash management products and service offerings for their clients. 

This position is the primary subject matter expert that supports all international trade and SCF related initiatives of the association.  The role is dedicated to advancing the goals of the international trade community through promotion of thought leadership, development of best practice guidance, policy advocacy and education. This is a critical senior leadership position in BAFT reporting to the CEO, with high industry visibility, and is an essential contributor to the success of the Association.  

The incumbent will directly support and oversee the various trade related committees, councils and working groups to define the industry priorities, assess common concerns and opportunities, and drive collaborative solutions to advance the interests of the industry. This requires subject matter knowledge to be able to synthesize concerns and develop meaningful plans to address them. This involves engaging in policy advocacy on a global basis and building industry coalitions with local or other global industry organizations to support engagement in various geographies. The incumbent is responsible for delivering white papers that can be leveraged for BAFT initiatives, by partner industry organizations, as well as by BAFT members for their own engagement with local regulators. As a subject matter expert for trade and SCF, the incumbent will also support trade-related education initiatives, conferences and workshops, and will represent the organization in various industry forums. 

The incumbent must be familiar with the roles, responsibilities, and processes of financial institutions (and non-banks) in the execution of trade finance across various products including documentary trade, guarantees/standby LCs, supply chain finance, receivables, structured trade, distribution and other trade related products.  The incumbent should also have familiarity with trade finance rules, technology, standards bodies, regulatory concerns and the broad trade ecosystem.  Understanding the role of other industry associations, governmental counterparties and MDBs, and having working relationships with those entities is very helpful.

• Minimum 10 years’ work-related experience in trade finance, preferably in the financial services industry 

• Work experience should consist of in-depth experience in trade products within a financial institution and a broader understanding of global trade.   

• Strong technical expertise in Trade Finance including traditional trade, open account trade, and structured trade/export finance products 

• Excellent communication skills including oral, written, and presentation 

• Good understanding of the role of credit, risk management, operations, regulatory compliance and relative understanding of decision processes within the context of executing trade transactions 

• Demonstrated project management and execution experience  

• Demonstrated maturity, organizational, and leadership ability 

• Strong relationship-building acumen 

• Ability to communicate with executives and committee members on complex industry issues
• Ability to manage interactions with BAFT committee members, regulatory stakeholders, and outside experts to achieve organizational goals 

• Ability to engage effectively with an international audience in both bi-lateral and industry meetings    

• No direct supervision authority 

• Estimated travel is 15%.