Business Development Director

Position Overview

We are seeking a commercially astute and strategically minded Business Development Director to establish and lead our new regional office. This is a high-impact leadership role tasked with full Profit and Loss(P&L) ownership, driving aggressive growth initiatives, and positioning the company as a dominant force in the marine fuels landscape. The ideal candidate will act as a commercial architect, responsible for shaping long-term strategy, forging high-value stakeholder relationships, and expanding our physical and paper bunker footprint.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Market Expansion

• Spearhead comprehensive business development strategies to penetrate markets, with a primary focus on scaling our presence across the shipping and energy sectors.

Market Intelligence & Commercial Analysis

• Monitor and analyze global and regional bunker market dynamics, including supply-demand fundamentals for VLSFO, HSFO, and MGO, freight market trajectories, geopolitical shifts, and evolving IMO environmental regulations.
• Identify arbitrage opportunities and leverage market intelligence to drive data-backed commercial decisions.

Client & Stakeholder Management

• Cultivate, manage, and sustain senior-level relationships with key clients, including shipowners, charterers, and trading houses.
• Design and execute comprehensive marketing strategies to enhance brand equity and secure long-term offtake and supply agreements.

Risk Management & Financial Oversight

• Manage portfolio exposure and price volatility through robust hedging strategies utilizing futures, swaps, and OTC instruments.
• Oversee credit lines, collateral management, and collections to mitigate counterparty credit risk.
• Deploy advanced profit-optimizing and risk-mitigation structures—including Fixed Forward Price (FFP), Capped Supply Contracts (CSC), Discounted Floating Price (DFP), and Physical Collar Contracts (PCC)—to maximize margins while securing price stability for clients.

Operational Compliance & Team Development

• Ensure strict adherence to internal risk limits, compliance protocols, and applicable local regulatory frameworks.
• Leverage extensive knowledge of Maritime Law and Lien rights to protect company assets and secure contractual obligations.
• Lead manpower planning, talent acquisition, and performance coaching. Mentor the commercial team to enhance operational efficiency and foster a culture of high performance in both daily trading operations and long-term strategic execution.

Candidate Profile

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree or Diploma in Business Administration, Finance, Maritime Studies, or a related discipline.
• Experience: Minimum of 10 years of progressive business development experience with a demonstrable history of successfully cultivating and expanding profitable portfolios with Chinese counterparties.
• Commercial Acumen: Proven track record of achieving aggressive revenue and profitability targets while managing significant P&L responsibility.
• Leadership: Strong strategic thinker with exceptional leadership capabilities, adept at stakeholder navigation and independent decision-making in a fast-paced trading environment.
• Language Proficiency: Must be fully fluent in Mandarin Chinese (both written and spoken) to effectively negotiate with key stakeholders and navigate the local regulatory landscape in the Greater China region.
• Autonomy: Capable of operating with high autonomy to manage regional business initiatives from conception through to execution.