Lumber Trader Trainee
Have an interest in the lumber and wood products industry? Have you always wanted to learn how to be a lumber trader? Or are you by chance an experienced trader looking to join the Richmond team?
At Richmond International we are always looking for a few good folks to join our long history of trader trainees who made the next step to being another member of our long line and history of successful traders and leaders in the industry.
If the below qualifications sound like you, please email your most recently updated resume/CV and your completed application to the follow email address:
Job Title: Lumber Trader Assistant advancing to Lumber Trader
Department: Sales
Reports To: President and Vice President of Sales
FLSA Status: Exempt
Job Posting:
Richmond International Forest Products, LLC (RIFP) is looking for Lumber Trader Assistant to potentially advance to becoming a Lumber Trader to join our team. If interested please submit your resume to HR@rifp.com or mail your resume to RIFP at 4050 Innslake Drive, Suite 100 Glen Allen VA 23060.
At Richmond International Forest Products our mission is to provide our customers with the best products and timely solutions for their needs, and to utilize our fiscally sound position to provide the liquidity that our suppliers desire. We have been in business for over 40 years, by building on our history of solid relationships and reliable results, we strive to further expand our national and international footprint in the forestry products industry. We are a subsidiary of Forest City Trading Group (FCTG) which is our parent company located in Portland, Oregon. Our website is www.rifp.com.
This is a full-time position with compensation determined based on experience. We believe in paying our people for their performance. Understanding that there is a transition period between lumber trader assistant to becoming a lumber trader, we negotiate a fair salary to bridge this period and have a complete benefit package including health, life, vision, 401k, etc...
This position will start as a lumber trader assistant working in multiple departments for anywhere between 9-18 months to get an overall understanding of what RIFP does and to learn the business. After being promoted individual will transfer to becoming a lumber trader trainee (Jr. Trader) in order to develop into becoming a full-time lumber trader.
Duties and Responsibilities as Lumber Trader Assistant (First 9-18 months):
• Perform write-up of orders
• Assist in inventory management (e.g. reload tracking)
• Gathering freight rates from traffic department
• Pre-prospecting on potential new accounts
• Print and research Bill of Ladings and Proof of Deliveries documentation
• Check on late orders and provide update to trader
• Update Random Lengths print into internal documents
• Maintain pricing inventory averages for zones
• Update and manage daily pricelist for 8-10 specific target locations
• Compile MSR pricing to take to MSR accounts
• Coordinate meetings with the department and the entire trading floor
• Be able to gather and track information for internal use (e.g. sales numbers)
• Interact with administrative staff in answering questions they may have for the trading floor and assist in solving problems.
• Assist in any other task that traders may need done
Duties and Responsibilities as Lumber Trader (Long term job) after being Lumber Trader Assistant:
• Call on customers to generate sales daily-quote, negotiate and close conditions of sale.
• Input orders and follow through with shipment to insure timely delivery.
• Call on suppliers and get list of offering - determine pricing strategy, negotiate sales, write up order and forward to traffic.
• Attend and participate in morning market industry/segment meetings.
• Prospect new customers by working with department heads and credit department.
• Plan and budget daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sales goals and measure results to goals. Each trader is solely responsible to find customers which produce sales and income from commissions.
• Resolve any and all customer, mill, company disputes, issues, promptly and professionally.
• Assist in collections from customers by working with credit department.
• Interact with other traders on the floor to keep each other informed of changing market conditions and to provide customers a variety of products to be purchased from each department if needed, one-stop shopping.
Education and/or Experience: High School Diploma is required along with a Bachelor's Degree from four-year college or university; or Associate’s degree from two-year college plus one year related sales experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Each candidate depending on experience will have opportunity for annual training at company’s offsite lumber training education facility.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
• Ability to be self-directed while working under tight deadlines.
• Ability to cope with change, make decisions and act comfortably with risk and uncertainty.
• Exceptionally strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills and willing to work extra hours as needed to complete tasks.
• Positive attitude with willingness to learn and be trained on company’s trading practices and business software is a must for this position.
• Must follow company processes and controls in place to ensure operating company stays in full compliance with annual audits.
• In addition must have a high level of attention to detail and work well with others. Fast paced environment with high volume of transactions.
• Desire to succeed in order to be promoted to lumber trader.
• Experience using Microsoft Products is required and any experience using Sales Assist and A/S 400 is a plus.
Richmond International Forest Products is an Equal Opportunity Employer.