Flow trading CEEMEA Bonds ED

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Emerging Markets Flow Trading

Overall Objective

To establish and maintain a profitable and competitive MENA bond market-making franchise by providing reliable liquidity to institutional clients, managing risk effectively, and capitalising on regional fixed-income trading opportunities.

About the job:

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Fixed Income Market Maker specialising in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) bonds. The successful candidate will be responsible for providing competitive two-way prices, facilitating client trading activity, managing trading inventory, and generating revenue across a portfolio of regional sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and corporate fixed-income securities.

The role requires strong technical knowledge of MENA bond markets, established relationships with regional and international institutional investors, banks and brokers, and the ability to manage risk while identifying trading and relative-value opportunities across the region.

Key Responsibilities

1. Market Making and Trading

- Provide competitive and continuous two-way prices in MENA fixed-income securities, subject to market conditions and available liquidity.
- Make markets in sovereign, quasi-sovereign, agency and corporate bonds, including conventional and, where relevant, sukuk instruments.
- Execute client trades and manage the firm's trading inventory, ensuring efficient use of balance sheet and risk limits.
- Develop and implement trading strategies to generate spread income, capture market-making opportunities and achieve revenue targets.
- Manage bid-offer spreads in line with market liquidity, volatility, credit risk and competitive positioning.
- Identify relative-value opportunities across issuers, maturities, currencies and credit curves.

2. Regional Market Coverage

- Maintain comprehensive knowledge of MENA fixed-income markets, including the GCC, Morocco and other relevant regional markets.
- Monitor primary issuance, secondary-market flows, sovereign funding requirements, credit developments and macroeconomic trends.
- Develop expertise in the debt markets of key regional issuers, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait.
- Track regional political, economic, fiscal and monetary developments and assess their impact on bond valuations and market liquidity.
- Maintain close relationships with regional and international banks, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other institutional investors.

3. Client Facilitation and Business Development

- Build and maintain strong relationships with institutional clients and liquidity providers.
- Respond promptly to client pricing requests, axes, inquiries and requests for liquidity.
- Proactively communicate trading ideas, market colour, relative-value opportunities and new issuance developments.
- Work closely with sales teams to increase client engagement, trading volumes and franchise revenue.
- Identify opportunities to expand market share and strengthen the firm's position in MENA fixed-income markets.

4. Risk Management and P&L

- Manage daily trading positions and exposure within approved limits for market, credit, liquidity, interest-rate and foreign-exchange risks.
- Monitor and manage inventory ageing, concentration risk, mark-to-market exposure and potential downside scenarios.
- Maintain disciplined pricing and hedging practices, using appropriate instruments where available and permitted.
- Monitor daily P&L, investigate material movements and explain performance drivers to trading management.
- Ensure trading activity complies with internal policies, regulatory requirements and applicable market-conduct standards.

5. Market Intelligence and Collaboration

- Maintain accurate market levels, pricing information, trading axes and liquidity assessments.
- Collaborate with fixed-income sales, research, credit, treasury, operations and risk management teams.
- Contribute to the development of pricing tools, trading analytics, inventory management processes and market coverage.
- Provide regular updates on market conditions, trading opportunities, client flows and competitive positioning.

Required Experience and Qualifications

- Typically 7–10 years of experience in fixed-income trading or market making, with demonstrable experience in MENA bond markets.
- Proven track record in pricing and trading sovereign, quasi-sovereign and/or corporate bonds.
- Strong understanding of regional credit markets, yield curves, duration, spread risk, liquidity dynamics and bond valuation.
- Established relationships with institutional clients and market counterparties active in MENA fixed income.
- Demonstrated ability to manage trading inventory, control risk and deliver sustainable trading revenue.
- Strong quantitative, analytical and decision-making skills.
- Proficiency in Bloomberg and relevant fixed-income trading and market-data systems.
- Degree in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering or a related discipline; professional qualifications such as CFA are advantageous.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced trading environment.

Preferred Skills and Experience

- Experience in GCC sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt, international USD-denominated bonds.
- Knowledge of sukuk structures and Islamic capital markets.
- Experience trading across investment-grade and high-yield credit, where relevant to the firm's mandate.
- Familiarity with primary bond issuance, new-issue pricing and secondary-market distribution.
- Understanding of regional settlement conventions, market infrastructure and cross-border trading considerations.
- Arabic language skills are advantageous but not essential.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Performance will be assessed against a balanced set of commercial, client and risk-management objectives, including:

- Trading revenue and risk-adjusted P&L.
- Quality and competitiveness of two-way pricing.
- Client trading volumes, engagement and franchise growth.
- Market share and execution quality in targeted securities.
- Inventory turnover and efficient use of balance sheet.
- Adherence to trading limits, risk policies and compliance requirements.
- Quality of market intelligence and contribution to the broader fixed-income business.

Personal Attributes

The ideal candidate will be commercially driven, entrepreneurial and comfortable making decisions in markets that can experience periods of limited liquidity and heightened volatility. They will demonstrate sound risk judgement, strong client orientation, attention to detail and the ability to build trusted relationships across the MENA fixed-income ecosystem.

Skills:

Customer Targeting, Empathy, Ethics, Innovation, Proactive Thinking