• Welcome to Method

    We’re a technical staffing business unlike any other you may have worked with in the past.

    We operate in the market of physical commodities trading technology. This industry is at the epicenter of the global economy, creating opportunities and advancement for both developed and emerging nations.

    Commodities touch upon the lives of every human being. From the Energy that powers our places of work and our homes, to the metals and raw materials that underpin our built environments and infrastructure, to the foods, seeds and soft commodities that feed our families.

    Read more >

    This ecosystem is populated by a small group (in relative terms) of amazing people with unfathomable specialist skills. Whether in farming and agriculture, terminals, logistics, refining, manufacturing or trading, the opportunities to impact on business benefits are limitless.

    Technology has an important role to play within the commodities sector as it embraces digitisation and automation. We believe this space is ripe for modernization, particularly within ‘Agri-tech’. Method are involved in projects ranging from Trading systems builds / implementations to new innovations that will disrupt antiquated business processes such as IoT (in Origination) and Advanced Analytics (Supply Chain). This is the exact area of the market in which Method operates. Our goal is to be trusted advisors to our clients and candidates as well as being the best Method of providing human capital. We work in new, effective ways and we’re obsessed with quality.

    We think you’ll like our method…

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    Oil

    Oil

    Energy

    Energy

    Metals

    Metals

    Agriculture

    Agriculture

    We enjoy more meaningful engagement points with our customers.

    Hello partners

    We believe in grown-up, peer-to-peer relationships, so do our clients.

    We prefer to think of you as partners.

    That’s why 80% of our work is retained business.

    Our team are all senior people working at the sharp end of the industry with technical / business backgrounds.

    Our Directors work on all searches, rather than behind the scenes. The value of this level of customer engagement is priceless. Our business is all about operating at the heart of the commodities industry, we do not operate the typical ‘agency’ model, we not about scale, sales and growth ‘per se’. It is always about doing an incredible job for our clients and being seen as the ‘de facto’ recruiters in this space.

    That means that we can offer our clients invaluable insights and the highest levels of discretion.

    It’s just how we do things.

    We work in new, effective ways and we’re obsessed with quality.

    Hello VIP’s

    Our relationship with you is both personal and personalised.

    It’s a fundamental part of our Method.

    It’s very straightforward really: we treat people as ‘people’ and never as commodities. Our candidates are VIP’s in our eyes and will always be treated with the highest levels of integrity. 51% of the candidates placed by Method are as a direct result of introduction via another candidate we have a relationship with. In the age of omni-channel advertising, job boards and social media we are proud that our most potent method of attracting talent is incredibly simple…word of mouth.

    We’re also absolutely committed to diversity and inclusion and operate as a 50% female-owned business.

    We believe that a varied and interesting workforce can only improve the businesses we partner with. We have an important role to play in supporting such initiatives.

    The Method

    Most recruitment businesses sound the same and on the face of it, that is until you look under the surface…

    We meet and really get to know both our clients and candidates wherever they are physically located around the world. Understanding ‘the what’ of our clients’ business objectives and the complexity of each and every environment is incredibly important to us. This deep knowledge allows us to interview and select candidates by assessing technical and business competencies, qualifications, references and working style.

    We support our candidates by offering insight into personalities and projects as well as advisory services for relocation and tax advice. Our commitment continues way beyond negotiation and start date as we are in this for the long-term.

    Rather than verbalize about a set of services and their perceived value we will instead give ‘real life examples’ backed up by case studies and customer recommendations.

    We believe this is the best Method of presenting our capabilities, let our customers do the talking…

    Case studies
    Architects – Geneva

    Method were retained to hire a Chief Architect, Functional Architect and Solution Architect for one of the worlds leading Agribusiness in Geneva. Each role-played a critical part of the transition from old to new target operating models.

    The task of pinpointing best-in-class Architects that have built successful solutions that deliver business benefit within Commodities’ trading is very challenging. Our client was looking for proven track records in building and delivering CTRM systems and Advanced Analytics platforms.

    Over the course of an 6 week search campaign we carefully selected a shortlist of 3 candidates for each role. In all cases our first choice candidate was also the first choice candidate selected and offered by our client. The project is now underway and gathering a head of steam.

    CIO SoAM

    Method were instructed to identify a South America (SoAM) CIO for one of the leading Agribusinesses in Brazil. In addition we also tasked with identifying Technical Architects, Project Managers, Development Managers and a Head of Infrastructure.

    This project was in support of our clients’ growth strategy in the SoAM region, where they had historically struggled to hire the ‘right kind of talent’. Method were selected specifically as an ‘international’ rather than ‘local’ specialist for this project. Within 4 weeks we interviewed and shortlisted 14 candidates across all roles. All candidates were exactly the ‘change agents’ needed to build a world class IT organization within SoAM, many have now been appointed.

    The thing we are most proud of is our clients feedback around our ‘capability to deliver globally from the UK’ and the recognition and the ‘close and respectful relationships developed with each and every candidate involved in this project’.

    Method respect the identity and integrity of our clients and for this reason have we not branded these particular case studies at this time. If you would like a more detailed reference directly from our clients we are more than happy to arrange calls with CIO’s and HR Leaders.

    What we do

    Executive search

    Whilst we do not position ourselves as a competitor to the traditional executive search ‘SHREK’ brands we are told that our knowledge, relationships and discretion levels are unrivalled. We keep the approach and commercials simple and straightforward rather than over-complicate things. Our customers find it a refreshing change.

    Contingency staffing

    We operate on a number of preferred supplier lists and enjoy the prestige and the commitment levels of such partnerships. Nothing that we do is ever about a one off fee or short-termism.

    Interim / Contract

    We have an established and referenced pool of IT / Commodity SME contractors that are known to us by reputation and mutual relationships. This group will always grow organically but we will never compromise on the rigor and quality control involved. We have no interest on having thousands of contractors registered with us that we hardly know. We do not sell ‘virtual bench’ solutions but are highly effective at building super talented teams quickly (references available).

    Advisory

    In some cases we do not charge for advisory work, our customer relationships usually evolve into an advisory capacity naturally. Over the course of the last 12 months we have been involved in projects such as:

    • Feasibility of near shore location strategy
    • OPEX / CAPEX / TCO benchmarking
    • Buy Vs. Build Analysis
    • Global Human Capital / Cost Per Head Strategy (Europe, North America, South America, Asia)

    References Available.

    Our relationship with you is both personal and personalised.

    Industry

    Industries:

    • Physical commodities
    • Agrochemicals / Agritech
    • Technology / Consulting

    Strengths

    Areas of capability:

    • Senior – CIO, CTO's, Architecture, IT Leadership
    • Programme / Project Management
    • Software Development / QA
    • E / CTRM
    • Data / Analytics
    • Business Analysis (Functional / Technical)
    • QA
    • Infrastructure
    • Security
    • Application Support
    • Innovation

    CIO Roundtable

    The blueprint at Method has never been that of a traditional staffing business. We operate higher up the value chain and enjoy more meaningful engagement points with our clients.

    The CIO Roundtable for the physical commodities industry was launched in 2015 following requests from a number of CIO customers. The agenda and content of the roundtable meetings is member driven in a private forum subject to ‘Chatham House Rules’. Members are able to share insights with peers and learn from each other’s experiences in a safe, secure and confidential environment.

    This initiative is now in its second year with 15 member CIO / IT leaders from the majority of the major commodity traders across Oil, Energy, Metals and Ags.

    The ambition is to continue to grow the working group, set a benchmark for the industry and deliver immediate business value back to our members. If you are an IT Leader and would like to hear more about this initiative please contact:

    James Richmond
    Managing Director
    james@methodsearch.co
    +44 7568 394 274.

    Jobs

    If you are involved in technology within commodities we would very much like to hear from you. Whether you are an IT leader, functional business expert or hands-on technologist.

    Please feel free to contact us in relation to any of these vacancies:

    London
    • Senior Java Developers - Trading Systems
    • Java Developers - Logistics / Operations
    • Senior Business Analyst - Oil / Energy
    • Senior Business Analyst – Metals
    Geneva
    • Senior Business Analyst – Oil Trading
    • Senior Business Analyst – Energy
    • Senior Business Analyst – Metals /Ags
    • BI Developer – Physical Commodities
    • Senior Allegro Business Analyst
    • Front Office Business Analyst - Pricing / Risk
    • Senior PMO – Oil / Energy Trading / CTRM
    • VIP Support – 1st / 2nd Line Support
    Zurich
    • HTML5 Developers - CTRM Development
    • Java Developers - CTRM Development
    • Solution Architect - CTRM Development
    • Technical Architect - CTRM Development
    Prague
    • Java Developer - Trading Systems
    • HTML5 Developer - Trading Systems
    Brazil
    • Programme Manager – Sugar, Grains, Oilseeds
    • Technical Architect – Trading Systems