Trading Associate Analyst or Analyst

About the job

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a leading energy provider and Fortune 500 company, dedicated to serving millions of electricity and natural gas customers across eight states: Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. We make energy work better for our customers, helping them thrive every day. That means always raising the bar - delivering better service and providing more reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy.

Xcel Energy is a place where you’ll have opportunities to grow, expand your skills, and help lead the clean energy transition. We offer meaningful rewards, recognition, and support to help you build your career and make an impact - both on the job and beyond. Most importantly, it means you’ll be joining a company that knows employees are the driving force behind its success and is committed to helping you be your best.

Xcel Energy supports a hybrid work model to enable collaboration and flexibility. Many roles are expected to work onsite three days per week (Tuesday–Thursday); however, work location expectations vary based on role, team, and business needs.

The below job summary and responsibilities reflect the duties of the Trading Analyst, Associate Trading Analyst will differ as less skills and/or experience will be required. The successful candidate will be placed at a level that is commensurate with the candidate's skills and experience.

Position Summary

Design and perform quantitative analysis to price wholesale energy commodity transactions and quantify and hedge risk. Plan and optimize seasonal, monthly, balance-of-month, and daily resource commitment schedules and portfolio positions to provide the most economic operations of the power system portfolios. Perform post-analysis of actual dispatch and system operations for each of the Xcel Energy power system portfolios to determine opportunities for efficiency improvements. Submit XE's bids and offers into organized markets, which requires the employee to be classified as Wholesale Merchant Function.

Essential Responsibilities

• Design and perform quantitative studies of historical and forecasted prices, system loads, fuel costs, and determination of the natural position of XE's power system portfolios. Support trading and risk management activities through quantifying the natural position of each XE regulated operating company. Troubleshoot daily operation of XE's regulated electric operating companies and provide technical support to real-time traders during daily operation of the systems. Assist Fuels in the determination of forward fuel requirements and the daily gas nomination process.
• Identify opportunities to improve system operations. Design and create analytical studies to model opportunities and determine costs/savings (e.g. rescheduling plant maintenance, alternative operating strategies for certain resources, etc.). Help plant operations personnel understand the market implications of plant operating decisions. Understand mechanical aspects of power plants and the potential optionality in the various power generation technologies. Understand electrical system constraints and operations.
• Create and run modeling scenarios to optimize daily unit commitment, additional purchases/sales, and long-term energy limited or constrained seasonal purchases. Verify accuracy of results through extensive post-analysis of XE system performance. Evaluate short-term load forecasts, current plant/contract availability, fuel costs, and market conditions. Determine quantities of energy to buy/sell, optimal scheduling of constrained resources, and optimal commitment decisions for plants/contractual resources. Bid load and offer generation into organized markets on behalf of the company.
• Design and perform post-analysis models of previous day system operation to determine opportunities for dispatch efficiency and purchase/sales improvements. Perform benchmarking of models as appropriate to assure analysis integrity. Verify accuracy of sales costing.
• Continuously seek improvements to processes and analyses used for purchasing/selling commodities, scheduling of contracted resources, and commitment/dispatch of XE generation assets.
• Perform pricing and costing of Real-Time Pricing Program sales and wholesale sales.
• Analyze and forecast future market prices at various trading points. Research energy market trends and energy optimization techniques/tools to support trading contributors. Stay abreast of regulatory requirements. Recommend trading strategies based on technical market analysis.

Minimum Requirements - Trading Analyst ($97,600 - $138,600)

• Bachelor's degree in mathematics, engineering, applied sciences, or related fields.
• Minimum 4 years experience in operating mathematical models, data mining, and analytics.

Preferred Requirements - Trading Analyst

• Prefer previous work experience in electricity industry, including one year in energy commodity trading operations and knowledge of power plant operations.
• Preference given to individuals with at least 1 year experience with generation cost modeling software such as Plexos, Aurora, Prosym, Promod, or Gentrader.
• Experience in Power Operations in SPP, MISO, or other RTO.

Minimum Requirements - Associate Trading Analyst ($84,900 - $120,566)

• Bachelor's degree in mathematics, engineering, applied sciences, or related fields.

Preferred Requirements

• Mechanical engineering background or individuals with power plant operations experience coupled with strong computer skills and analytical thinking.
• Preference given to individuals with at least 6 months experience with generation cost modeling software such as Plexos, Aurora, Prosym, Promod, or Gentrader.
• Experience in Power Operations in SPP, MISO, or other RTO.

Our culture is grounded in shared values and employee commitments that guide how we work, support one another, and grow together.

Our Values

Connected, Committed, Trustworthy, Safe

Our Employee Commitments

• Work that makes a difference
• A team you can count of
• Opportunities to grow
• Rewards that help you thrive

Xcel Energy provides job applicants reasonable accommodations for disabilities throughout the application process. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form.

Non-Bargaining

The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $84,900.00 to $138,600.00 per year

This position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, Health Care Flexible Spending Account, Health Savings Account (HSA) (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Limited-Purpose FSA (if enrolled in eligible health plan and HSA), Transportation Reimbursement Account, Short-term disability (STD), Long-term disability (LTD), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Fitness Center Reimbursement (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Tuition reimbursement, Transit programs, Employee recognition program, Pension, 401(k) plan, Paid time off (PTO), Holidays, Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO), Parental Leave

Benefit plans are subject to change and Xcel Energy has the right to end, suspend, or amend any of its plans, at any time, in whole or in part.

In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information including but not limited to dates of school attendance and graduation.  You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Deadline to Apply: 11/17/26

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Accessibility Statement

Xcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com and https://jobs.xcelenergy.com accessible to any and all users. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form. For any other application related questions, including application follow-ups or technical issues, please use our Recruiting Assistance, Electra, for assistance. Electra can be found in the lower right-hand corner of our Xcel Energy Careers site.