Rui Jie is a Product Specialist in Singapore responsible for ensuring customer success with Vortexa’s clients in the Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Vortexa, Rui Jie was a market analyst in BP’s oil supply and trading division, where he focused on trade flows east of the Suez Canal, gaining experience constructing demand and supply models for middle distillates and fuel oil in the absence of complete or accessible data.

Other than the draughts of oil tankers, Rui Jie enjoys those of the Guinness variety especially after a long day, and suspects he might be secretly Irish for it.

What does day-to-day life in your role look like?

I devote half of my time each day to reading up on the latest news in the oil market and keeping in touch with Vortexa’s customers. Together with the rest of the product specialist team, the scope of my role is never static and can vary depending on customer needs. I often provide support in the form of sharing market insights, data discovery, and sometimes – the most exciting of all – even working with them to build custom spreadsheets!

What would you say is the most interesting aspect of your role?

Getting to speak to traders and analysts in the industry to find out the latest market sentiments on a daily basis.

What was your path to joining Vortexa?

Prior to joining Vortexa, I was a market analyst at an oil major, where I was exposed to the world of cargo-tracking and also discovered my interest in creating better, more responsive data visualisations. This made the transition from a data-consuming role to a data-providing one quite natural for me. Further, the chance to interact with people outside of my company was also one that appealed to me, so I pounced when the opportunity came up!

What kind of qualities does a person need to have to succeed at Vortexa?

The Vortexa team is a highly collaborative environment that frequently involves cross-functional communication to solve problems. Outside of the technical teams in Vortexa, being highly adaptable and a good communicator are definitely top skills to have – and also tech-savviness in setting up web-conferencing calls across multiple devices and platforms can come in really handy too.

What do you like about the culture?

In a rapidly growing company like Vortexa, I have always felt empowered to shape the guiding philosophies behind my responsibilities, and often make decisions with my fellow product specialists as to how we can enhance the scope of our work. This culture of openness also translates into a very high work rate, where questions put up by any team member rarely go unanswered for more than an hour (we cover 14 hours of time zones!).

What are the first three things you do on a Monday morning?

Piping hot black coffee and a bun or toast with eggs, Singapore-style.

Who do you collaborate most with in the company?

Fun fact: a lot of the collaboration I do actually takes place outside of Vortexa! Within the company, apart from the product specialists group, I work most frequently with the commercial, marketing, and product management teams.

What energises you most about working as a Product Specialist at Vortexa?

When customers return complimentary feedback about the quality of the support we provide, and of course, the friendships that I get to make along the way.

Interested in joining our team?

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