Field Testing Sub-hub Lead-Africa at Bayer

Job Purpose: 

• The Field Testing sub hub Lead (FTL) for Africa is a people manager with strong Visionary, Architect, Coaching and Catalyst skills who drives sub-regional Field Testing team performance and development.
• The FTL establishes sub-regional capability based on strategy and priorities, driving innovation to ensure successful technology implementation and continuous improvement of all operations.
• The FTL is responsible for guiding multiple breeding field testing sites in currently 3 countries of Africa (South Africa, Kenya and Zambia), ensuring product evaluation and data capture completion, from planting till harvest through crop cycles of corn for the early & late stage Seeds & Traits pipelines.
• The FTL plays a critical role in the sub-region to interface with Business stakeholders and drive expected continuous growth of S&T portfolio

Key Task and Competencies: 

• Establish and maintain a strong regional team culture and influence a sub-regional Breeding Field Testing level structure that ensures safe and efficient operation of the research program in alignment with Bayer’s HSE, Compliance and Stewardship requirements, and Business Code of Conduct and Ethics Standards
• Leads the recruiting, hiring, and onboarding process for new full time team members when needed. 
• Change champion to drive development and lead implementation of novel innovation to enhance field testing efficiency and continuously improve data quality.
• Develop and implement regional strategy required to meet project and organizational goals, including the takeover of new data generation from commercial team to ensure commercial success. 
• Accountable for ensuring scientific excellence in workspace.
• Collaborate across global and regional product and technical teams and provide coaching and leadership to all these various teams.
• Leverage metrics to gauge team performance while sharing and incorporating best practices to further enhance data quality.
• Drive continuous improvement of all agricultural practices and Key Tasks: processes across the region and enterprise either through direct action or through the work of the team.
• Key interface with Business stakeholder within the countries to ensure the delivery of the expected business outcomes, i.e. continuous growth per annum >10%.
• Lead the planning and implementation of activities with the help of the team and others to engage with local community and help meet company sustainability objectives.
• Serve as an externally facing point of contact for the region. 

Skills and Qualifications:  

• PhD or MS in Plant Breeding, Agronomy or related field of study with 7+ years of significant people and project management experience in an agricultural-related research position Demonstrated success in developing and evaluating complex programs, and selecting and effectively implementing innovative programs
• Strong project management skills managing complex, multi-faceted projects resulting in measurable successes and program growth.
• Advanced computer skills and excellent knowledge of software related to data acquisition and analysis.
• Good working knowledge of statistics and experimental design Excellent leadership and people skills, effective verbal and written communication, and ability to thrive in a team based work environment.
• A proven history of developing people and teams, through effective change management skills and developing team culture.