Product Development Scientist (Petit) at Bayer

Role purpose

• The incumbent will work as part of a collaborative breeding team to develop and implement innovative models for efficiently conducting plant breeding in a global environment.
• The successful candidate will be responsible for designing, developing, evaluating, and advancing new maize hybrids with high commercial and sustainable impact for South African markets and the region.
• To enable our global breeding vision the incumbent will work closely with regional Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) and Global breeding teams to foster full breeding technology deployment, germplasm leverage and predictive analytics in Africa.
• There will be close partnership and interaction with key Bayer internal stakeholders including Market Development, Pre-Foundation and Product Management teams to efficiently launch and deliver high performing products to our customers and develop tailored solutions to African agriculture.

Key responsibilities and tasks

• Imagine better solutions to develop and implement a fully automated breeding program by incorporating analytics, logistics, operational management and communication through a non-human interface.
• Support Breeding and Field-Testing teams to improve data quality and completeness as it relates to QA/QC, plot designs, testing location information.
• Working with teams to improve testing footprint and data quality.
• Lead system characterization and product development activities for new product concepts and phenotyping activities to deliver future business needs.
• Win together globally by being a key partner with members of the EMEA team to deliver our strategic initiatives on a regional and global level to achieve the global breeding vision of Science for a Better Life.
• Champions cross-functional (Commercial, Product Supply, other Breeding functions, etc.) inclusion and collaboration.
• Serves as a role model for others to follow when complying with our Company's LIFE (Leadership, Integrity, Flexibility, Efficiency) principles and policies.
• Develop leadership capacity by demonstrating positivity in change management and agility in communication skills to deliver business goals.
• Design and manage an innovative hybrid development program and advancement for South Africa.

Experience, Skills and Qualifications

• MSc, with 3 years’ experience, or a PhD degree in Plant Breeding, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, Data Science, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience in project management.
• Proficiency working with database applications, spreadsheet, and visualization software.
• Strong background in plant breeding, genetics, field plot technique and statistical analysis, molecular biology and molecular marker applications.
• Strong computer skills related to data management, statistical testing packages and analysis such as SQL, R/Python, Spotfire, Tableau, SAS, GIS, and Database management
• Experience in data analytics, data management, and/or related roles, delivering high quality analytics solutions to complex business problems and applying sophisticated scientific methods using statistical learning
• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time.
• Valid driver’s license.