Research Associate Testing at Bayer

Role Purpose

Responsible for the technical co-ordination and deployment of Field-Testing systems that deliver precision breeding for the South African corn breeding pipelines. Work with regional product development and design scientists and global enabling functions to optimize the in-season workstream using internal platforms for pipeline process streamlining. Work with local testing teams to validate, deploy, and maintain technologies associated with conventional and new data acquisition methods, as well as planting and harvesting systems. Use operational and performance data to gain insights into location quality, testing design, and identify opportunities to improve their testing footprint and operational performance.

Key Responsibilities and Tasks

• Responsible for the implementation of innovative technologies designed to enhance phenotyping capabilities, such as use of geospatial systems, advanced planting and harvesting equipment, automated data capture, environmental sensor instrumentation, aerial imagery applications, and digital operational management.
• Train and develop team members: onboarding, supervise and training of new seasonal employees/data collection teams
• Become process owner for all trial packaging activities through optimization of workflows associated with cutting edge trial preparation systems, while adhering to and defining all safety requirements.
• Actively contribute to all planting and harvesting operations as a field operator, as per seasonal demands and team needs. Also provide technical (software) support to site owners during planting and harvesting operations.
• Plan, co-ordinate and execute work activities in collaboration with operations manager and peers to enable optimal resource use across the entire South African Testing network.
• Regularly extract, analyze and interpret data to gain insights into network design that aligns with product concept needs. This includes gaining insights into G x E patterns, location quality assessments, and other KPIs associated with field testing.
• Strategically co-ordinate all data collection activities for the South African testing network through planning and execution with other relevant research associates.
• Continuously optimize data collection standard operating procedures by testing new approaches, training, and supervising field crews.
• Champion the in-season workflow by liaising with upstream (planning) and downstream (analytics) functions to ensure alignment between experiment creation, data collection, and analytics needs.
• Contribute to the development of automated data quality checking tools and algorithms through local validation of global systems.
• Participate in the environmental characterization efforts for the South African network by ensuring data completeness for all site-related meta-data, climatic, and management data.
• Be heavily engaged in the effort of optimizing all current Field-Testing equipment.
• Regularly participate in one or more global field innovation and technology deployment projects, either as a lead or as a project team member.
• Develop new HSE protocols and requirements associated with new technologies and adhere to existing HSE requirements that contribute to the overall safety of all testing team members.
• Be prepared to travel and work remotely for up to 40% of the time. (Seasonal travel)

Qualifications, Skills and Competencies

• BSc or MSc in Agricultural Science, Agric. Engineering, Agronomy, Crop Science or related fields.
• At least 5 years operational experience in a technology-based Field-Testing environment.
• Good knowledge of emerging trends in Precision Agriculture and crop monitoring.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Ability to gain insights from analyzed data to inform strategies
• Good communication skills to enable global interactions internally and externally.
• Must own a valid driver’s license