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 local seed production team, regional product development and design scientists and global enabling functions to optimize the in-season workstream using internal platforms for product development pipeline process streamlining.
•  Responsible for the design, execution of a network of participatory managed breeding testing locations from Eastern South Africa agro-region.
•  Additionally, the role is responsible for continuous improvement and strategic initiative projects that transform the way row crop plant breeding research is conducted within the organization through the use of new advanced and often proprietary equipment and technologies, data analytics, and testing design.
•  Scope: Eastern South Africa Region (based at Petit, Benoni)

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.

Experience, Skills, and Qualifications

•  BSc or MSc in Agricultural Science, Agric. Engineering, Agronomy, Crop Science or related fields with some relevant experience or at least 5+years operational experience in technology based Field-Testing environment.
•  Broad knowledge and experience with agricultural equipment and row crop production practices and demonstrated experience of leveraging that knowledge in a research environment.
•  Good knowledge of emerging trends in Precision Agriculture and crop monitoring.
•  Good understanding and passion for emerging trends in agriculture.
•  Strong competency with MS Office software products and statistical systems (desired) used in scientific data analysis, with ability to quickly learn new software programs and tools and demonstrated ability to gain insights from analyzed data to inform strategies.
•  Good communication skills to enable global interactions internally and externally.
•  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.
•  Travel up to 50% of the time particularly during peak seasons, to ensure data delivery for key product advancement deadlines and supervision of field activities.