PepsiCo is a global food and beverage enterprise that produces products for 22 iconic, billion-dollar brands, many of which are derived from agricultural raw materials. A creative, results-oriented scientist is required to lead the discovery breeding efforts within the Agro Discovery Team. The purpose of this role is to leverage discovery breeding practices and resources that aid in the identification of disruptive technologies that address consumer and business objectives. This position will work closely with other scientists and breeders to develop and implement technologies for breeding as part of a team. This role will immediately take responsibility for potato and oat discovery breeding efforts at the world-class PepsiCo plant breeding research station in Rhinelander, WI.

In this role, you would lead and implement technology-based discovery breeding efforts for potato and oat that are aligned to key business needs in support of the breeding programs. This position will work closely with research scientists in the cross-crop breeding team working on technology initiatives and platforms, and research scientists in the Crop Improvement Team leveraging raw material technologies to drive strategic business initiatives aligned with the rest of the organization. This position will be part of the team of scientists and breeders working together and will be responsible for implementing discovery and pre-breeding efforts for the potato and oat breeding programs.

Essential Functions / Key Accountabilities:

• Understand and contribute to potato and oat breeding strategy and execution
• Develop long-term project plans and lead the advancement of new traits from an early discovery phase to breeding adoption
• The interface between the raw material trait discovery group and the breeding groups for both oats and potato
• Operationalize dispersed data through collecting, managing, and analyzing phenotypic data in preparation for further analysis
• Optimize phenotyping (qualitative and quantitative) capability for new trait discovery and validation across crops
• Utilize genomic resources to identify and enable modern genomic prediction, linkage and association-based mapping approaches
• Develop and maintain strategic diversity panels and mapping populations for use in discovery projects and breeding
• Assess pertinent competitive technology developments and academic research directions

Qualifications / Requirements

• Ph.D. in Plant Breeding, Molecular Genetics (applied), Quantitative Genetics (applied), Applied Plant Genomics, or a closely related field
• Experience with experimental design and modern statistical analyses
• Prior experience with designing and implementing new phenotyping methods to support crop assessment and improvement
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects with a high degree of flexibility and comfort with change and unexpected delays while maintaining overall productivity
• Exposure to the applied genomic selection, model fitting, training population development, implementation in the breeding program
• A proven ability to work closely with colleagues on complex projects in a matrix team structure.
• Ability to deliver aggressive business innovation targets while maintaining scientific excellence
• Ability to work with large datasets including data collection, collation, curation, and analysis
• Goal-oriented professional with evidence of applied strategic thinking

Requirements:

• This position will be located in Rhinelander, WI. The successful candidate must be willing to relocate to the role and travel up to 30% of their time (primarily domestic travel with some international)
• Must be willing to work flex-schedule to accommodate phone and video conferences across multiple time zones as an efficient alternative to travel

To apply:

Please click HERE to learn more and to apply online.