Company Introduction:

Limagrain is an international agricultural co-operative group, specialized in field seeds, vegetable seeds and cereal products. Founded and managed by French farmers, Limagrain is the 4th largest seed company in the world through its holding Vilmorin & Cie. Field Seeds activities focus on Maize, Cereals and Oilseeds across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. The Group makes annual sales of almost 2 billion Euros and has a headcount of 8,200, spread over 39 countries, including 1,750 researchers. In Auvergne the Co-operative has 3,500 farmer members. It conducts its business within the framework of a global, sustainable vision of agriculture and agri-food based on innovation and regulation of agricultural markets.

For further information: www.limagrain.com

We are looking for a highly qualified Wheat breeder to lead our Wheat program for the Chinese market. This breeding program is part of our Shanxi Limagrain affiliate based in China.

Main Objective:

After a training period of several months in USA and/or in Europe, this position will be based in Changge, Henan Province, with opportunities to travel in China and abroad.

The position will be reporting operationally to the head of Research in Asia and functionally to the head of our Research in Wheat.

Main Responsibilities:

1. Management of the Limagrain wheat breeding program in northern China. This includes the definition of the short, medium and long term objectives of the breeding program under his/her responsibility, in coordination with the Head of R&D Asia and worldwide Head of R&D Cereals.
2. Implementation of the breeding plan: crossing plan, selection schemes and optimize the trialing network. Contribution to the optimization of the breeding strategy by fully integrating breeding software, doubled haploids, single seed descent, molecular markers, disease nurseries, fast cycle schemes…
3. Management of the Chinese wheat breeding team, including supervision and training of fulltime and temporary staff. Promote innovation and maintain a high technical and scientific level of his/her team. Ensure that all team members follow the company health, safety and environment standards.
4. Manage the introduction of new wheat germplasm, in compliance with Limagrain IP policies and the current legislation so that all the genetic material used in the program and proposed for marketing has freedom to operate.
5. Contribute to the establishment of a new wheat breeding station in China .
6. Propose and manage the breeding budget and ensure the wheat program is implemented efficiently.
7. Interact with other wheat breeding teams and organizations to enhance the success of the wheat breeding program, especially with CAAS-CIMMYT in China and with Limagrain wheat breeding teams worldwide.

Qualifications and Skills:

1. PhD degree in plant breeding or a related discipline, for example in agriculture, agronomy, molecular genetics etc.
2. Experience in working in a wheat (or other) breeding program and good knowledge of breeding methods, variety testing, data analysis and experimental design.
3. Experience of travelling, studying and/or working outside China at a research institute or commercial company would be highly advantageous.
4. A team player, with strong personnel management skills and the ability to do the job yourself and to train others.
5. Ability to manage budget preparation and to control costs.
6. Strong leadership skills will be key to make appropriate decisions and to face our ambitious challenges.
7. Good communication skills both in written and spoken Chinese and English.
8. Computer skills, including Microsoft Office, database use and statistical software.
9. Able and willing to train under a Limagrain Senior Wheat Breeder(s) in USA and/or EU for an extended period at the beginning of your employment. Enthusiastic to travel as the job requires, both inside China and to visit other Limagrain programs abroad.

If you are interested to join an international growing organization, please send your CV as well as a short letter describing your motivation and a list of 2-3 references to: limagrain-1257@candidatus.com