As a world market leader in crop protection, we help farmers to counter these threats and ensure enough safe, nutritious, affordable food for all – while minimizing the use of land and other agricultural inputs. Syngenta Crop Protection keeps plants safe from planting to harvesting.  From the moment a seed is planted through to harvest, crops need to be protected from weeds, insects and diseases as well as droughts and floods, heat and cold. Syngenta Crop Protection is headquartered in Switzerland.

Role purpose

• Development of inbred lines and hybrid varieties for targeted markets
• Lead nursery, hybrid testing, and other breeding program activities
• Implementing strategies that aid in the development of commercially successful lines and hybrids as well as ensure that all activities act to drive genetic gain and the long-term success of the breeding program
• Implement breeding strategies, marker breeding techniques, and population and hybrid performance prediction methods to optimize the program

Accountabilities

• Maintain and develop a product development portfolio in line with market segment requests and business planning, addressing short-, medium-, and long-term market segment needs 
• Perform all tasks in a manner compliant with and in support of all safety and stewardship related company policies and practices, including completing all required training courses. 
• Communicate effectively and regularly with peers and supervisors regarding status of projects and work activities, raise awareness of issues that could affect meeting project objectives and business goals. 
• Develop awareness of market needs for commercial products throughout all primary market areas and be able to translate those into breeding targets. Interactions with BTS and product Development Specialist colleagues to anticipate product performance gaps and contribute to a research plan to address these gaps. Continuous learning to understand changing market needs. Interaction with Sales/Commercial team to understand the nature of any product performance anomalies. Provide information to these groups to assist them with their decision-making processes. 
• Develop expertise in crop biology, germplasm and critical trait priorities. 
• Contribute to crop strategy and product profiles development in relation with market segment teams. 
• Develop and deploy new breeding technologies and methods. Implement data driven decision in every part of the breeding program. 
• Use analytic and data science tools, and predictive models for product selection and genomic selection. 
• Provide meaningful input on hybrid advancement decisions. Work with market segment teams to ensure appropriate selection criteria and target product profiles are being applied. 
• Responsible for a quantitative assessment of pipeline performance in alignment with market needs: Generate reports/tables/charts to highlight to other functions and management how product performance is measured over time or in comparison to check hybrids in a current 
• growing season. Determine rates of genetic gain for different product pipelines in Market segments through mining of phenotypic data. 
• Collaborate with Trait Development Leads and Genetic scientists to identify and develop marker-trait associations, innovative traits, germplasm management: Participate actively in discovery projects. 
• Collect field notes on agronomic traits on inbred and hybrid materials including pathology traits. 

Knowledge, experience & capabilities

• PhD. / MS degree and demonstrated competency in Plant Breeding, Plant Physiology, Plant Science or related areas
• Knowledge and experience in conventional plant breeding techniques, germplasm management, diversity analysis, experimental design, quantitative genetics, and statistical analysis including prediction theory.

• Good understanding of the fundamentals of genome wide (GW) and marker assisted breeding approaches. Explore ways to implement these approaches to improve efficiency of breeding program. 
• Ability to work in a team-oriented atmosphere with strong communication skills. Ability to generate reports for other scientists to use in decision making. 
• Results oriented and driven to deliver commercially successful varieties to meet market targets.
• Relentless focus on improving genetic gain. Implementation of new analysis approaches or field designs to assist with this improvement. 
• Integrate a team with different expertise areas to drive data driven decisions. 
• Inclusive working approach within a team of culturally diverse colleagues. 
• Ability to support marketing teams on best growing practices and market positioning based on phenotyping, environmental data analysis, and modelling.
• The incumbent will lead the disruption of the conventional breeding processes through innovation. Creativity, fast learner and ability to influence are critical personality capabilities for this role

Additional information

• Regional and international travel required.
• Operates in a team setting, working independently on a section of the breeding project for which they have authority but coordinating activities with other team members.
• Ability to work under adverse environmental conditions
• Employee may, as part of his/her role and maybe through multifunctional teams, participate in the creation and design of innovative solutions. In this context, Employee may contribute to inventions, designs, other work product, including know-how, copyrights, software, innovations, solutions, and other intellectual assets.

Additional Information:

People are at the heart of what we do:

• Once a year Full body check
• Competitive insurance scheme
• Employee assistance program – to take care of your and your loved ones mental health
• Paid Vacation of 30days, 12 Paid Holidays, Maternity and Paternity Leave, compassionate leaves
• Education assistance – for your career growth
• People first culture translated into ‘Most Preferred place to work 2022-23 by Times group’

Note: Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

To learn more visit: www.syngenta.com and www.good-growth-plan