Post-Doctoral Fellow, Sorghum Breeding (Internationally Recruited)
Description
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) seeks a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Associate Breeder) to support the sorghum breeding program, with a strong focus on rapid cycling genomic selection (RCGS), sparse testing, and breeding pipeline integration. The position will play a strategic role in working with partners across East and Southern Africa (ESA), particularly within the Africa Dryland Crops Improvement Network (ADCIN), to implement innovations in regional breeding pipelines.
The successful candidate will provide hands-on technical leadership for practical breeding operations, including collaborating with quantitative geneticists for population development, sparse multi-location testing, and field validation of prediction outputs. The role will work closely with the ESA ADCIN network of breeders on nursery and trial execution to enable selection decisions for accelerated population development across target environments.
This position will strengthen the interface between advanced analytics and field delivery by linking quantitative tools, breeding operations, and regional partner implementation within a shared breeding framework, contributing to CGIAR’s broader emphasis on modern, efficient breeding systems, stronger national and regional partnerships, capacity development, and faster delivery of climate-resilient crop improvement solutions for smallholder farmers in Africa.
Responsibilities
Collaborate with quantitative geneticists, breeders, technicians, and partners to translate genomic and predictive analytics into crossing and population development decisions.
Support the senior breeder in the deployment of advanced breeding innovations across the ADCIN sorghum network in ESA, including recurrent and rapid-cycle genomic selection, and the identification, crossing, selection, and advancement of breeding populations.
Coordinate sparse multi-location testing and multi-environment validation across target environments, working with partners on trial planning, site selection, deployment, and phenotyping.
Support high-quality data generation through trial management, quality control, harvest, and sample handling, and collaborate with biometricians and quantitative geneticists on data analysis and interpretation.
Support the integration of predictive breeding and data-driven decision-making into routine breeding pipelines across CIMMYT and partner programs.
Prepare and contribute to scientific publications, technical reports, presentations, capacity Development, and other knowledge products that document activities, results, and outcomes.
For complete job description and to apply, visit:
https://apply.workable.com/j/3A516D337D