SENIOR SCIENTIST

The organization

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (www.bioversityinternational.org) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstream innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis.

The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

About the position

The Alliance’s Multifunctional Landscape Research Lever is seeking to hire a Senior Scientist who can work on a wide range of topics, mainly on systems analysis and evidence synthesis with interdisciplinary skills. This role will involve designing, implementing, and contributing to activities related to agricultural inputs optimization (such as fertilizer, irrigation, and mechanization), soil and water management, and large-scale data analytics for various projects across Africa and beyond. The candidate should be able to design and implement agronomy, soil and water-related projects, and should be strong in partnership engagement at different levels national, regional, and local scales. The successful candidate will be responsible for overseeing projects from conception and design through to implementation, monitoring, and impact measuring, with the objective of deploying scalable solutions. The candidate is expected to play pivotal roles in building and sustaining partnerships and raising bilateral funds. The ideal candidate will also be able to carry out and supervise the piloting and validations of various decision support tools. In addition, the scientist will oversee the work of junior staff members. Overall, we are seeking a highly motivated and skilled candidate who can contribute to our mission of deploying innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture and landscape management.

Main responsibilities

• Providing technical guidance on the design, planning, and execution of agronomy, soil and water management, and climate-smart agricultural practices related projects.
• Defines research program delivery frameworks to support a thematic area, aligning innovative scientific development with efficient execution and utilization of resources.
• Leading scientific discussions with key stakeholders and partners to co-create agronomic and landscape solutions that can be used in different contexts.
• Fostering and sustaining relationships with donors, external stakeholders, and internal partners on project issues, providing leadership, monitoring progress, and ensuring stakeholder expectations are managed for project deliverables.
• Supporting the development of data tools and other visualizations for discovering data patterns to address key research questions and hypotheses.
• Leading technical discussions with partners on problem understanding, research objectives, and predictive approaches to be used.
• Developing, coordinating, and disseminating research products and knowledge assets globally in coordination with the lever team.
• Builds capacity of research teams in data- gathering, analysis and assessment of findings, utilizing new tools, approaches and frameworks.
• Providing technical guidance to project teams under their supervision and advising the research team on outcomes that feed into the wider knowledge base of the Alliance.
• Leading and contributing to project proposal writing and bilateral fundraising.
• Provide strategic support and guidance on defining entry points for research and development as well as in contributing and reporting to relevant national, regional, and global initiatives.
• Play instrumental role in fund raising in collaboration with Lever and Alliance team.
• Mentor Alliance young staff, PhD students and other partners to exercise their scientific excellence and develop in their careers.
• Engage in building capacity of national partners in Africa and beyond.
• Leading and contributing to the writing of peer-reviewed papers, technical notes, and project reports.

Requirements

• PhD in agronomy, geography, ecology, soil science, or related areas, with more than 8 years of experience.
• Experience and ability in systems thinking, systems analysis and interdisciplinary skills.
• Proven capacity in research design, implementation, data collection and analysis, data visualization, and scientific writing, particularly in the use of different modeling and machine learning approaches.
• Proven track record as a research leader and manager in the field of soil fertility management, landscape management, and climate-smart agriculture.
• Leader of at least three (3) funded research projects with experience in managing a project portfolio.
• Experience and record in fund raising, prepared to raise funds for strategic projects and Initiatives.
• Significant contributions to at least two other proposals.
• Proven publication record in peer-reviewed journals and author of at least 10 articles published in ISI journals.
• Proven experience and capacity in forging and maintaining partnerships associated with the research and development arena.
• Excellent communication skills in English, both written and spoken, including scientific communication and report writing.
• Strong ability to lead, prioritize, and organize workload; take initiative and work under pressure.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively in a highly dynamic, interdisciplinary, and multicultural team.

Terms of employment

This is an international recruited position, and will be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The initial contract will be for up to two (2) years, subject to a probation period of six (6) months and is renewable depending on performance and availability of resources. This position is graded at a level BG11 in a scale of 14 levels, BG14 being the highest level.

The Alliance Bioversity-CIAT offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits. We are an equal opportunity employer, and strive for gender, diversity and inclusion in our staff, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic.

Applications

Applicants are invited to visit  https://alliancebioversityciat.org/careers to get full details of the position and to submit their applications. Applications MUST include reference number. Ref:103083-Senior Scientist the position applied for. Application and CV should be saved as one document using the candidate’s last name, first name for ease of sorting.

Note: The Alliance does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). The Alliance also does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.

Applications closing date: 4^th August 2023

Please note that email applications will not be considered.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We invite you to learn more about us at:

http://alliancebioversityciat.org