SENIOR SCIENTIST - ROSACEAE BREEDER

IRTA is currently seeking a Senior Scientist for Rosaceae breeding for the joint breeding
program with Plant and Food Research (NZ)

- 37.5 hours/week
- Flexible work/life balance policy
- Total of 26 annual holidays and personal.
- Access to the Career Developement Program, whom all staff will have access to a complete annual Training Plan.

All candidates need to full fill the essential requirements.

Candidates will be contacted upon the evaluation of their CV and if succesfull invited to interview with further instructions.

Role profile:

IRTA is currently seeking a Senior Scientist for Rosaceae breeding for the joint breeding program with Plant and Food Research (NZ)

Duties and Resposibilities:

• As leader of the breeding programme, you'll have responsibility for identifying and integrating areas of research that will optimise the performance of the programme, and for operational management of the programme to ensure the timely delivery of outcomes and impacts for our key customer(s),
• To breed and develop new apple and pear varieties, implementing the coordination and planning of breeding programs. Control and supervision of the tasks related to fruit breeding. Seedling selection assessment at different stages both in the field and in the laboratory. To establish the breeding methodology to follow in coordination with the breeding team.
• To design crosses according to breeding aims.
• Planning and supervision of work related to plant material (parents, progenies seedlings and selections) from the breeding program.
• To select seedlings in the greenhouse and the field, including marker assisted breeding.
• Supervision and management of seedlings in selection plots.
• Agronomical and commercial assessment of advanced and elite selections.
• Fruit assessment in the field and the laboratory according to taste and sensory evaluation parameters.
• Management, maintenance and analysis of breeding databases.

Essential requirements:

• Ph.D. in plant science (degree in plant breeding and genetics, agronomy, plant biology or related).
• Experienced, with more than 3 years of experience in plant breeding and/or genetics, preferably on fruit trees.
• Post-doc and/or research position, with a minimum experience of 2 years in an international research institution.
• Advanced knowledge and skills in genetics and molecular marker assisted selection (MAS) applied to plant breeding programmes.
• Sound knowledge of statistics applied to plant breeding and genetics.  Sound informatics background at advance user level of the Office package (Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.) and data analysis programs.
• Command of English language, both spoken and written. Catalan, Spanish and French skills will be valued.
• Full driving license for Europe and travelling availability.

Desirable requirements:

• Skills and experience in fruit orchard management.
• Skills and experience in fruit quality determination (taste and sensory analysis).
• Experience as research project leader during at least 3 years.
• Capacity on fruit industry concertation, technology transfer and fostering innovation added value.

Personal profile:

• Strong organizational capability and ability to learn and successfully work within multidisciplinary teams and experience to motivate research teams.
• Receptive to challenges and results oriented.
• Capacity and skills to develop and encourage strong collaborative links with the national and international scientific community and the fruit industry sector (Catalan, Spanish and European).
• Capacity to anticipate, plan and write R+D projects, reports and technical documents.
• Good oral and written communication skills

Terms of Appointment:

This is a full-time permanent position.

Gross salary will be commensurate with the qualifications and experience

You should load your CV in Adobe Acrobat pdf format before 17 th November. All information will be in the strictest confidence. During the recruitment process, the Human Resources Department will keep you informed the progress of your application.