Job Description

Scientist I

Multifunctional Landscape

The Organization

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) 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 mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people.

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

About the position

The main objective of the position is to provide scientific and technical leadership for the design, development, scaling and application of a portfolio of decision-support tools that support sustainable land-use planning across multifunctional tropical landscapes, including conservation, tree-based restoration, cacao and coffee agroforestry systems, timber plantations, silvopastoral systems and native food plant production. The position will generate scientific evidence, guide tool development and implementation, and foster strategic partnerships to support restoration and sustainable development initiatives across Latin America and other tropical regions globally.

The position will be based at the Alliance's Americas Hub, located on the Palmira campus in Colombia, and will require periodic travel across Latin America to support the implementation of project activities and engagement with key partners and stakeholders. Non-Colombians relocating will receive an IRS contract.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

Proposes, plans and executes the back-end development, enhancement, integration and scaling of the D4R (Diversity for Restoration), D4A (Diversity for Agroforestry) and C4R (Conservation for Restoration) decision-support platforms, ensuring their scientific robustness and applicability across Latin America (Colombia, Peru and Ecuador), Central America, Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda) and Asia (India, Vietnam and Laos).
Provide scientific and technical leadership for the development, improvement and scaling of decision-support tools for silvopastoral systems and timber plantations, supporting sustainable land-use planning and restoration initiatives in Latin America.
Implements and provides technical guidance to the development and application of decision-support tools for edible plant species selection within the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative, ensuring their adaptation and deployment across diverse agroecological contexts in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Supervise and oversight of ecological, agronomic and ethnobiological data collection strategies, species suitability assessments, seed zone modelling approaches and functional trait analyses required to strengthen the scientific foundation of decision-support tools.
Direct the development, validation and continuous enhancement of carbon sequestration, ecosystem service and economic forecasting models, ensuring alignment with scientific standards, organizational priorities and stakeholder needs.
Provide technical leadership and coordination between scientific teams, software developers and external collaborators to ensure the effective integration, functionality and continuous improvement of digital decision-support platforms.
Proposes, plans and executes field validation activities, pilot testing processes and applied research studies to assess the performance and scalability of decision-support tools across multiple landscapes and production systems.
Develop and implement capacity-strengthening strategies, technical guidance materials and stakeholder engagement activities to support the adoption and effective use of decision-support tools by researchers, practitioners, development agencies and policymakers.
Contribute to the preparation of scientific publications, technical reports and knowledge products that disseminate research findings and advance the evidence base for restoration, agroforestry and sustainable land-use planning.
Establish and maintain collaborative relationships with research institutions, government agencies, development organizations, donors and international networks to support project implementation and knowledge exchange. Contribute to the identification of funding opportunities and the development of research proposals related to decision-support tools, restoration
and sustainable land-use initiatives.
Ensures scientific quality, compliance with research protocols, and delivery of project outputs.

Qualifications and requirements

PhD in fields related to Agricultural Sciences, Ecology, Biology or related fields.
Minimum of 5 years of experience in scientific research and program management in tropical agriculture, tropical forest restoration or related fields.
Demonstrated specialized experience in at least one of the following areas: management of agroecological systems, restoration of degraded lands; tropical (agro) biodiversity conservation
Strong record of scientific publications in indexed journals, experience presenting results to a range of stakeholders, and demonstrated ability to translate scientific evidence into strategic inputs for policy and decision-making.
Proven experience working with key stakeholders to identify pragmatic tailor-made scenarios for plantation co-design.
Experience working in Latin America and small holder production systems across the tropics.

Competences

Scientific and Technical Leadership.
Ability to provide technical guidance, drive scientific excellence and influence research direction within multidisciplinary teams.
Strategic Thinking.
Collaboration and Partnership Building.
Communication and Knowledge Sharing.
Innovation and Problem Solving:Capacity to develop innovative approaches and address complex scientific, technical and operational challenges.
Project Planning and Execution.
Influencing and Stakeholder Engagement.

Benefits

Terms Of Employment

Non-Colombians relocating will receive an IRS contract.

The position level is BG09, on a scale of 14 levels, with level 14 being the highest. The salary range will be established in accordance with the regional/country standards. The contract will be for a period of one (1) year, subject to a probationary period, and is renewable subject to performance, project needs and availability of funds.

Applications

Closing date of the call: September 14th,2026

Learn more about us at:

Careers | Alliance Bioversity International – CIAT/alliancebioversityciat.org

Before you apply

We review listings for quality, but organizations may update or amend a posting at any time, so confirm the role and closing date on the organization's official site before applying. No genuine employer charges a fee to apply, interview, or process an application — treat any request for payment as a scam. If a detail looks wrong or the posting seems fraudulent, report this job.

Apply on Bioversity International's website

Similar Jobs