Senior Scientific Officer-Pigeonpea Breeding

Senior Scientific Officer – Pigeonpea Breeding

ICRISAT seeks applications from dynamic and motivated Indian nationals for the position of Senior Scientific Officer – Pigeonpea Breedin to support ICRISAT’s pigeonpea breeding team in the cluster Crop Breeding under the Global Research Program Accelerated Crop Improvement. his position is based at ICRISAT office in Odisha/Patancheru, India.

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi- arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems.

ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on its mandate crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on the drylands and in protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid. Please visit - www.icrisat.org.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide scientific support and maintain accurate records of breeding nurseries and field trials.
• Support the implementation and coordination of pigeonpea breeding program activities in Odisha.
• Monitor breeding nurseries and multi-location trials at Odisha, partner sites and ensure timely and accurate data collection.
• To Digitize, curate, and manage breeding and field trial data.
• Facilitate the migration of pigeonpea breeding data, location information, and pedigree records from Odisha, Patancheru, and partner sites to the Breeding Management System (BMS) platform.
• Execute planned scientific experiments and perform data analysis to support research objectives.
• Provide technical assistance and support for ongoing research activities within the pigeonpea breeding program.
• To Summarize, interpret, and report experimental results in a timely manner.
• Contribute actively to the preparation of scientific manuscripts and publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• Perform any other duties and responsibilities assigned by the supervisor from time to time.

Requirements:

• A master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Agriculture, Plant Breeding, Genetics, or Statistics.
• Should have 5 to 8 years of hands-on experience in agricultural research setups, field trial management, or laboratory research.
• Experience in planning, execution, monitoring, and maintenance of breeding nurseries and multi-location trials.
• Familiarity with pedigree management and migration of breeding data across platforms.
• Good understanding of crop improvement programs, preferably in legumes and pigeonpea breeding.
• Sound knowledge of generating nurseries, trials and developing breeding experiments and generation advancement techniques through speed breeding in Pigeonpea.
• Hands-on experience with Breeding Management System (BMS) and related breeding informatics tools.
• Experience in Field experimentation (Field layout, field book), data analysis and interpretation (GENSTAT, R, Python, and SAS).
• Good English, communication and writing skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Team management and problem-solving skills.

General:

This is a contractual role for a period of 36 months (03 years), renewable based on the performance of the incumbent and the institute’s continuing need for the position.

How to apply:

The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is identified. All Applicants should apply with their latest Resume by 05 October 2026, along with the names and contact information of three references who are knowledgeable about their professional qualifications and work experience. All applications will be acknowledged; however, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

ICRISAT is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing diversity and maintaining a progressive and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age, marital status or whether they have a disability.