Bean Program Breeder

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 common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) provides a highly nutritious food, containing protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, and micronutrients. As such, beans strongly reinforce food and nutrition security among poor consumers. The scientists of our Bean Program have a long and successful history of developing varieties by working closely with a wide array of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, North America, and Europe. Currently, they continue to work on resistance to biotic factors, and with increasing emphasis on tolerance to abiotic stresses, such as low phosphorus, aluminum toxicity, heat, and drought. With the aim of further enhancing the nutritional value of beans, our scientists are also engaged in a major effort to raise the content of two critical micronutrients, iron and zinc. Interspecific crosses play an important role in this effort.

We are now searching for an innovative breeder for the bean improvement program. The position would be located at the Americas Hub facilities of the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT in Palmira, Colombia but results will have application across the Tropics with particular emphasis in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

Key Responsibilities

• Enhance bean-breeding efforts by raising capacity and coordinating the program teams’ activities.
• Implement novel breeding strategies to accelerate genetic gain.
• Link with public and private sector research collaborators at the national, regional, and global levels.
• Establish productive working relationships with CIAT colleagues, e.g., in breeding, molecular biology, plant pathology, entomology, plant nutrition, and nutrition to develop new concepts in bean breeding and perfect efficient screening methodologies for key plant traits.
• To supervise and motivate support personnel to ensure the opportune completion of tasks.
• Represent the organization at meetings of all levels, providing updated information or presentations on project activities.
• To develop proposals with colleagues and partners for resource mobilization.

Qualifications and requirements:

• Ph.D. in plant breeding; experience with bean, soybean, or other breeding of other legumes would be an advantage but is not essential.
• Strong background in plant breeding and applications of molecular tools where relevant to enhancing the efficiency of bean improvement research.
• A demonstrated ability to elaborate high-quality publications meeting international standards.
• Good knowledge of statistical analysis.
• Familiarity with bean crop improvement.
• Familiarity with breeding for abiotic stress tolerance.
• Strong English language communication skills, both written and oral.
• Spanish language skill is desirable but not essential.

Terms of employment

This internationally recruited position will be based at the Americas Hub of the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT in Palmira, Colombia, reporting directly to the Bean Program Leader. 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.

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with a 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.