Research Associate – Plant Breeding

Job Overview

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is recruiting a Research Associate – Plant Breeding for its headquarters in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The position supports plant-breeding research activities, field experimentation, data collection and analysis, breeding nursery management, and related research operations.

Key Responsibilities

The successful candidate will support research activities associated with plant breeding and contribute to the implementation and documentation of experimental studies.

Key responsibilities include collecting, curating and analysing research data; assisting with the preparation of reports and research publications; creating studies in the relevant electronic database system and uploading data; digitising and barcoding breeding nurseries, trials and seed inventories; conducting field testing of breeding lines and populations; preparing seeds for grain-quality and disease-resistance screening; and supporting field-testing activities at research stations and with national agricultural research partners.

The role also includes assisting with leaf sampling for genotyping, supervising technicians and labourers on a day-to-day basis, and supporting degree and non-degree training programmes.

Qualifications and Requirements

An MSc in Genetics and Plant Breeding or a related subject is required.

Candidates should have a minimum of three years of relevant experience in the design and implementation of experimental research. Experience with agricultural or research-related projects is an added advantage.

Experience

Relevant experience should include experimental research, research-data collection and statistical analysis. Experience involving cereal crop breeding and physiology is particularly relevant to the role.

Skills and Competencies

The vacancy identifies the following capabilities as relevant:

Research-data collection, management and statistical analysis.

Experience using advanced analytical tools such as R and Bioflow.

Knowledge of cereal crop breeding and physiology.

Strong communication and organisational skills.

Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.

Ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment.

Knowledge of marker-assisted breeding and genomic selection is desirable.

Ability to communicate fluently in English.

High integrity, results orientation and sound judgement.

Duties

The Research Associate will contribute to plant-breeding research, support experimental trials, assist with breeding-line testing and seed preparation, maintain research and nursery information, analyse research data, supervise field support personnel and contribute to research reports and publications.

Location

Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Employment Type / Contract

1-year renewable contract.

Application Process

Interested applicants should complete the online application through the official IITA recruitment platform and submit the required CV and cover letter/documentation through the vacancy application system. The official recruitment notice directs applicants to the IITA Workable recruitment portal.

Deadline

The employer's notice states that applications should be submitted no later than two weeks from the date of publication. I am not converting that wording into a precise date because the official notice does not provide a fixed calendar closing date.

Verified Source: Official IITA recruitment portal — Workable.

Website Duplicate Check: I searched NGO Career Link for the exact title, IITA, Ibadan, the vacancy/reference wording and the IITA recruitment identifier. No matching NGO Career Link vacancy was found in the search-visible index. This is the only candidate from this re-check I am comfortable treating as new.