About this role
Reports to: Program Leader – SRP2: Climate-Smart Crops
Location: Rabat, Morocco
Purpose of the position
IICARDA seeks a visionary Barley Breeder to lead its globally recognized barley improvement program. ICARDA’s barley breeding program serves farmers across dryland production systems, where barley is essential for food, feed, and market products such as malting. The Barley Breeder will be responsible for delivering improved barley germplasm adapted to stress-prone environments with high and stable yields, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and superior end-use quality.
The selected candidate will apply state-of-the-art breeding approaches, including genomic selection, speed breeding, high-throughput phenotyping, and modern biometric designs, to maximize genetic gain. The position requires the capacity to manage staff, foster national and international partnerships, secure funding, and ensure ICARDA barley lines are widely adopted by national programs.
About ICARDAThe International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is a treaty-based international non-profit research organization supported by CGIAR.
ICARDA’s mission is to reduce poverty, enhance food, water, and nutritional security, as well as environmental health in the face of global challenges including climate change. We do this through innovative science, strategic partnerships, linking research to development and capacity development that take into account gender equality and the role of youth in transforming the dry areas. ICARDA works in partnership with governments, universities, civil society, national agricultural research organization, other CGIAR Research Centers, and the private sector. With its temporary Headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, ICARDA operates in regional and country offices across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. For more information: www.icarda.org.
- Lead the ICARDA barley breeding program, including strategic planning, implementation, and staff development.
- Implement modern breeding tools to accelerate the rate of genetic gain (genomic selection, speed breeding, marker-assisted breeding, HTP, advanced biometrics).
- Develop strong partnerships with national agricultural research systems
- Establish collaborations with global Centers of Excellence, CGIAR initiatives, and Universities.
- Develop competitive research proposals for bilateral and multilateral donors.
- Publish high-impact scientific papers in leading journals.
- Represent ICARDA at national and international fora.
- PhD in cereal genetics, genomics, or breeding, with expertise in barley preferred.
- Minimum 3 years of post-PhD experience in breeding or related disciplines
- Good publication record
- International exposure with presentations at recognized major congresses
- Proficiency in English (spoken and written) is required
- Working knowledge of French or Arabic is an asset.
- Experience in managing a breeding program is a strong asset.
This is an internationally recruited staff position for which ICARDA offers an attractive compensation package including a competitive salary, medical insurance, 30 days of annual leave, five months’ maternity leave, 15 days’ paternity leave. The successful candidate will be offered an initial contract of 3 years, renewable subject to continued need for the position, availability of funds and satisfactory performance. The first year will be probationary period.
Please be advised that ICARDA accepts applications only in English, as per the organization's standard communication language. Applications in other languages will not be considered.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Other facts
About ICARDA
Getting agricultural research innovations into use in the dry areas is critically important, especially since these regions cover 40 per cent of the earth’s surface and are home to 2.5 billion people – a significant percentage of the world’s population.
This is the core work of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Area (ICARDA), which works with partners worldwide, developing innovations to improve food security and the livelihoods of the rural poor. ICARDA’s work targets non-tropical dry areas in developing countries, and also produces international public goods with potential for global application.
Research covers crops (wheat, barley, faba bean, lentil, chickpea and forage legumes), the management of natural resources (water, land, biodiversity), small ruminant production (sheep and goats), farming systems (intensification, diversification, integration between farming system components), and socio-economics and policy research – on how policies can be more relevant to the situation of low income countries.
The estimated benefits of ICARDA’s crop improvement research and production of new varieties over the past 3 decades has been estimated at US$850 million per year. Over 900 improved varieties of wheat, developed from ICARDA material, have been released for cultivation worldwide. The new varieties offer higher yields; better tolerance to drought, heat, cold and salinity; and improved resistance to diseases, weeds and insect pests.
Watch our short video - ‘ICARDA - What We Do’
What you'll do
- Lead the ICARDA barley breeding program, including strategic planning and implementation. Develop partnerships and collaborations to enhance the program's impact and secure funding.
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