Product Development Scientist

At Bayer we’re visionaries, driven to solve the world’s toughest challenges and striving for a world where 'Health for all, Hunger for none' is no longer a dream, but a real possibility. We’re doing it with energy, curiosity and sheer dedication, always learning from unique perspectives of those around us, expanding our thinking, growing our capabilities and redefining ‘impossible’. There are so many reasons to join us. If you’re hungry to build a varied and meaningful career in a community of brilliant and diverse minds to make a real difference, there’s only one choice.

Product Development Scientist

The Product Development Scientist is a member of a multi-disciplinary team contributing to the development of superior seed and trait products for customers in North America.

Product Development Scientists execute strategy and coordinate breeding pipeline activities, including experimental design, data collection, and analytics-driven advancement of customer-centric products. The Product Development Scientist delivers enhanced seed products, data insights, and objective guidance to partners in R&D and the Commercial organization through utilization of accelerated breeding strategies and innovations in genomics, field evaluation, and data science. They also provide technical expertise to develop and implement new technologies and processes that positively impact the breeding pipelines, while partnering with functions across Bayer Crop Science to deliver on commercial priorities.

Bayer is committed to a flexible hybrid working environment. This is a permanent position based out of Bayer sites ideally in Saskatoon, SK. Additional options to work from either Winnipeg, MB; Calgary, AB; or Lethbridge, AB Bayer sites is possible.

What you will do:

• Acts as a technical expert in North America Crop Development Units
• Executes and provides inputs on the creation and continuous improvement of technical strategy required for product development, aligned with product concepts and commercial needs to deliver a robust portfolio of improved germplasm products
• Interacts with partners in Planning, Field Testing, nursery operations, data science, Product Design, and others to ensure proper execution of our technical strategies and coordinate successful pipeline delivery
• Contributes technical insights for resource plan each year that incorporates the effects of new Precision Breeding capabilities and adequately accounts for operational realities
• Codevelops, tests, and implements new experimental designs, data collection methods, and analytics and IT approaches to improve our decision science and positively impact product development pipelines globally
• Directs field evaluation of pre-commercial products and leverages both data and in-field observations to build deep product knowledge
• Partners with diverse teams to adapt our phenotyping methodologies to modern climate conditions and management practices, delivering insights that can be used to prescribe product recommendations
• Participates in commercial and customer-facing events and tours to translate and communicate product knowledge with partners and growers
• Actively drives commercial deployment and product knowledge transfer to measurably improve product placement and launch effectiveness
• Acts as a champion of the digital transformation by supporting the development and implementation of Precision Breeding technical outcomes for product development in North America, including fully leveraging real and simulated data to improve selection and placement decisions
• Partners with teams throughout Breeding to derive actionable insights from historical data that can be used to improve our breeding strategies
• Drives alignment across R&D and Commercial teams to ensure customer needs and market trends are being properly incorporated into our pipeline strategy and selection approaches
• Supports Sustainability, Safety, Health, and Environment initiatives, and Compliance, Business Conduct and Human Rights focus and culture in the region

Who you are:

• PhD degree in Plant or Animal Breeding, Quantitative or Statistical Genetics, Data Science or other relevant scientific field with a minimum of 4 years of relevant experience; or a MS degree with 8+ years of experience in seed breeding programs, genetics or applied data science projects
• Demonstrated effectiveness in developing technical strategy, driving innovation, and building cross-functional partnerships to solve business or technical problems
• Demonstrated experience working collaboratively in cross-functional and cross-cultural teams to achieve common goals
• Demonstrated experience leading and influencing activities of cross-functional teams without direct reporting relationships
• Ability to lead and influence key stakeholders through challenges and opportunities; facilitates solutions
• Results oriented with demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects/priorities simultaneously
• Customer-centric mindset, with proven record of identifying customer needs, prioritizing resources, and bringing timely and sustainable solutions

What we offer:

• Competitive compensation and rewards package
• Collaborative, diverse and inclusive culture
• Career development and global opportunities
• Work-life flexibility programs such as flex hours, employee discounts, volunteer days, wellness, and other employee offerings

Bayer is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of Inclusion and Diversity. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences and believe that our people are our most valuable asset. The collective sum of individual life experiences, knowledge, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities that our employees invest in their work represents our culture, reputation, and Bayer’s values and purpose.