Production Research Agronomist at Bayer East Africa

Role Purpose

The Production Research Agronomist role is responsible for executing Production Research Support and Technology Deployment in Bayer Seed Manufacturing across Kenya and other West and Central African countries, ensuring operational excellence, and driving continuous improvement. Building strong partnerships with internal stakeholders across countries and globally to drive reliable, high quality and cost-effective seed production processes, while speeding up technology adoption to create an operational excellence culture within the region.

Key responsibilities and tasks

• Implement Production Research field and plant technologies that provide technical support to the Seed Manufacturing team for improvement of production cost, seed quality and production reliability
• Drive Production Research field testing operational excellence efforts within the region
• Test and deploy new technologies to drive efficiency and improve data quality within the region
• Partner with Production Research counterparts in other word regions to drive alignment and consistency in testing activities
• Promote agronomic and technical improvements within regional Production Research team, as well as broader production organization
• Support safety/ESH initiatives across production research teams in Africa
• Drives operational improvements, metrics tracking and implementation of best practices through team members and along with peers
• Being able to influence key stakeholders to ensure successful technology deployment

Experience, Skills and Qualifications

• MSc with 3-years or BSc with 5-years’ experience in a relevant Agricultural discipline (agricultural research, plant physiology, plant breeding or related field)
• //Must have hands-on experience in design and execution of general, field and laboratory trial setups 
• Strong record of innovation and applying new technology.
• Knowledge of seed production operations will be beneficial
• Experience in working in a team-based environment and capacity to influence within matrixed organizations (relationships and network)
• Results driven and capacity to influence within a matrixed organization and across functions
• Excellent communication – oral, written, under diverse circumstances and audiences
• Willingness to work in field conditions
• Basic knowledge of Seed Production, Pest and Disease identification and its control
• Results orientation
• Driver’s license
• Analytical Skills & interpretation skills
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 60% of time
• Six Sigma or Lean manufacturing expertise