Senior Scientist -Digital Agriculture at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Key Responsibilities

The incumbent will catalyze the transformation of local innovation ecosystems into knowledge hubs for populations in close collaboration with youth, the private sector, governments, policy makers, and other partners.

Digital and AI-enabled Innovations in Smallholder Systems

• Lead socio-ecological systems co-design and co-engineering, leveraging precision ag, digital and AI-enabled innovations with smallholder farmers, pastoralists, youth organizations, extension services, governments and private sector partners.
• Advance the responsible, inclusive and ethical use of data, AI and automation, ensuring gender equity, youth inclusion, data sovereignty and environmental sustainability.
• Design and operationalize innovative uses of remote sensing, IoT, edge computing, machine learning and decision-support systems tailored to low-connectivity and resource-constrained farming systems
• Foster public–private partnerships, digital public infrastructure and institutional innovations that enable sustainable and equitable value creation from digital and AI technologies.
• Design, implement and refine digital services (e.g. climate information, credit, insurance, market-input-value chain linkages) that support bundled technical-market solutions that aim to derisk agriculture and pastoral livelihoods and create dignified and fulfilling jobs for youth
• Strengthen the role that digital public infrastructure, open science, open data and pre-competitive collaboration and products may play in supporting agricultural development across regions, including smallholder-oriented contractual agriculture

Research dissemination and knowledge sharing

• Write and publish scientific papers in reputable journals, contributing to ILRI’s knowledge base on digital innovation and machine-augmented intelligence for agriculture and livestock
• Represent ILRI in conferences, workshops, and training sessions to share research findings, advocate and establish ILRI as a thought leader in this space
• Develop and contribute to blogs, communication products as well as policy briefs that promote the responsible exploitation of digital innovations and machine-augmented intelligence

Partnership Building

• Build partnerships with agtech and fintech, youth organizations, financial and academic institutions, mobile network operators, policy makers, other CGIAR centres, NGOs and investors to conceptualize, develop and implement digital innovations and machine-augmented intelligence solutions in smallholder agriculture and livestock systems
• Leverage South-South and North-South collaborations and strengthen networking with institutions of repute to bring the power of artificial intelligence to bear on the reduction of stubborn development challenges in complex smallholder systems
• Play the role of a knowledge broker and stimulate strategic linkages within the innovation ecosystem
• Lead and/or support in activities connected with developing project plans, costing, business cases and other material for optimizing new digital tool development, enhancement and maintenance
• Actively contribute to fundraising in support of ILRI and CGIAR agendas on precision agriculture, digital innovations and machine-augmented intelligence, particularly from private capital

Capacity building and mentoring

• Identify and deliver training/capacity building programs in target countries on development and maintenance of digital platforms in consultation with various stakeholders
• Co-supervise PhD and MSc students on relevant topics
• Mentor and support research technicians involved in field data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings

Requirements

• PhD in agriculture/environmental sciences/computer/geospatial sciences with over 7 years of experience in the capacity of technical project/program management and leading solution architecture development for large complex distributed systems.
• Experience in technical management roles is desirable as well as a degree in Business Administration
• Proven practical ability to design, develop and deploy digital innovations and/or machine-augmented intelligence solutions for crop-livestock and pastoral systems. Working knowledge of Generative AI and computational social sciences an advantage.
• Track record of writing and publishing scientific papers, as well as preparing and delivering presentations for conferences, workshops, and stakeholder engagements.
• Experience in creating communication products such as research and policy briefs that highlight the potential as well as pitfalls of digitalization of agriculture and livestock systems.
• Experience in grant and proposal writing, engaging with donors and stakeholders, and mobilizing resources to support ILRI’s agenda.
• Demonstrable experience in collaborating and sharing results with an interdisciplinary research team, encompassing fields such as climate science, livestock productivity, crop and soil management, socioeconomics, and gender studies.
• Experience in co-supervising students and providing mentorship to research technicians involved in data collection, field studies, and analysis.
• Deep understanding of resource poor, smallholder farming systems in developing countries, particularly within semi-arid and tropical regions, with a focus on climate adaptation and resilience.
• Prior work experience in Africa and or Asia, and a demonstrated understanding of the agricultural and environmental contexts of both.
• Demonstrated experience of active collaboration or past work and understanding of private sector business models as well as ways of working is an added advantage.
• Bilingual in English and French. Working knowledge of African languages is an added advantage.