Careers at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

CIMMYT is looking for an outstanding, self-motivated, and result-oriented professional for the position of Maize Plant Health Scientist. This position will provide strategic leadership in plant health across CIMMYT’s Global Maize program, ensuring alignment with institutional goals and international priorities.

The location of this position will be CIMMYT Nairobi, Kenya.

Set Plant Health Vision for CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program (GMP)

• Define CIMMYT GMP’s long-term plant health strategy and regions.
• Align disease priorities with breeding pipelines, climate projections, and food security risks.
• Establish CIMMYT as the global authority on maize disease risk in low- and middle-income countries.

Lead AI-Enabled Disease Surveillance and Early Warning Systems

• Integrate field surveillance, genomics, remote sensing, and climate data into predictive disease models.
• Apply machine learning to forecast outbreaks, pathogen evolution, and resistance breakdown.
• Develop open dashboards and early warning tools accessible to national partners.

Lead the execution, and delivery of scientifically robust pathology trials for product advancement decisions.

• Optimize disease screening and assays for maize breeding for field application
• Design and execute pathology trials that are scientifically rigorous, reproducible, and aligned with breeding program goals.
• Generate high-quality disease resistance data that supports decision-making in breeding, product advancement, and regulatory submissions.
• Ensure compliance with relevant biosafety, ethical, and quality assurance standards.

Lead Genetic Disease Resistance and Pathogen Intelligence Integration

• Establish genetic disease resistance as the cornerstone of crop protection by guiding breeding strategies, prioritizing durable resistance approaches, and informing trait deployment to minimize pathogen adaptation.
• Integrate pathogen genomics and population biology to monitor and anticipate pathogen evolution.
• Translate pathogen intelligence into actionable breeding and deployment strategies that slow adaptation and extend product life cycles.
• Establish a comprehensive pathogen intelligence framework that integrates genomic characterization, surveillance of emerging variants, and translation of insights into breeding and trait deployment strategies, ensuring durable crop resistance and proactive disease management.

Lead Seed Health, Disease-Free Production, and Phytosanitary Compliance.

• Establish and oversee comprehensive seed health testing protocols to detect and prevent seed-borne pathogens.
• Ensure disease-free seed production systems through strict monitoring, sanitation, and certification processes.
• Implement and maintain phytosanitary procedures aligned with national and international regulatory frameworks.
• Facilitate safe seed movement across borders by ensuring compliance with international standards (e.g., ISTA, IPPC).
• Provide technical guidance to breeding and production teams to integrate seed health into product advancement pipelines.

Embed Epidemiology and Agronomy into Disease Risk Models.

• Develop an integrated, multi-dimensional maize disease risk data platform that consolidates epidemiological, agronomic, and environmental datasets to enable robust modeling of pathogen dynamics and inform breeding, management, and deployment strategies.
• Develop standardized data formats to ensure compatibility across epidemiology and agronomy inputs.
• Model disease dynamics across cropping systems, landscapes, and management practices.
• Integrate agronomic and farmer behavior data into disease risk assessments.
• Design disease management strategies suitable for low-input systems.

Partnerships, Representation and Resource Mobilization

• Build and lead global plant health partnerships by coordinating with NARS, CGIAR centers, universities, and international agencies to align strategies and resources for transboundary and emerging disease response.
• Strengthen national and institutional capacity through mentoring scientists, developing training programs, sharing protocols, and ensuring sustainability of plant health systems via institutional strengthening and knowledge transfer.
• Publish in top-tier journals on pathogen biology, disease forecasting, and resistance durability.
• Develop and deliver donor proposals and investment cases that translate complex plant health risks into compelling, data driven narratives focused on disease surveillance and resistance.
• Engage and partner with donors to strengthen proactive global disease risk management and ensure sustained support for resilient plant health systems.
• Represent CIMMYT at global forums and advise governments and international bodies on biosecurity, climate risk, food systems, and disease preparedness and response.
• Strengthening CIMMYT’s visibility and credibility as a trusted, neutral authority in global plant health and food security.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in plant pathology or any other closely related crop protection field from an internationally recognized university.
• Minimum +5 years Post-Ph.D experience.
• A publication record in high-impact Journals related to Plant Pathology.
• Working experience in disease screening under natural and artificial inoculations for key maize diseases is a great advantage.
• Good knowledge of international seed exchange and phytosanitary guidelines.
• Working knowledge of data analysis software like R, SAS, and Genstat preferred.
• Good reporting and communication skills in English (working language).
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to manage complex collaborator relations, including experienced breeders, social scientists, and crop protection experts.
• Track record of flexibility, adaptability, well organized and working under pressure with tight deadlines.
• Willing to travel widely in East and Southern Africa.
• Able to excel in a fast-paced, dynamic team environment and possess skills to manage support staff.
• The selected candidate should exhibit the following competencies: Problem Solving and Decision Making, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Teamwork, and Communication.

Benefits

• The position is for an initial fixed term for three (3) years, with one year of probatory period, after which further employment is subject to performance and the continued availability of funds. CIMMYT’s internationally competitive salary and benefits include housing allowance, car, comprehensive health and life insurance, assistance for children’s education, paid vacation, annual home travel airfare, contribution to a retirement plan, and generous assistance with relocation shipment.

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Specific duties:

Learning Consultation and Needs Diagnosis

• Partner with senior leaders and internal subject matter experts (SMEs) to surface
• capability gaps using interviews, performance data, and field insights (RegionalOffices).
• Convert ambiguous briefs (from C-suite) into structured learning problems and measurable objectives.

Strategic Partner and Vendor Collaboration

• Engage with top tier global learning vendors and consulting partners to set up master service agreements in each region of operation.
• Provide strong creative direction, content framing, and quality checks so that vendor outputs reflect internal challenges and internal culture, not generic templates.
• Co-own design reviews, run pilots, and manage iterations to ensure the final product meets CIMMYT’s required standards.
• Ensure vendor content, platforms, and facilitation methods can scale across regions.

Instructional Design and Content Development

• Use the ADDIE model to design and develop high quality learning content that works for CIMMYT’s operating environment culture and internal use cases.
• Create advanced presentations, guides, learning simulations, and digital learning experiences suitable for science, operations, and engagement chapter audiences.
• Partner with internal experts to integrate field knowledge, research data, and examples from real CIMMYT work.

Program Deployment, Evaluation, and Continuous Improvement

• Deliver programs through digital first and blended formats that scale across countries without heavy staff presence.
• Use learner data, feedback, and manager insight to measure impact and maintain dashboards on skills gains and readiness indicators.
• Deploy programs in partnership with regional team members through a self-service model.

Requirements

• 6 to 8 years of global professional experience professional training design role or L&D specialist role. (minimum 4 years as per CIMMYT Institutional Job Level Guidelines)
• Proven ability to design training from ambiguous briefs without hand holding or heavily predefined frameworks.
• Strong experience working with global consulting vendors to build high stakes leadership programs.
• Instructional design mastery grounded in ADDIE.
• Analytical mindset with strong problem framing ability.
• Ability to collaborate with internal and external experts without losing ownership of the final product.

Benefits

• CIMMYT offers an attractive remuneration package and support for continuous professional development.

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Specific Duties

Performance Management

• Design and implement CIMMYT’s talent and performance review process in line with CIMMYT talent management strategy, ensuring a unified approach to goal setting, development, and promotion readiness.
• Provide analytics and reports linking performance outcomes with compensation, promotion, and development decisions.

Succession & Organizational Planning

• Maintain a dynamic succession planning framework covering critical and leadership roles across all programs, functions, and countries.
• Collaborate with HR team members, Directors, and Program Leads to identify successors, readiness levels, and development plans.
• Lead annual talent reviews and update succession risk maps to inform workforce planning.
• Support leadership capability assessments, career path mapping, and high-potential development initiatives.
• Monitor the implementation of individual development plans to strengthen readiness pipelines.
• Support organizational design discussions and talent moves that enhance structure, agility, and cross-functional collaboration.

Analytics and Continuous Improvement

• Generate dashboards and insights that integrate performance, succession, and development data for senior management, inc. evaluation of effectiveness.
• Prepare institutional talent management reports and briefings for leadership, governance bodies, and donors as needed.

Advisory and Collaboration

• Provide expert support to HR Business Partners and managers on talent identification, development planning, and career progression.

Requirements

• Minimum 6 years work experience in similar roles.
• Master’s degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Business Administration, or related field. A Bachelor’s degree with significant additional relevant experience may be accepted.
• Demonstrated experience in designing or implementing performance and succession frameworks, and in talent analytics or reporting.
• Strong facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and advisory skills with proven ability to influence across diverse teams.
• Strong communication skills.
• Advanced English - C1.