Job Opportunities at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

Description

• The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT®, is a not-for-profit agricultural research for development organization with partners in over 100 countries.
• CIMMYT is seeking a dynamic, self-motivated, and service-oriented professional for the position of Internal Audit Manager to objectively evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of the governance, risk management and control systems at CIMMYT headquarters and in regional operations.

Specific duties:

Providing Assurance- planning, monitoring and quality review of Assurance engagements:

• Actively participate in the development of a risk- based annual, medium- term and long-term internal audit plan.
• Complete and supervise assurance and advisory engagements, reviews, investigations and other work assigned.
• Participate in the conduct of special investigations into cases of alleged fraud.
• Produce high-quallity, value-adding audit reports.
• Reporting on progress to the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee and Management

Maintaining a high- performing Internal Audit Unit – improvement and innovation

• Ensure consistent development and implementation of the Assurance approach and strategy.
• Act as a lead on various projects or actions to implement the IAU improvement plan.
• Provide coaching and guidance to the teams that undertake the various assurance engagements.
• Prepare and monitor the IAU budget to implement the Annual Workplan.
• Maintain high quality work standards and remain up to date with the evolution of standards and practices.

Management support and learning

• Ensure that relationships with all clients/ auditees remain strong, through effective networking.
• Make effective recommendations to management on how to improve the control framework and manage risks.
• Facilitate the sharing of learning.
• Providing independent advice regarding appropriate levels of internal control.

Requirements
Required academic qualifications, skills, and attitudes:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Finance or related field.
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) or related designation.
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible professional experience in audit or related field is required..
• Advanced level of English. English will be tested and candidate should score a minimum of C1 on CEFR.
• Demonstrated knowledge of principles, practices and techniques of auditing and of the requirements of the Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing.
• Ability to plan and organize a substantial workload that includes complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities.
• Working experience in audit with an international organization is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of and experience in working with major donors is required.
• Experience in analysis of complete sets of data to identify anomalies and trends is required
• Understand scientific research controls and experience of auditing research science management process.
• Proven experience or willingness to travel for work in the regions whare CIMMYT operates

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Description

• The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as a member of CGIAR and pursuing its mission to apply science to sustainably increase crop production and improve livelihoods, is establishing a breeding program for groundnut in Eastern and Southern Africa. This program will be designed and implemented in close association with national programs and other partners.
• The objective of this position is to enable truly collaborative CGIAR-NARS breeding programs that accelerate the rate of genetic gain and increase the varietal turnover rate of groundnut in the target region. The scientist will work with NARS, CGIAR initiatives, such as Excellence in Breeding (EiB), and other stakeholders to develop modern and effective breeding, and variety deployment strategies. The successful candidate must be committed to developing and enabling CGIAR-NARS coordinated breeding networks, which will include other value chain partners and collaborators. This position will report to the Breeding Pipeline Modernization Expert.
• The duty post will be Nairobi, Kenya or a mutually agreed location within the target region.

Specific duties:

• Establish and lead the breeding activities for the CGIAR component of the CGIAR-NARS network.
• Design and implement an effective collaborative breeding strategy to develop elite breeding material, and a product advancement process to identify candidate new varieties for targeted market segments and product profiles.
• With NARS and selected other partners, identify, obtain, and develop appropriate germplasm to sustain breeding programs.
• In association with multidisciplinary network scientist & staff, EiB, and partners, develop modern population improvement and testing strategies.
• Co-ordinate the development of a stage-wise multi-environment product performance testing strategy, data analysis and advancement process, which is aligned with crop market segments, TPEs or agroecologies.
• Ensure cost effective breeding operations, and standard operating procedures that deliver agreed quality and performance indicators.
• Develop strong partnerships with national public breeding programs to collaboratively identify critical germplasm, product needs and define complementary breeding objectives.
• Enable and actively support the regional crop network to collaboratively plan and implement breeding activities that balance the development of individual and shared network germplasm products, and builds capacity to share knowledge, best practices, training, etc.
• Support and contribute to product profile development and seed system activities in the region.
• Contribute to or lead the development of research proposals and other fundraising activities.
• Lead or contribute to publication of research results in international, refereed journals.

Requirements
Required qualifications, skills, and attitudes:

• PhD in Plant Breeding/ Genetics/ Quantitative genetics with a minimum of 5 years of public or private sector breeding.
• Experience in applying quantitative genetics principles to breeding.
• Demonstrated successful experience as a groundnut breeder is highly desired.
• Knowledge and experience using genomics and latest breeding technologies is highly desired.
• Strong networking and facilitating skills, with focus on enabling and empowering others to succeed.
• Demonstrated ability to work in multicultural and diverse environments.
• Successful experience and commitment to inclusive research design and implementation.

Other requirements:

• Fluency in verbal and written English is essential.
• Must be willing to travel frequently both internationally and domestically.
• Experience of managing staff and budget is desirable.
• The selected candidate must exhibit the following competencies: Problem Solving and Decision Making, Critical Thinking, Client Orientation, Communication and Team Leadership.