Genomic Selection Research Scientist - CSIRO - GreenCareer

First listed on: 01 August 2018

Genomic Selection Research Scientist 

  • Are you a Research Scientist experienced in quantitative genetics?
  • Work on interesting projects with real-world application
  • Join CSIRO - Australia's premier science and technology research organisation

The Position

CSIRO’s Agriculture and Food team are looking to appoint a Research Scientist within the Cotton Biotechnology Group.

As the successful candidate, you will be an innovative and forward thinking quantitative geneticist, who has at least four years of postdoc experience as a quantitative or population geneticist.  In this role you will work closely with the Cotton Breeding and Molecular Breeding Technologies teams to develop and validate statistical approaches for predicting the field performance of cotton plants.

Find out more by viewing the full position description and selection criteria here:  Position description

Your duties/responsibilities will include:

  • Incorporate novel approaches to scientific investigations by adapting and/or developing original concepts and ideas for new, existing and further research.
  • To collate, verify and store cotton genotype, pedigree, and field based phenotype and environmental data in accessible breeding databases such as AGROBASE, working in close collaboration with the teams generating the data to ensure that it remains relevant for both conventional and advanced genetic approaches to cotton improvement.
  • Maintain an in depth familiarity with recent advances in quantitative genetics and applications of Genomic Selection in different crops and animals that may also be applicable to cotton.
  • Design and implement robust statistical approaches and computational pipelines to model the relationships between cotton genotypes and their field based agronomic traits such as fibre quality and yield in different growing seasons and environments.
  • Analyse the prediction accuracies of genomic selection models for different cotton agronomic traits and refine the models or approaches over time as new phenotype and genotype information becomes available from the breeding program or as the GS field advances.

Location:      Canberra, ACT or Myall Vale, NSW
Salary:          $97K - $105K plus up to 15.4% superannuation
Tenure:         Indefinite
Reference:    57556

To be successful you will need:

  • A doctorate or equivalent research experience in a relevant discipline area, such as quantitative genetics, biostatistics, genomics or plant breeding.
  • A successful postdoctorale experience as a quantitative or population geneticist.
  • Demonstrated expertise in developing and applying a wide range of analyses for genetic parameter estimation, GWAS, and Genomic Selection, preferably in crop species.
  • Demonstrated skills in the handling and analysis of large genotype and phenotype datasets, including the generation of genomic relationship matrices, population structure analysis, generation of genomic breeding values, and imputation pipelines.
  • Evidence of advanced programming skills and software design in languages and statistical software packages relevant to bioinformatics and biostatistics (e.g. Python, SAS, R or equivalent).

We imagine. We collaborate. We innovate. At CSIRO, we do the extraordinary every day. We innovate for tomorrow and help improve today – for our customers, all Australians and the world. We do this by using science and technology to solve real issues. Diversity is the compass that navigates our innovation. We provide an inclusive workplace that respects, values and actively pursues the benefits of a diverse workforce.

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. Talk to us about how this role could be flexible for you.  Find out more Balance 

How to Apply:  To apply, please provide a CV as well as a cover letter addressing the selection criteria in brief, and upload these as one document. If your application proceeds to the next stage you may be asked to provide additional information. 

Applications Close:  Monday, 27th August 2018