Job Description

The Vacancy
Main Purpose of Job
To provide vision and overall leadership in crop genetics and breeding within the Department of Cell & Molecular Sciences.
Crop genetic improvement plays a critical role in advancing objectives for sustainable agriculture, net zero, and food security. Advances in precision breeding, trait selection, and genomic technologies combined with modern AI techniques and quantitative methods offer significant potential to deliver improved crop performance, resource-use efficiency, and environmental sustainability.
The James Hutton Institute is well placed to lead on this activity, being globally renowned for its expertise in crop genetics and breeding, delivering to the domestic and commercial sectors and globally through key partnerships such as those with the International Potato Centre (CIP). It houses extensive collections of barley, soft fruit and potato germplasm, including the Commonwealth Potato Collection. It is at the cutting edge of genetics and genomics, and the Institute's flagship Advanced Plant Growth Centre provide infrastructure for controlled environment plant growth and high throughput phenotyping in which light, temperature, CO2 concentration and humidity can be regulated to simulate current and future global environments. Genome editing and new breeding technologies provide us with an unprecedented opportunity for gene discovery to accelerate the next generation of crop varieties that can thrive in future growing environments. We aim to rapidly translate scientific insights into practical application, taking advantage of strong relationships in key value chains through the International Barley Hub and National Potato Innovation Centre to achieve this.
To achieve gains across a range of crops and environments, including our key crops of potato, barley and soft fruits, requires an experienced leader with the vision and drive to exploit and build upon the strengths of the institute to promote genetics and breeding whilst providing the blueprint for multicrop improvement at scale. This high-profile individual will be an ambassador for the exploitation of knowledge for sustainable breeding and crop production.
Main Duties of Postholder

• Accelerate genetic innovations and data-driven approaches to crop improvement across our key crops
• Conduct research on crop genetic improvement in one of the Hutton's key crops
• Lead the potato, barley and soft fruit teams, providing vision, coherence and momentum
• Act as a key link with statistical genetics, digital technologies and other CMS research including crop pathology
• Actively contribute to the management of the Genetics and Physiology Group and the wider department
• Strategic role in supporting the Hutton flagships and links with University of Dundee
• Forge and maintain strong links between fundamental and applied research and stakeholders to ensure translation into practice

Person Specification
Education/Experience/Skills
Essential

• PhD in quantitative crop genetics
• Insight into current and future genetic/genomic technologies and AI and their exploitation for crop breeding
• Good grounding in bioinformatics
• Experienced team leader and manager
• International scientific reputation and research programme
• Established funding portfolio including end-user relationships
• Excellent communicator

Desirable

• Researcher specialising in one of our key crops of potato, barley or soft fruits
• Experience with high throughput phenotyping
• Translation of genetics research to novel cultivars
• Effective relationships with multinational breeding companies
• Staff and student mentoring
• Full driving licence

Our Commitment to Equality and Diversity
We will not consider the use of 3rd party recruitment agencies for the sourcing of candidates for this position.
The James Hutton Institute is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
The James Hutton Institute is a: Stonewall Diversity Champion; Athena SWAN Silver Status Holder; Disability Confident Committed Employer and a Living Wage Employer.
The James Hutton Institute is Happy to Talk Flexible Working.
The Company
The James Hutton Institute combines strengths in crops, soils and land use and environmental research, and makes a major contribution to the understanding of key global issues, such as food, energy and environmental security, and developing and promoting effective technological and management solutions to these.
James Hutton (1726 - 1797) was a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, an eighteenth century golden age of intellectual and scientific achievements centred on Edinburgh. He is internationally regarded as the founder of modern geology and one of the first scientists to describe the Earth as a living system. His thinking on natural selection influenced Charles Darwin in developing his theory of evolution.
Our Values

Skills Required