SENIOR PLANT SCIENTIST (PLANT SCIENCE / PLANT PHYSIOLOGY)

Are you looking to work for a company doing something truly incredible, disruptive and exciting? Now is your chance! Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) was founded in 2013 and has brought together decades of farming and engineering experience to create a market-leading agritech business with a vision to revolutionise indoor growing.
Over the last decade, IGS has built its reputation as a leading global provider of vertical farming technology, and is now looking to recruit an experienced Senior Plant Scientist to join the team.

IGS is a fast-paced organisation with its Crop Research Centre focusing on developing high quality plant growth recipes for customers. You are expected to have strong plant biology knowledge to plan and execute crop trials. You will be responsible for developing new crop growth recipes for the plant research pipeline. The Senior Plant Scientist will also be responsible for testing new nutrients, fertigation system, developing crop recipes and growth models based on environmental inputs in the IGS growth towers. Amongst all that, you bring people management skills.

Key responsibilities include:

• Responsible for managing Recipe development pipeline
• Line management responsibilities
• Responsible for developing the resource plan for the pipeline and estimating timelines for successful trials
• Liaising with research & product management team to manage trials for all crops in the Pipeline
• Coordinate with data science team to ensure robust data is collected during the trials, finalize the report, and share it with relevant stakeholders in the company
• Establish a framework for the QMS system with the product management & science team to guarantee food safety of the final produce that can be shared with the customer as part of the final product
• Lead the internal QMS system and run analysis on various samples provided by the stakeholders
• Participate in various cross functional research projects at IGS

Skills and Experience: 

• PhD + 2-3 years of experience in Plant Biology, Physiology, Plant biochemistry, Horticulture, Plant Breeding, Genetics, Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Agricultural Engineering or other related discipline or Masters + 5 years industrial experience in relevant areas mentioned
• Experience in indoor plant growth (Green House, Container, Vertical Farm)
• Experience in managing people, resources & research pipelines
• Experience with project management tools is desirable
• Ability to guide scientists and technicians on new innovative approaches and process
• A very good understanding of plant biology & plant growth processes, photobiology, plant metabolic pathways, nutrients, growth substrates and fertigation systems
• Dealing with internal & external stakeholders, customers, technology transfer, IP & legal
• Experience with plant assays, analysis, diagnostics, Quality management system
• Any experience with plant breeding or new breeding technologies, food safety will be desirable but not restricted to
• Logical thinking, problem solving to quickly detect and troubleshoot issues in the pipeline
• Resource and timeline management for crop trials. You should have a very good insight of taking research outputs to product level in terms of scalability & consistency
• Good insight into the environmental inputs (Light, nutrients, temperature, humidity) affecting crop growth
• Crop Imaging, data analysis
• Running crop physiological & biochemical assays, crop growth assays
• MS Office (Excel & PowerPoint), any additional tools like Smartsheet is desirable

We are looking for someone with a ‘Can Do’ attitude, who is able to troubleshoot complex problems and has an innovative mindset. You have the ability to communicate clearly and build strong relationships with others and demonstrate cooperative behaviour.

IGS is focused on delivering innovative solutions to enable our customers to sustainably grow high-quality crops all year round. This is made possible by a highly inclusive, empowered, constructive, challenging and team-driven culture. However, we are still a business and people like you deserve to be well rewarded for your passion, energy, commitment and effort. Your base salary is accompanied by core benefits including; 7 weeks’ holiday, solid pension, opt in Private Health Care, company sick pay, Income Protection, Life Assurance x 4 of basic salary, Lifestyle & Recognition benefits and personal development/training funding.

We welcome applications from all qualified candidates. However, please note that candidates must already have the right to work in the UK, as we are unable to provide visa sponsorship at this time.

Please apply via our website.