Breeding technician

Overview

PepsiCo is a major food enterprise sourcing a variety of raw materials of agricultural origin such as tuber, grain, and fruit & vegetable crops around the world. A creative, results-oriented breeding technician is required to execute breeding activities primarily across potatoes and oat, with potential of expansion to other crops at a PepsiCo breeding facility in Rhinelander, WI.

This breeding technician is responsible for assisting the breeding programs, leading projects, and working within the breeding programs to drive the improvement of raw agriculture materials important to PepsiCo. This position will work closely with existing assistant breeders to execute breeding operations as set by the manager but is also expected to make independent decisions in order to meet project objectives. Breeding operations are in greenhouses, large walk-in growth chambers, fields, seed storage units, and occasionally wet labs.

• Work with the breeders, assistant breeders, and other technicians to lead projects in the greenhouse and phenotyping facilities.
• Work with breeders and assistant breeders to phenotype breeding trials in the field and at the phenotyping facility. This includes in-season phenotyping in the field, flying UAVs, raw potato grading at harvest, and chip frying and processing traits. Lead implementation of innovative technologies for phenotyping.
• Work with breeders and assistant breeders to lead field activities including planting, transplanting, seed cutting, sample pulling, organizing, etc. Ensure accurate records are taken and entered in a timely fashion.
• Work with breeders and assistant breeders to lead greenhouse and growth room operations including growth area preparation, seed pulling, planting, transplanting, crop maintenance, pathogen testing, crossing, seed extraction, inventory management, harvest, etc. Ensure accurate and timely data capture, and data uploading to PepsiCo's databases, ensuring the data meets the expected quality standards.
• Utilize barcoding and inventory software to track and store tuber, plant, and seed samples.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and promptly report challenges with breeding operations while proactively identifying potential solutions.
• Continuously identify opportunities for improving efficiency and quality of breeding operations, including efficiencies in processes, techniques, and flow.
• Comply with local HSE requirements, including but not limited to prevention, incident reporting, and remedial actions.
• Adapt to unexpected delays and changes in workflows to maintain overall productivity.

• The expected compensation range for this position is between $50,600 - $75,950 based on a full-time schedule.
• Location, confirmed job-related skills and experience will be considered in setting actual starting salary.
• Paid time off subject to eligibility, including paid parental leave, vacation, sick, and bereavement.
• In addition to salary, PepsiCo offers a comprehensive benefits package tosupport our employees and their families, subject to elections and eligibility: Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, Health and Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Insurance (Accident, Group Legal, Life), Defined Contribution Retirement Plan.

• BS preferred in Plant Breeding, Horticulture, Agronomy, Biological Systems Engineering, Biology, or related discipline. Relevant experience in an active breeding/genetics program, agriculture, leading teams, data analysis, or inventory tracking is preferred, but all qualified applicants will be considered.
• Attention to details and accurate record keeping.
• Ability to organize projects, lead teams, keep people motivated, and drive for results in any situation.
• Demonstrated experience in collecting data from plants and curating them for consistency and quality prior to uploading in company databases required.
• Demonstrated ability to manage activities within assigned resources/budgets.
• Can quickly separate the mission-critical from the nice to dos and the trivial; quickly senses what's the next most useful thing to work on; focuses on the critical few tasks that really add value and puts aside or delays the rest.
• Excellent communication and networking ability with the local PepsiCo community and the remote team.
• Excellent ability to utilize basic software and communication technologies such as Word, Excel, Power Point, Webex, Outlook, etc., and to input or query data from relational databases.
• A proven ability to work closely with colleagues on activities with a high degree of flexibility and comfort with change. Ability to be an ambassador of change and to build consensus among others who can enable activities and projects at the local facility.
• Ability to balance the need to deliver on time, on target, within resources, and with expected quality and quantity.
• This position will be based in Rhinelander, WI and must be willing to travel occasionally to off-site experiment locations or to the main team site in St. Paul, MN at the University of Minnesota agricultural campus.
• Must be willing to travel 10-15% of the time primarily in North America, by land or air.
• Must be willing to flex work schedule to accommodate video and phone conferences across multiple time-zones as an alternative to travel.
• Must be able to operate in hot and wet/dry environments such as greenhouses and walk-in growth chambers, to work with plants, soil, and agricultural/science equipment, and to lift safely up to 50 LBS of weight.