Postdoctoral Research Associate

Texas A&M University System • Temple, TX

2d • Onsite

About The Position

Texas A&M AgriLife Research at Temple is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate with expertise in precision agriculture technologies, digital soil mapping/pedometrics, proximal/remote sensing, and geospatial modeling. The ideal candidate will work and collaborate closely within a research team at Texas A&M AgriLife and USDA-ARS laboratories to advance precision conservation in cropping systems with diverse management, delivering practical soil and agronomic information for decision-making at the subfield, farm, and regional levels.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Soil Science, Agronomy, Agricultural Engineering, Geosciences, Environmental Sciences, or a closely related discipline.
• Strong background in data-intensive soil and agronomic analytics and geospatial modeling.
• Proficiency in proximal sensing, GIS, and remote sensing.
• Ability to multi-task and work cooperatively with others.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced ML/AI experience in digital soil mapping/pedometrics and soil landscape modeling, and in handling high-resolution geospatial and temporal datasets.
• Demonstrated experience with precision agriculture data/tools (yield monitor data, spatial variability, management zones, ECa/EMI, LiDAR, VisNIR, and UAV workflows).
• Proficiency in programming languages (R or Python) for automated reproducible workflows.
• Knowledge, experience, and interest in assessing the impacts of management practices on environmental outcomes, such as soil health diagnostics, water quality, carbon/nitrogen cycling, and profit–risk–environment tradeoff products.
• Excellent academic record, including authored/co-authored publications and contributions to significant scientific meetings, seminars, and conferences.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Combine field observations with proximal sensing, UAV and satellite imagery, yield monitor data, and soil, environmental, and weather datasets to create soil and agronomic intelligence products that guide precision management at the sub-field level and inform conservation decisions.
• Integrate multi-source datasets, analyze yield stability over time, build and validate ML/AI-based prediction models, create field zones tied to management actions supported by farm economics, and develop scaling-up solutions for different management scenarios.
• Develop profit–risk–environment tradeoff products, build reusable R/Python workflows, and publish and present results in collaboration with USDA-ARS and university partners across Texas and the U.S.
• Lead and co-author peer-reviewed scientific publications.
• Actively contribute to proposal development.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Health, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance with Texas A&M AgriLife contributing to employee health and basic life premiums
• 12-15 days of annual paid holidays
• Up to eight hours of paid sick leave and at least eight hours of paid vacation each month
• Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas
• Employee Wellness Initiative for Texas A&M AgriLife

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree