Food Scientist Jobs

About The Position

Requirements

• Doctoral degree in agricultural science, biology, or a closely related field and two years of relevant experience; or a master’s degree in one of these fields and five years of relevant experience; or a bachelor’s degree in one of these fields and seven years of relevant experience.
• Application must include a cover letter and resume.
• Application must be submitted by 11:55 p.m. ET on the posting end date.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in agricultural science, biology, or a closely related field and five years of experience in the field or a related area.
• Experience in project work, preferably on Research for Development-funded projects.
• Strong analytical, oral and written communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in program coordination, managing externally funded international projects, and field research and/or development work with smallholder farmers.
• Self-motivation, multitasking, and facilitation skills.
• Flexibility and willingness to travel internationally to SAFE target countries, including the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, and the Philippines.
• Strong commitment to client satisfaction, excellent mediation and motivation skills, and ability to work in a multicultural environment.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and generate high-quality outputs while balancing multiple responsibilities.
• Proficiency in Spanish or another language spoken in SAFE’s target countries, such as Nepali, Filipino, Amharic, or Swahili.
• Experience involving multidisciplinary and international teams.

Responsibilities

• Track research and capacity-building activities against approved annual workplans.
• Ensure subrecipients submit quarterly and final progress reports on time, and follow up on delays or implementation challenges.
• Provide technical support to SAFE faculty and subrecipients, particularly in SAFE’s Areas of Inquiry, and help resolve research design and implementation issues.
• Liaise with SAFE country coordination teams to support planning and implementation of in-country research activities.
• Plan and organize meetings, stakeholder consultations, workshops, and other program events in Gainesville, Florida, and SAFE focus countries.
• Coordinate knowledge-sharing and open data management, including analysis and dissemination of research results, and support subrecipients’ knowledge-sharing activities.
• Coordinate and support management of SAFE’s research and scaling project portfolio in Piestar, and provide Piestar training.
• Adaptively manage SAFE’s results framework and performance monitoring plans for SAFE and its research projects.
• Contribute to data collection and assessment of SAFE evaluation studies using participatory quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Revise and strengthen data-collection and reporting protocols for subrecipients and UF researchers, and help subrecipients refine project-specific MEL plans.
• Coordinate implementation of SAFE’s Environmental Monitoring Plan, develop supporting tools and protocols, and help subrecipients strengthen project-specific environmental plans.
• Train and support subrecipients in MEL and environmental compliance, remotely or in the field.
• Prepare and submit quarterly and annual compilations and verification of indicator data in line with Feed the Future and Department of State standards, using data quality checks, triangulation, and field visits.
• Support country coordination teams in monitoring research performance in-country and prepare internal quarterly performance overviews.
• Manage the Piestar monitoring and reporting portal and provide training on its use.
• Develop data visualizations and learning tools to help SAFE subrecipients and partners apply results to decision-making.
• Present findings and facilitate learning-focused discussions with in-country platforms.
• Perform other program coordination and MEL tasks as assigned, and travel or undertake other tasks in support of the innovation lab as assigned.