Assistant Plant Breeder

Asst Plant Breeder (8427)

Duda Farm Fresh Foods is a world leader in celery production, innovation and celery research. A subsidiary of A. Duda & Sons, a family owned company with a rich heritage in celery for nearly 100 years, Duda Farm Fresh Foods has a research center devoted to celery research, a state of the art celery processing facility, a world leading breeding program with approximately 100 celery varieties to its credit including numerous preeminent developments and a team of scientists committed to maintaining its esteemed position.  Duda is currently seeking a qualified candidate as Assistant Plant Breeder to join this team. The Assistant Plant Breeder will play a critical role as a team member of a large intricate celery breeding program and regional radish breeding program. This position will provide assistance to the current Director of R&D who leads the programs and will be actively involved with the production, harvest and processing teams. This position will be responsible for celery breeding activities including coordination of trials, evaluation, data collection and data analysis. This position will also be involved with research activities that include a multitude of projects ranging from seed treatment trials to production trials.

Responsibilities & Qualifications 

• Collaborate closely with the Director of R&D to ensure continuous progress across existing variety development pipelines and contribute to the design and implementation of new breeding initiatives.
• Assist in and coordinate all aspects of the celery and radish breeding programs including trial development, trial evaluation, selecting and digging plants, trial data collection, data entry, patent data collection, and patent summary table preparation.
• Aid in development, presentation an communication of results for breeding and research trials to include data entry, organization and statistical analysis for reports, power points and field presentations.
• Maintain accurate breeding records in a database system including parent lineages, crosses, trial results, seed weights and trial entries.  
• Assist with celery and radish caging operations, isolation test crosses and seed crops, including planting, confirming sterility, confirming purity, genotyping and seed harvest.
• Capable of differentiating information or materials that are confidential and sharing information appropriately within and outside the Duda organization.
• Capable and willing to travel to the numerous celery production locations around the United States (Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Carolinas, and California) for the evaluation of trials, to become familiar with the growers, farming operations, farming/harvesting/processing practices, and generally all aspects of celery. 
• Experience/Knowledge in Microsoft Office.
• Fluent in English, Spanish beneficial.
• Master’s Degree is required. Area(s) of study; plant breeding, biology, horticulture, agronomy or related field.
• Prior experience with breeding, trialing or relevant responsibilities.
• Other duties as assigned. 

Duda Farm Fresh Foods provides a fair and equal employment opportunity for all employees and job applicants regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, any other classification protected by law. We expect and require the cooperation of all employees in maintaining a discrimination and harassment-free work environment.

Due to the high volume of applications received, only those candidates who are selected for interviews will be contacted.