About the Role
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) seeks a dedicated and detail-oriented Research Assistant - Breeding Data Management to join our vibrant team. In this role, you will support agricultural research by ensuring accurate data collection, curation, and management to enhance crop productivity and food security across Africa.
Key Responsibilities- Support the adoption and routine use of the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) for storing and retrieving breeding information.
- Assist breeding teams with electronic data capture, digital field books, and validation of data-collection templates.
- Curate essential breeding data, including locations, traits, pedigrees, and experimental metadata before database loading.
- Use R scripts or similar tools for data cleaning, validation, duplicate identification, and routine reporting.
- Execute database queries and maintain Power BI dashboards to monitor breeding activities and data quality.
- Apply international research data management standards, crop ontologies, and standard phenotyping protocols.
- Maintain thorough documentation of data-curation activities, analytical scripts, and user-support requests.
- Bachelor’s degree or Higher National Diploma in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Agricultural Science, Plant Breeding, Bioinformatics, or Information Technology.
- Minimum of two (2) years of relevant experience in data management, database support, or agricultural research.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including advanced formulas, pivot tables, and data validation functions.
- Working knowledge of R or Python for data cleaning, transformation, and reproducible reporting.
- Demonstrated ability to develop, update, and maintain Power BI dashboards.
- Familiarity with relational databases and SQL for querying and data extraction.
- Contribute to groundbreaking agricultural research that impacts millions of lives across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Collaborate with multicultural, multidisciplinary teams of scientists and researchers in a world-class institution.
- Opportunities for professional development and continuous skill enhancement in agricultural data science.