We're Hiring: Senior Agricultural Scientist
Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Senior
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About UsWe are a globally focused organization committed to advancing agricultural science, sustainable production, food security, environmental stewardship, and technology-enabled agricultural development across diverse markets.
Our multidisciplinary teams collaborate across Agronomy, Crop Science, Soil Science, Irrigation, Plant Health, Research & Development, Environmental Science, Data Analytics, Engineering, Operations, and external research institutions to develop practical, scientifically sound solutions that improve agricultural productivity and resilience.
The RoleWe are seeking an experienced Senior Agricultural Scientist to lead agricultural research, crop and soil studies, field trials, production optimization, sustainability initiatives, and scientific advisory programs. The ideal candidate will combine strong agricultural science expertise with research, analytical, project-management, and cross-functional capabilities to develop evidence-based solutions that improve crop performance, resource efficiency, farm productivity, resilience, and long-term agricultural sustainability.
Key Responsibilities
- * Develop and implement agricultural research strategies aligned with organizational priorities and sustainability objectives.
- Lead agricultural research programs from study design and field implementation through data analysis, reporting, and recommendations.
- Design and manage field trials, greenhouse studies, controlled experiments, demonstration plots, and agricultural research programs.
- Develop research protocols, hypotheses, experimental designs, sampling plans, methodologies, and performance criteria.
- Conduct agronomic assessments of crops, soils, irrigation systems, growing environments, and production practices.
- Evaluate crop growth, development, yield, quality, nutrient status, disease pressure, pest impacts, and environmental conditions.
- Develop and evaluate crop-production strategies for different crops, climates, soils, and production systems.
- Conduct crop-variety evaluations and assess genetic, environmental, and management factors affecting crop performance.
- Evaluate planting schedules, crop rotations, cultivation methods, plant densities, irrigation regimes, and nutrient-management strategies.
- Develop recommendations for fertilizer application, soil amendments, irrigation, crop protection, and other agricultural inputs.
- Conduct soil assessments covering physical, chemical, biological, and fertility characteristics.
- Analyze soil and plant-tissue test results and develop evidence-based nutrient-management recommendations.
- Evaluate soil-health indicators and develop strategies to improve soil fertility, structure, biological activity, and long-term productivity.
- Assess irrigation efficiency, water requirements, irrigation scheduling, drainage, and water-use performance.
- Develop strategies to improve water-use efficiency and agricultural resilience in water-constrained environments.
- Monitor crop water stress, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and environmental conditions.
- Evaluate integrated pest-management strategies and crop-protection programs.
- Monitor pests, diseases, weeds, and other biological threats affecting agricultural production.
- Support disease and pest identification, diagnosis, surveillance, and management programs.
- Evaluate biological, cultural, mechanical, chemical, and integrated crop-protection approaches.
- Assess the performance, safety, and effectiveness of agricultural inputs and technologies.
- Conduct trials evaluating fertilizers, biostimulants, biological products, crop-protection products, seeds, growing media, irrigation technologies, and other agricultural solutions.
- Develop experimental methodologies to evaluate product performance under controlled and field conditions.
- Collect, validate, analyze, and interpret agricultural research data.
- Apply statistical methods to evaluate experimental results, treatment effects, crop performance, and research outcomes.
- Work with data scientists, statisticians, agronomists, and technical specialists to develop appropriate analytical approaches.
- Establish data-quality standards for field observations, laboratory results, sensor data, and research datasets.
- Use agricultural databases, GIS, remote sensing, sensors, weather data, and other digital technologies to support research and decision-making.
- Evaluate precision-agriculture technologies including GPS, remote sensing, drones, IoT sensors, automated monitoring, variable-rate applications, and agricultural analytics.
- Assess the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics, and digital agriculture platforms to agricultural production.
- Develop models and analytical approaches for yield forecasting, crop monitoring, irrigation optimization, disease prediction, and resource management.
- Conduct environmental and sustainability assessments of agricultural practices.
- Develop strategies to improve resource efficiency, reduce environmental impacts, and strengthen agricultural resilience.
- Evaluate carbon, water, soil, biodiversity, energy, and input-use considerations associated with agricultural systems.
- Support regenerative agriculture, conservation agriculture, integrated farming, and other sustainable production approaches where appropriate.
- Assess climate-related risks affecting crop production and develop adaptation strategies.
- Monitor weather, climate, soil, water, and other environmental factors affecting agricultural performance.
- Develop recommendations for heat stress, drought, salinity, extreme weather, and other agricultural risks.
- Support agricultural development projects, farm modernization initiatives, and production-improvement programs.
- Conduct site assessments and evaluate land suitability for agricultural production.
- Assess land capability, soil characteristics, climate conditions, water availability, infrastructure, and production constraints.
- Develop agricultural development plans, crop plans, trial plans, and technical implementation strategies.
- Work closely with farm managers, agronomists, engineers, irrigation specialists, environmenta
Key Performance Indicators
- * Agricultural research program delivery rate
- Field-trial completion rate
- Research milestone achievement
- Experimental protocol compliance
- Research data completeness
- Research data accuracy
- Field-data quality
- Statistical analysis quality
- Crop-yield improvement
- Crop-quality improvement
- Crop-performance improvement
- Trial-to-recommendation conversion rate
- Research finding adoption
- Agricultural productivity improvement
- Input-use efficiency
- Fertilizer-use efficiency
- Water-use efficiency
- Irrigation efficiency
- Soil-health improvement
- Soil-fertility improvement
- Pest-management effectiveness
- Disease-management effectiveness
- Crop-loss reduction
- Resource-use reduction
- Production-cost improvement
- Sustainability performance
- Climate-resilience improvement
- Agricultural technology adoption
- Precision-agriculture implementation
- Yield-forecast accuracy
- Crop-monitoring accuracy
- Research reporting timeliness
- Technical-report quality
- Scientific publication output
- Research innovation implementation
- External research partner performance
- Research budget adherence
- Research project cost efficiency
- Regulatory and environmental compliance
- Research quality-assurance compliance
- Corrective-action closure
- Technical stakeholder satisfaction
- Training completion
- Junior team development
- Continuous-improvement implementation
Ideal CandidateThe successful candidate should have strong experience in agricultural science, agronomy, crop science, soil science, plant science, agricultural research, horticulture, agricultural technology, or related disciplines, preferably within commercial agriculture, research institutions, food production, agribusiness, agricultural technology, government, or large-scale farming environments.
The candidate should demonstrate:
- Proven experience leading agricultural research and field-trial programs.
- Strong knowledge of agronomy, crop production, soil management, and agricultural systems.
- Experience designing experiments, field trials, sampling programs, and research protocols.
- Strong understanding of crop growth, yield formation, crop quality, and production optimization.
- Experience with soil testing, plant-tissue analysis, nutrient management, and soil-health assessment.
- Strong understanding of irrigation, water management, water-use efficiency, and crop water requirements.
- Experience with integrated pest management and plant-health programs.
- Strong knowledge of agricultural inputs, crop-protection practices, fertilizers, seeds, and biological products.
- Experience collecting, analyzing, and interpreting agricultural research data.
- Strong statistical and experimental-design capabilities.
