Job Description

PepsiCo is a major food enterprise sourcing a variety of raw materials of agricultural origin such as tuber, grain, and fruit & vegetable crops around the world. A creative, results-oriented breeding technician is required to execute breeding activities primarily across potatoes and oat, with potential of expansion to other crops at a PepsiCo breeding facility in Rhinelander, WI.

This breeding technician is responsible for assisting the breeding programs, leading projects, and working within the breeding programs to drive the improvement of raw agriculture materials important to PepsiCo. This position will work closely with existing assistant breeders to execute breeding operations as set by the manager but is also expected to make independent decisions in order to meet project objectives. Breeding operations are in greenhouses, large walk-in growth chambers, fields, and phenotyping building.

The position sits in the Agricultural Science function within PepsiCo foods R&D. This position is located at the PepsiCo research facility in Rhinelander, WI and will report to the breeders on site.

Responsibilities

• Work with potato and oat breeders, assistant breeders, and other technicians to work in the greenhouses, growth rooms, fields, and phenotyping facilities.
• Support phenotyping activities in breeding trials and research nurseries. This includes in-season field data collection, operating UAVs as trained, raw potato grading at harvest, oat milling and grain quality assessments, and processing trait evaluations.
• Work with breeders and assistant breeders to support field activities including seed packaging, planting, sampling, harvesting, organizing breeding materials, and preparing materials for shipment. Ensure accurate records are taken and entered in a timely fashion.
• Support greenhouse and growth room operations including growth area preparation, seed pulling, planting, crop maintenance, pathogen testing, crossing, seed extraction, inventory management, and harvest activities.
• Utilize barcoding and inventory software to track and store seed, tuber, plant, and seed samples.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and promptly report challenges with breeding operations while proactively identifying potential solutions.
• Continuously identify opportunities for improving efficiency and quality of breeding operations, including efficiencies in processes, techniques, and flow.
• Comply with local EHS requirements, including but not limited to prevention, incident reporting, and remedial actions.
• Adapt to unexpected delays and changes in workflows to maintain overall productivity.

Qualifications

• Nice to have: BS preferred in Plant Breeding, Horticulture, Agronomy, Biological Systems Engineering, Biology, or related discipline. Relevant experience in an active breeding/genetics program, agriculture, leading teams, data analysis, or inventory tracking is preferred, but all qualified applicants will be considered.
• Attention to details and accurate record keeping.
• Ability to organize projects, lead teams, keep people motivated, and drive for results in any situation.
• Demonstrated experience in collecting data from plants and curating them for consistency and quality prior to uploading in company databases required.
• Demonstrated ability to manage activities within assigned resources/budgets.
• Can quickly separate the mission-critical from the nice to dos and the trivial; quickly senses what's the next most useful thing to work on; focuses on the critical few tasks that really add value and puts aside or delays the rest.
• Excellent communication and networking ability with the local PepsiCo community and the remote team.
• Excellent ability to utilize basic software and communication technologies such as Word, Excel, Power Point, Teams, Outlook, etc., and to input or query data from relational databases.
• A proven ability to work closely with colleagues on activities with a high degree of flexibility and comfort with change. Ability to be an ambassador of change and to build consensus among others who can enable activities and projects at the local facility.
• Ability to balance the need to deliver on time, on target, within resources, and with expected quality and quantity.
• Requirements
• This position will be based in Rhinelander, WI and must be willing to travel occasionally to off-site experiment locations.
• Must be willing to travel 10-15% of the time primarily in North America, by land or air.
• Must be willing to flex work schedule to accommodate video and phone conferences across multiple time-zones as an alternative to travel.
• Must be able to operate in hot and wet/dry environments such as greenhouses and walk-in growth chambers, to work with plants, soil, and agricultural/science equipment, and to lift safely up to 50 LBS of weight.

EEO Statement

Our Company will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and all other applicable laws, including but not limited to, San Francisco Police Code Sections 4901-4919, commonly referred to as the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance; and Chapter XVII, Article 9 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, commonly referred to as the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.

PepsiCo is an Equal Opportunity Employer: /Female / Minority / Disability / Protected Veteran / Sexual Orientation / Gender Identity

If you'd like more information about your EEO rights as an applicant under the law, please download the available EEO is the Law & EEO is the Law Supplement documents. View PepsiCo EEO Policy

Please view our Pay Transparency Statement