Maize Hybrid Breeder

Limagrain Europe breeds, produces and commercializes field seeds to farmers. Investments in Research and Development reach 14.3% of the annual Group turnover. Their products are sold in 50 countries through their 20 subsidiaries and many distributors. The brands are: LG and Advanta®. As one of the European leaders in wheat and forage maize, the LG brand is also a main player in sunflower and winter oilseed rape. Limagrain Europe has also strong ambitions in grain maize.

Limagrain Europe is a Business Unit of Limagrain. The fourth largest seed company worldwide, Limagrain is an international agricultural cooperative group, founded and managed by French farmers. As a creator and producer of plant varieties, Limagrain distributes field seeds, vegetable seeds and cereal products.

In order to support its fast growth and achieve its ambitious plans in maize seeds, Limagrain is looking for a Maize Hybrid Breeder in Rilland in the Netherlands. AFL Executive Search will assist Limagrain in this search, the goal being that the new Maize Hybrid Breeder enters thecompany as soon as possible.

Overall Mission
The Limagrain Maize Breeding organization is expanding, and we are looking for a candidate to join their organization to lead hybrid breeding and testing teams dedicated to the earliest market segment in Europe. This include the Ultra early market segment made of United Kingdom, Denmark and Baltic countries and the very early segment made of North France, Germany, Benelux and Eastern countries. This position provides an excellent opportunity to develop your career working in a multi-disciplinary international highly competitive environment, contributing to development and implementation of ambitious breeding strategies to feed the market needs.

Main Activities
Strategy / Business Orientation:
In collaboration with the Head of Breeding program:

• Define the short-, medium- and long-term objectives of the hybridization project and the target portfolio with development and marketing teams.
• Develop breeding direction and germplasm strategies to bring new hybrids on the market
• Develop the trialing strategy (short to medium-term)
• Develop a good understanding of business challenges through interactions with all relevant stakeholders, including competitors, government officials and/or public institute.
• Lead local collaborations and propose exchanges with public and private partners.
• Steers innovation in coordination with relevant internal or external stakeholders and maintain a high technical and scientific level in the Maize European team.

Operations:

• Deliver hybrids fitting your market segment to the product development team.
• Implement the breeding strategy and manage the hybrid breeding project
• Decide on crossing plan to produce “pre-application” hybrids.
• Maintain a high level of trial quality and ensure continuous improvements.
• Manage and take charge of the assessment of hybrids, visit and score trials and nurseries
• Develop and maintain expert knowledge of germplasm to understand the usefulness of lines and hybrids across environments.
• Develop and follow germplasm exchange programs with third parties.
• Analyze all data with appropriate tools and take breeding decisions.
• Optimize breeding strategy by fully integrating novel technologies available

People Management:

• Manage testing teams in the Netherlands and Germany.
• Mentor, coach and develop your team.
• Promote innovation and maintain high technical and scientific level of his / her team.
• Play a key role in the management of the relevant stations: facilitate coordination with other teams, resources organization and resources sharing.
• Ensure that all team members follow the company standards (health, safety and environment and other).
• Develop a strong relationship with the product development team and the local business.
• Develop close relationship with Maize breeders operating in other programs or other territories as well as other key partners of the Limagrain Field Seed Research organization

Finance:

• Propose and follow budgets and investments for your perimeter and appropriately justify any deviations.

• Master or PhD or equivalent in Plant Breeding and Genetics, or a closely related field, and at least 10 years of relevant experience are required.
• Strong demonstrated knowledge in plant breeding, quantitative genetics, agronomy and seed industry.
• Good communication skills within business environment
• Leadership skills and experience in managing people and programs
• Knowledge of the market of the target zone including associated biotic and abiotic stresses, and relevant germplasm base, would be appreciated.
• Experience as a plant breeder of maize or another hybrid crop in a successful commercial program is highly desirable
• Ability to use software for data analysis, management, presentation, and reporting; general competence in statistics and data management is required.
• Interest for the international dimension of the job (traveling, working with multi-cultural teams).
• Good knowledge of English language, oral and written.

• Excellent competitive salary
• 7,4% end of year allowance
• Profit-sharing
• Pension scheme
• 32 vacation days a year
• Flexible work arrangements
• Employability budget

• If this job sounds attractive and you meet the profile please send your curriculum vitae and a covering letter to info@aflsearch.com.
• For more information about this job you can also contact Sylvain Serra on +33 (0)6 3100 5831 or Jos Douven on +31 (0)6 5194 1954.
• All further details about Limagrain can be found on their websites: www.limagraineurope.com, www.lgseeds.nl, www.lgseeds.be, on Facebook and YouTube.
• More info about AFL Executive Search: www.aflsearch.com.

There is an exclusivity agreement between Limagrain and AFL Executive Search GmbH for this search. We therefore kindly request you to contact us if you have questions and/or you want to apply for this job.