Description

Corteva Agriscience is a global leader of seed, crop protection, and digital solutions in agriculture. We are seeking a Post-Doctoral Research Scientist with a background in Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning to join our Breeding Technologies team in the Seed Product Development group working on Artificial Intelligence in Breeding at our global headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana location.

At Corteva, you’ll become part of an interdisciplinary, global work environment in which you will operate as a thought leader and visionary that will encourage and promote disruptive advances by applying state-of-the-art methods in Machine Learning and artificial intelligence. This position will have a strategic impact on our business, and you will play a major role by driving innovation in applying artificial intelligence for plant breeding. The successful candidate will have an extensive background and track record in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and/or Generative AI. She/he will work closely with other plant breeding specialists, software engineers, and data scientists in a dynamic research environment to design and implement sophisticated end-to-end solutions to advance AI in breeding technologies. We are looking for an inquisitive, creative, eager to learn, early career scientist with an in-depth understanding of applying AI and Machine Learning to plant breeding.

Responsibilities – What You’ll Do:

• Conduct research using Deep Reinforcement Learning techniques within plant breeding context.
• Explore novel algorithms and methodologies to address AI challenges in plant breeding technologies.
• Contribute to digital twin environments providing model-simulated outcomes determining reward within RL training loops.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate AI solutions into seed product development.
• Design, implement, and optimize analytical pipelines for performance and efficiency.
• Write software following best practices for producing readable, repeatable, and reusable code.
• Guide AI models from research and development to production and deployment where necessary.
• Collaborate with Breeders, Breeder Analysts, and Data Scientist to develop state-of-the art AI and ML models to help makes decisions to advance next generation seed products.
• Engage with external collaborators when needed, and actively lead or contribute towards scientific manuscripts describing the scientific work being performed.

Qualifications

Qualifications:

Ph.D. in Data Science, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or Artificial Intelligence

Alternatively, a Ph.D. in, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computational Biology, Physics, Mathematics or related field or related scientific discipline with 2yrs+ of demonstrated experience specifically in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and Generative AI.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Deep theoretical and applied understanding of reinforcement learning (RL) and the application of RL with deep neural networks
• Strong foundation in deep learning methodologies, attention and transformer-based architectures, self-supervised learning, policy-gradient algorithms, Monte-Carlo techniques, mathematics, and probability.
• Strong programming skills in Python and C/C++ programming with the ability to quickly create prototype solutions on Unix / Linux / embedded platforms.
• Experience working with open-source libraries and toolkits Numpy, Jax, Torch, Scikit-Learn, TensorFlow, etc.
• Interest in learning new technologies, programming techniques, languages, and operating systems.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a can-do attitude with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced dynamic environment. Experience in research, life sciences, or in data science is a plus.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to work as part of a global team and, at times, independently while appropriately prioritizing tasks.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English are required.

Additional Qualifications (Nice-to-have):

• Experience in Computer Vision, Convolutional Neural Networks, Deep Learning for Imaging Applications, Generative Image Models.
• Substantial experience in numerical methods and optimization techniques
• Experience working with containerized applications and orchestration such as Docker Swarm and/or Kubernetes.
• Experience working with distributed computing applications such as Celery, Spark, Ray, Dask.
• Background in Statistical Modeling, Computational Mathematics, genetics, and/or plant breeding.

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Benefits – How We’ll Support You:

• Numerous development opportunities offered to build your skills
• Be part of a company with a higher purpose and contribute to making the world a better place
• Health benefits for you and your family on your first day of employment
• Four weeks of paid time off and two weeks of well-being pay per year, plus paid holidays
• Excellent parental leave which includes a minimum of 16 weeks for mother and father
• Future planning with our competitive retirement savings plan and tuition reimbursement program
• Learn more about our total rewards package here – Corteva Benefits
• Check out life at Corteva! www.linkedin.com/company/corteva/life

Are you a good match? Apply today! We seek applicants from all backgrounds to ensure we get the best, most creative talent on our team.