Fall Creek is creating a world with better blueberries through its friendly, collaborative team spread across the globe. To help us accomplish this, we are seeking a qualified Data Science Engineer to support decision-making in plant breeding and horticultural research initiatives. In this role, you will work closely with R&D; biologists and agronomists to design best practices for collecting data and understanding their data needs; translating those needs in close collaboration with IT to build robust data products; and supporting other data scientists in statistical modeling, machine learning, and visualization endeavors.
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This position will be located in Sevilla, Spain .
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This role will work with diverse colleagues from around the world. While much of the work will be global or international, the role will also have a regional focus—supporting the data science needs of R&D; teams in Europe and Africa
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JOB SETTING:\nThis position is based at the Fall Creek research farm in Sevilla, Spain, and will be expected to be physically present at the research farm every workday. The position will also require occasional domestic and international travel.
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What you'll do at Fall Creek:
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- Design, engineer, and maintain complex, multi-modal databases for plant phenotypic and environmental data from multiple sources.
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- Develop, test, and implement data quality models within data processing pipelines.
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- Implement data governance standards, including metadata and data provenance tracking.
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- Support company-wide initiatives for AI data readiness.
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- Act as a liaison between R&D; and IT teams, such as translating data collection needs from biologists into guidance for data pipelines.
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- Acting as a technical domain expert collaborating with regional colleagues on data science projects, such as designing horticultural management experiments, statistical analysis of breeding trials, and processing of climate time-series data for integrating into forecasting, genomic selection, or other models.
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- Communicate project results to technical and non-technical stakeholders across regions, supporting the improvement of variety development.
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- Collaboratively and critically evaluate and incorporate new data collection technologies aimed at improving breeding methodologies.
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- Adhere to company values and treat colleagues with respect.
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\nWhat you bring to Fall Creek:\n
Required Qualifications
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- One of the following: a Ph.D. degree in a relevant field, a Master’s degree in a relevant field with 3 years of experience, OR a Bachelor’s degree with 5 years of relevant experience.
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- Strong background in data modeling, ETL processes, and database design.
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- Hands-on experience with data pipeline tools, experience building and maintaining in-house data products, proficiency in SQL, Python, and/or R, and familiarity with version control (Git).
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- A commitment to ethical action and adherence to humanistic values of humility, skepticism, and curiosity.
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- Demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a cross-disciplinary and diverse, international team.
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- Demonstrated ability to independently identify opportunities and to support and prioritize requests from stakeholders for data processing, engineering, analysis, and visualization needs.
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- Excellent organizational skills, able to manage multiple projects from diverse stakeholders.
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- Excellent oral and written communication skills, with emphasis on ability to translate technical data science concepts for diverse, non-technical audiences.
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- Bilingual proficiency in English and Spanish.
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\nPreferred Qualifications\n
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- Familiarity with biology or related fields such as agricultural science, horticulture, plant breeding, ecology, or environmental science.
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- Experience with interactive data visualization programs such as PowerBI or Shiny.
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- Experience evaluating high-throughput plant phenotyping or precision agriculture technologies.
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- Familiarity with AI data readiness principles.
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- Familiarity with Microsoft SharePoint platform
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\nWho is Fall Creek?\nWe’re a US-based company with a keen focus on blueberry genetics, plants, and grower support delivered to the world’s premier blueberry growers. From our humble beginnings in Lowell, Oregon more than 40 years ago, we now also have wholly-owned nurseries in Mexico, Peru, Spain, South Africa, Netherlands, China, and Chile. Additionally, we have built a general team of the finest breeders, researchers, propagators and nursery professionals, grower support technicians, sales and customer service experts and more. We’re a deeply-planted link in a global chain, ready to serve our customers and our industry throughout North, Central, and South America,