Plant Pathologist, Row Crops

About Us

At InnerPlant (www.innerplant.com) we are reimagining the role of crops in our farming system, developing crops that can tell us what they need by turning plants into Living Sensors. Our Smart Seeds signal early and specific stressors in a scalable and affordable way to reduce chemical and fertilizer use while increasing yields, delivering more with less.

We’re backed by industry giant John Deere and other veteran venture capitalists and are poised for massive growth to realize a more productive and sustainable farming system. InnerPlant is a place for dreamers and optimists, people that believe they can change the world and that want to take action to leave a positive lasting impact. If you share these traits and want to apply yourself to make a real difference - this is the opportunity for you.

Position Summary

We are seeking a knowledgeable and energetic Plant Pathologist to play a key leadership role in the development and scale up of our biosensor platform for biotic stresses. The first focus will be on implementing relevant pathogen assays to validate our soybean fungal sensors both in controlled growth chamber environments and in the field, followed by expansion of the platform to other top priority crops and sensor designs. The right candidate thrives in a dynamic start-up atmosphere and takes initiative to move projects forward. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are also essential as this role is part of a collaborative interdisciplinary team. The selected candidate must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Key responsibilities

• Utilize demonstrated expertise in plant pathology including biotic assay development, molecular analyses, and deep knowledge in plant diseases to facilitate the characterization and advancement of novel biosensor designs through the discovery and field testing pipeline
• Define and execute screening assays for key soybean plant pathogens
• Manage internal plant pathology diagnosis laboratory
• Obtain necessary regulatory approvals and establish protocols for obtaining and propagating target pathogens as well as performing the required inoculations
• Build a milestone driven plan and budget that includes resource needs to execute
• Serve as plant pathology subject matter expert and leader for both internal and external stakeholders
• Work closely with the Molecular Analysis Platform to define genomic and transcriptomic experiments to deliver new sensor nominations to the pipeline
• Provide support to additional functional groups across R&D when needed
• Draft and submit patent disclosures as appropriate
• Compose and deliver presentations and publications that clearly communicate complex results to both internal and external audiences
• Design and execute well thought out and informative experiments
• Keep current with scientific and industrial advances relevant to plant pathology
• Maintain detailed and organized laboratory notebook and project data
• Travel up to 50% of the time, especially to the Midwest during field seasons

Requirements

Education and Experience

Required

• Ph.D. in plant pathology or closely related field
• Extensive knowledge and experience with soybean plant-pathogen interaction and defense mechanisms, including diagnosing diseases in the field
• Experience with maintaining and growing fungal plant pathogens as well as with conducting plant inoculation screens
• Extensive knowledge of soybean diseases and how plants respond to infection
• Experience with molecular plant pathology including gene expression analysis and experimental design
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Familiarity with software used to analyze DNA sequencing data.
• Strong organizational skills
• Ability to travel as needed to support Midwest business and field trials
• Willingness to work long hours during peak periods

Bonus experience:

• Industry experience including managing and leading people
• Experience running field trials related to plant disease research

Benefits

Benefits

The US base salary range for this position is $85,000 - $130,000 + benefits. Within the range, individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

InnerPlant provides an amazing opportunity to work on some of the hardest problems facing humanity and help design the agricultural systems of the future. In addition to working with a fun team, we offer competitive compensation, insurance benefits, and flexible time-off.

InnerPlant provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.