Description
Design and lead breeding programs to create improved crop varieties with superior yield, quality, resilience, and adaptation, using classical genetics, molecular markers, and genomic tools. Plan and manage crossing, selection, phenotyping, and multi-location trials, analyze data, maintain germplasm, and deliver stable, high-performing cultivars for commercialization and grower adoption.
- • Define breeding objectives and product profiles based on market and grower needs.
- • Plan and conduct crosses, backcrosses, and population development.
- • Manage nurseries, greenhouses, and field trials for breeding populations and candidate lines.
- • Develop and apply selection schemes (pedigree, recurrent, hybrid, genomic, marker-assisted).
- • Implement phenotyping protocols for yield, quality, maturity, and stress tolerance.
- • Screen germplasm for resistance to key diseases, pests, and abiotic stresses.
- • Coordinate multi-location, multi-year trials to evaluate genotype-by-environment interaction.
- • Analyze breeding data using statistical and quantitative genetics methods.
- • Use molecular markers, genotyping, and genomic prediction to accelerate selection.
- • Maintain, characterize, and curate germplasm, pedigrees, and seed inventories.
- • Introgress target traits from donors or wild relatives into elite backgrounds.
- • Collaborate with pathologists, entomologists, agronomists, and data scientists on trait evaluation.
- • Ensure trial quality through robust experimental design, randomization, and data QA/QC.
- • Advance, purify, and stabilize lines, and manage seed increases and foundation seed production.
- • Evaluate hybrid systems, pollination biology, and male-sterility/restorer systems as applicable.
- • Assess end-use quality, nutritional, or processing traits with labs and industry partners.
- • Develop varieties that reduce input needs and improve sustainability and resource-use efficiency.
- • Prepare and deliver technical reports, variety descriptions, and recommendations to stakeholders.
- • Engage with growers and extension to demonstrate performance and gather feedback.
- • Comply with biosafety, stewardship, and regulatory requirements for trait deployment or gene editing.
- • File and support variety registration and intellectual property or plant variety protection.
- • Manage budgets, timelines, staff, and external collaborations for breeding projects.
- • Develop or adopt digital tools, sensors, and UAVs for high-throughput phenotyping.
- • Research genetic mechanisms underlying trait expression and plant response to environment.
- • Develop breeding pipelines for bioenergy or specialty markets where relevant.
- • Innovate measurement techniques and data pipelines to improve selection accuracy.
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Agriculture
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
