Data Scientist Agriculture

Syngenta Group
Bracknell
3 days ago
Create job alert
Data Scientist - Agriculture

We have an exciting opportunity for Data Scientists to join our Global Data Analytics & Predictive Science Team in the Product Biology department. Within these roles you will work on Syngenta historical biological data to uncover patterns and deliver new data‑driven insights for active ingredient development across R&D functions. You will be asked to analyse and interpret the outcome of scientific experiments with your analytical skills as well as machine learning approaches. Your work will bring forward our understanding of biological performance in crop protection and guide design optimisation and development of novel crop protection solutions.


Location

We could consider candidates based at additional locations within Europe. You may be required to travel to international R&D locations and to work with collaborators globally.


Application process

Due to exceptionally high interest in this position we will only consider applications that include: (1) a CV, (2) a cover letter explaining your motivation and suitability for the role, and (3) a one‑page document in which you tell us how (with which tools and algorithms following which strategy) you would start exploring a 100MB CSV dataset of efficacy field trial results for a novel crop protection product including assessments for multiple crop types, trial sites and weather conditions.


Please upload your CV, your cover letter and the one‑page document in separate files named CV___, CoverLetter___ and Answer___, replacing ___ with your family name.


Responsibilities

  • Driving historical data analysis of biological field trials by identifying patterns and analysing the impact of key factors, including product formulations, rates, mixtures, agricultural practices and environmental conditions, on product performance.
  • Supporting domain experts in understanding product performance and identifying analytics opportunities to drive business value.
  • Contributing to strategic business initiatives across Crop Protection R&D by interpreting physical chemistry, biokinetic, formulation, marketing and environmental data to support decision‑making and design laboratory, glasshouse and field trials.
  • Guiding technical managers in designing field trials aimed at validating scientific hypotheses and model predictions.
  • Working with R&D IT and software developers to improve data‑model integrations and to deploy applications tailored to shareholders’ needs.
  • Monitoring and exploring new modelling approaches, analytical tools and methodologies.
  • Engaging with high‑priority digital transformation projects to understand opportunities to accelerate the impact of data science for predictive field trialing.
  • Working with colleagues and external collaborators to understand their complementary capabilities and to integrate them into projects and initiatives.

Qualifications

  • Strong foundations in data science at postgraduate level with applications in natural sciences (e.g., biology, ecology, environmental sciences).
  • Proven experience in the use of the main data‑science, analytics, modelling and visualization Python libraries, including machine‑learning and deep‑learning ones.
  • Scientific domain knowledge in related fields such as environmental sciences or biology.
  • Prior experience in developing machine‑learning models relevant to biological or crop protection outcomes.
  • Hands‑on experience leveraging generative AI (genAI) approaches for data exploration, model development or research acceleration is a plus.
  • Knowledge of data analysis and extracting data insights and new understanding while communicating scientific and data concepts to specialist and non‑specialist audiences.
  • Adaptability to different business challenges and data types/sources and to learn and utili‑ze a range of different analytical tools and methodologies.
  • Ability to visualise and story‑tell with data to communicate results to shareholders with different levels of technical proficiency.
  • Analytical problem‑solving skills with innovative thinking while effectively collaborating across diverse teams and managing multiple priorities in a multicultural scientific environment.

Additional Information
Location

We could consider candidates based at additional locations within Europe. You may be required to travel to international R&D locations and to work with collaborators globally.


What we offer

  • Extensive benefits package including a generous pension scheme, bonus scheme, private medical and life insurance (depends on the contracting country).
  • Flexible working.
  • A position which contributes to valuable and impactful work in a stimulating and international environment.
  • Learning culture and a wide range of training options.

Syngenta has been ranked as a top 5 employer and number 1 in agriculture by Science Magazine for the 8th consecutive year.


Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, colour, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. Learn more about our D&I initiatives here.


Key Skills

Laboratory Experience, Immunoassays, Machine Learning, Biochemistry, Assays, Research Experience, Spectroscopy, Research & Development, cGMP, Cell Culture, Molecular Biology, Data Analysis Skills


Employment Type

Full‑time



#J-18808-Ljbffr

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Data Scientist, Agriculture — Grow Insights from Field Trials

Data Architect - Pathogen

Data Engineer - AI Data Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Data Scientist

Data Scientist

Data Scientist

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

Maths for Data Science Jobs: The Only Topics You Actually Need (& How to Learn Them)

If you are applying for data science jobs in the UK, the maths can feel like a moving target. Job descriptions say “strong statistical knowledge” or “solid ML fundamentals” but they rarely tell you which topics you will actually use day to day. Here’s the truth: most UK data science roles do not require advanced pure maths. What they do require is confidence with a tight set of practical topics that come up repeatedly in modelling, experimentation, forecasting, evaluation, stakeholder comms & decision-making. This guide focuses on the only maths most data scientists keep using: Statistics for decision making (confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, power, uncertainty) Probability for real-world data (base rates, noise, sampling, Bayesian intuition) Linear algebra essentials (vectors, matrices, projections, PCA intuition) Calculus & gradients (enough to understand optimisation & backprop) Optimisation & model evaluation (loss functions, cross-validation, metrics, thresholds) You’ll also get a 6-week plan, portfolio projects & a resources section you can follow without getting pulled into unnecessary theory.

Neurodiversity in Data Science Careers: Turning Different Thinking into a Superpower

Data science is all about turning messy, real-world information into decisions, products & insights. It sits at the crossroads of maths, coding, business & communication – which means it needs people who see patterns, ask unusual questions & challenge assumptions. That makes data science a natural fit for many neurodivergent people, including those with ADHD, autism & dyslexia. If you’re neurodivergent & thinking about a data science career, you might have heard comments like “you’re too distracted for complex analysis”, “too literal for stakeholder work” or “too disorganised for large projects”. In reality, the same traits that can make traditional environments difficult often line up beautifully with data science work. This guide is written for data science job seekers in the UK. We’ll explore: What neurodiversity means in a data science context How ADHD, autism & dyslexia strengths map to common data science roles Practical workplace adjustments you can request under UK law How to talk about your neurodivergence in applications & interviews By the end, you’ll have a clearer sense of where you might thrive in data science – & how to turn “different thinking” into a real career advantage.

Data Science Recruitment Trends 2025 (UK): What Job Seekers Need To Know About Today’s Hiring Process

Summary: UK data science hiring has shifted from title‑led CV screens to capability‑driven assessments that emphasise rigorous problem framing, high‑quality analytics & modelling, experiment/causality, production awareness (MLOps), governance/ethics, and measurable product or commercial impact. This guide explains what’s changed, what to expect in interviews & how to prepare—especially for product/data scientists, applied ML scientists, decision scientists, econometricians, growth/marketing analysts, and ML‑adjacent data scientists supporting LLM/AI products. Who this is for: Product/decision/data scientists, applied ML scientists, econometrics & causal inference specialists, experimentation leads, analytics engineers crossing into DS, ML generalists with strong statistics, and data scientists collaborating with platform/MLOps teams in the UK.