Data Scientist - Environment and Disease Modeling

At Syngenta, our goal is to build the most collaborative and trustworthy team in agriculture, providing top-quality seeds and innovative crop protection solutions that improve farmers' success. To support this mission, Syngenta is seeking a Data Scientist - Environment and Disease Modeling in Field, IL. This role will support the plant epidemiology and disease science within the Temperate Hub R&D organization. This role combines expertise in environmental data analysis, plant disease modeling, and geospatial analytics to advance management across the breeding pipeline. In this role you will build and apply predictive models for environment and disease incidence and severity, link genotypic variation to disease susceptibility, and translate complex biological and environmental signals into actionable insights for breeders and agronomists.

The Data Scientist - Environment and Disease Modeling will partner closely with germplasm development teams, pathologists, and global R&D colleagues to deliver disease resistance insights that directly inform selection decisions—both within a season and across multiple years and environments.

• Develop and maintain disease progression models integrating weather, soil, and agronomic data to predict incidence and severity across crops and geographies within season and across years
• Integrate environmental and geospatial datasets (climate layers, remote sensing, field location metadata) to characterize biotic and abiotic stress landscapes and support site-based decision making and location management
• Compare controlled environment and field data for inoculated trials, partner with pathologists and breeders to curate high-quality datasets for model training and validation, and translate phenotypic disease observations into quantitative traits
• Design reproducible, scalable pipelines for data ingestion, QC, modeling, and visualization that can be deployed across the temperate hub breeding programs
• Communicate findings and model outputs to scientific and non-scientific stakeholders through clear reports, dashboards, and/or presentations to support data-driven breeding strategy and management decisions
• Collaborate with global teams to align environmental and disease modeling methods with broader platform architecture and data standards.

PLEASE NOTE: Candidates must reside in and be permanently authorized to work in the United States without current or future employer sponsorship. This includes, but is not limited to, OPT, CPT, and H-1B visa holders.

• Master’s or PhD in Plant Pathology, Epidemiology, Quantitative Genetics, Computational Biology, Data Science, or a related field
• Strong foundation in plant epidemiology and disease biology, including familiarity with major temperate crop pathogens and their interaction with host genetics and environment
• Demonstrated experience with environmental and geospatial data: weather station integration, climate variables, GIS tools, remote sensing products, or spatial interpolation methods
• Proficiency in statistical and machine learning modeling, including mixed models, survival analysis, or spatiotemporal models applicable to epidemiological data
• Proficient programming skills in R and/or Python. Familiarity with SQL, version control, and cloud-based development environments

• Experience with data visualization tools (R Shiny, Tableau, or equivalent) is a plus
• Additional Information

Salary for this position ranges between $88,000 - $132,000 annually.

• A culture that celebrates belonging and collaboration, promotes professional development and strives for a work-life balance that supports the team members. Offers flexible work options to support your work and personal needs.
• Full Benefit Package (Medical, Dental & Vision) that starts your first day.
• 401k plan with company match, Profit Sharing & Retirement Savings Contribution.
• Paid Vacation, Paid Holidays, Maternity and Paternity Leave, Education Assistance, Wellness Programs, Corporate Discounts, among other benefits.