Role highlights

• Launch your career at Australia's National Research Organisation
• Develop a soil health framework for Australian agricultural production systems
• Join the CSIRO's Soil and Landscapes Group in Canberra

About CSIRO

As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.

The opportunity

CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to scientists and engineers who have completed their doctorate and have less than three years of relevant postdoctoral work experience. These fellowships aim to develop the next generation of future leaders of the innovation system.

In partnership with a diverse research team, this CERC Fellow will develop an industry-funded soil health framework for Australian agricultural production systems. The CERC Fellow will be a broad soil systems thinker and have a strong interest in using spatial approaches to solve challenges in measuring, valuing and reporting the status of Australia's soil resources. Pedometric and data-driven tools will be used to develop Australian-specific soil health indicators and to create regionally tailored, quantitative methods for soil health scoring and benchmarking.

Your high-level duties will include:

• Carry out research investigations requiring originality, creativity and innovation.
• Work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary, often regionally dispersed research team, to undertake independent scientific investigations and carry out associated tasks under broad guidance from other Research Scientists.
• Contribute to the development of a soil health framework for Australian agriculture, taking into account current international and domestic literature, frameworks and expert opinion.
• Integrate several tiers of spatially explicit, and where applicable, temporal soil data including conventionally measured, proximally and remotely sensed into tools and metrics to support soil health benchmarking and thresholding.
• Carry out innovative, impactful research of strategic importance to CSIRO that will, where possible, lead to novel and important scientific outcomes.
• Recognise and exploit opportunities for innovation and the generation of new theoretical perspectives, and progress opportunities for the further development or creation of new lines of research.
• Record, manage, and analyse data/information using relevant domain data science techniques.

Role particulars

Location and office arrangements: Canberra (Black Mountain), ACT

Salary: AU$99,990 - AU$109,527 pa (pro rata for part-time), plus 15.4% superannuation

Tenure & work schedule: Specified term of 3 years, Full-time

As the successful candidate, you will bring:

Essential criteria

• A doctorate (or will shortly satisfy the requirements of a PhD). The doctorate must be in a relevant discipline area of soil science, such as soil condition and function assessment, pedometrics, digital soil mapping, soil spatial and temporal analysis. Please note: To be eligible for this role you must have no more than 3 years (full-time equivalent) of relevant research experience.
• A sound understanding of Australian and/or international broadacre farming systems and their management practices.
• A sound understanding of soil systems, their spatial patterns, and the factors that influence variability across landscapes.
• Applied experience in using statistical and mathematical tools to analyse and interpret soil data, spatial modelling, multivariate statistics and/or machine learning, and relevant coding languages (e.g. R, Python), including a sound understanding of FAIR data principles, data management and version control.
• A current Australian driver's licence or the ability to obtain one.

Eligibility

Applications for this position are open to Australian/New Zealand Citizens, Australian Permanent Residents and candidates who either hold, or are able to obtain, a valid working visa for the duration of the specified term (visa sponsorship and relocation assistance may be provided to the successful candidate if required). Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.