New Jobs at The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) seeks a highly qualified and experienced Head Teacher to provide professional leadership for its international school which secures its success and improvement, ensuring high quality education for all its pupils and good standards of learning and achievement.

Position/Responsibilities:
• Work closely with Management to ensure that the school vision and strategic plan are effective and pertinent to the school's goals. They should be clearly articulated, shared, understood and acted upon effectively by all.
• Work within the school community to translate the vision into agreed objectives and operational plans which will promote and sustain continual school improvement and a sense of team ownership.
• Ensure that strategic planning takes account of the diversity, values and experience of the school and community at large.
• Manage effectively all aspects and change processes for a successful school.
• Develop and implement a broad and relevant curriculum and innovative approaches to teaching and learning to meet the needs of all students; monitor and evaluate the curriculum for both quality and value for money.
• Ensures creativity, innovation and the use of appropriate new technologies and initiatives to achieve excellence.
• Implement appropriate prevention, preparedness, and health and safety practices.
• Build and maintain effective partnerships between school, students and parents to support learning.
• Have overall responsibility for the management and performance of the school; ensure that management, finances and administration of the school supports its vision and aims.
• Manage performance, utilising all staff effectively, challenging and addressing underperformance whilst providing for the continuous professional development of all staff.
• Ensure that educational provision and achievement for pupils with special needs are maximized through an appropriate mix of integrated and specialist needs provision; Motivates and works with others to create a shared culture and positive climate.
• Build a collaborative learning culture and, with other schools, agencies and partners (especially with the schools within Ibadan and Lagos) continue to build effective learning communities to promote excellence in teaching and learning.
• Carry out any duties as may be reasonably required by the Supervisor.

Qualification and Experience
The candidate should have a qualification in education of at least MA level from a recognised university, and at least 5 years of experience in teaching/headship including international experience.

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IITA seeks a highly motivated and qualified individual to participate as a senior plant breeder in a new project on ‘Enhancing Yam Breeding for Increased Productivity and Improved Quality in West Africa (AfricaYam)’ supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Project activities will be carried out through collaborative research between IITA and the national yam programs of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria; the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), and the Iwate Biotechnology Research Center (IBRC) in Japan; the James Hutton Institute (JHI), UK; the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France; and the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI), Cornell University, USA. This initiative is focused on breeding superior yam varieties for high yield, good quality and resistance to diseases (anthracnose and yam mosaic virus). This project will also focus on regional testing of currently available promising breeding selections; phenotyping bi-parental populations, mapping and genome-wide association studies for key agronomic and quality traits; additional re-sequencing, sequence analysis for generation of genomic tools for genotyping populations, genome-wide association studies, and testing the feasibility of genomic selection; constructing and using a ‘open access’ database for curation and integration of yam research data; and capacity building.

The successful candidate will report to the Regional Director for Western Africa and the Director in charge of Biotechnology and Crop Improvement.

Position/Responsibilities:
The Yam Breeder will undertake the following activities:
• Plan, implement, and oversee yam breeding activities in the project to ensure that outputs are delivered according to the agreed results framework and results tracker.
• Backstop and strengthen the national yam breeding programs in the four project member countries.
• Guide and promote participatory breeding by partners and farmers.
• Supervise PhD and MSc research linked to yam breeding.
• Organize communication and dissemination of research results.
• Write project progress reports and publish research articles in international peer reviewed and open access journals.
• Organize the production and supply of planting materials of improved yam varieties to partners.
• Participate in resource mobilization for yam breeding.
• Any other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor.

Qualification and Experience
The candidate should have a PhD in plant breeding from a recognized university and more than seven (7) years of post-PhD experience. 

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Successful candidate will among other things perform the following:

• Install, configure and maintain Linux and windows servers;
• Install , configure and maintain hardware equipment to servers;
• System administrator;
• Network monitoring, identifying  bottlenecks and providing solutions;
• Perform all other duties as may be assigned by the Supervisor.

Qualification and Experience
MSc in Computer Science or any related field. Professional Certification is an advantage with at least 10 years relevant experience.