Plant Breeding and Data Science Intern

Job Description

About the Job

Location: US – Watsonville, California

Job Family: Internship Program

Time Type: Full time

Job Requisition ID: R0008646

Experience Years: 0-3 Years of Experience

Employee Type: Intern

About The Opportunity

This internship offers a plant breeding, agronomy, plant physiology, or plant biology student with a strong background in image processing, big data analysis, and database management, the unique opportunity to explore working with a highly collaborative agricultural Research and Development group focused on breeding strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

The intern will work most closely with the Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry Molecular Breeders and their corresponding teams at Driscoll’s. The intern will be responsible for collecting and annotating images of berry fruits to generate model-ready data and protocols that support future analytical and deep learning efforts.

Additionally, the intern will have the opportunity to participate in general day-to-day breeding activities during peak berry season, including but not limited to seedling selection, fruit evaluation, and phenotyping (field time will be adjusted according to the intern’s interest and the time requirement of their main project). At the end of the internship, they will present the data and conclusion of their main projects in a report and will give an oral presentation and/or prepare a poster to discuss their findings.

Responsibilities

• Work with the Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry Molecular Breeders to define imaging platforms and phenotypic scales to use in each team and prioritize fruit quality traits to focus on in the summer.
• Collect and annotate images of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
• Develop a protocol to obtain data ready to use in analysis, including GWAS and genomic prediction.
• Share progress and challenges with the four breeding teams.
• Share findings through detailed documentation and summarized reports.
• Present findings, and provide recommendations based on findings.
• Responsible for managing activities in collaboration with the breeding teams and collaborative research teams to accomplish planned growth.
• Represents Driscoll’s in an ethical and business-like professional manner in all interactions with growers, co-workers, suppliers, customers, and the business community at large.
• Ensure Driscoll’s confidential and proprietary information and materials.
• Collect berry phenotypic data in the field, fruit lab, and/or greenhouse as needed.
• Assist in seedling selection and fruit evaluation for four breeding programs as needed.
• Help the different teams in day-to-day activities, such as plant tissue collection, fruit juicing.

Candidate Profile

Required

• Working towards a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Horticulture, Plant Breeding, Plant Science, Agronomy, Agricultural Engineering or a related field.
• Coursework in plant breeding, biology, and genetics-related courses.
• Experience with image dataset preprocessing for model training.
• Experience with image dataset labeling/validation.
• Ability to manage, process, and interpret large, complex datasets using statistical modeling, deep learning, and AI for predictive analytics.
• Familiarity with Python and R.
• Experience with image-based plant phenotyping platforms and analysis workflows (preferred).
• Valid driver’s license, transportation, and the ability to be covered under a company-sponsored vehicle insurance program.
• Ability to build components of an overall workflow.
• Understand the scientific method.
• Be attentive to details.
• Be able to work in offices, labs, and outdoor field environments (lab and outdoor components).
• Have great communication skills.
• Be reliable, honest, and trustworthy.

Compensation

The following information is provided in good faith as a general description of the salary range and benefits for the position posted. The actual compensation offered to the successful candidate is dependent upon experience, skills, education, work location, internal pay equity, and other objective job-related factors.

The hourly range estimated for this internship is: Freshman Junior to recent grad (Bachelor’s level within 6 months of graduation): $19-$23/Master to PhD: $26-$40

About Driscoll’s

Driscoll’s is the global market leader for fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. With more than 100 years of farming heritage and hundreds of independent growers around the world, Driscoll’s is passionate about growing fresh, beautiful and delicious berries. Our values of humility, passion and trustworthiness have guided our mission to delight consumers around the world. Driscoll’s exclusive patented berry varieties are developed through years of research using only natural breeding methods – meaning, no GMOs. From farm-to-table, we focus on delivering a high quality, premium berry experience with our many supply chain partners. Driscoll’s is the trusted brand for Only the Finest Berries™.

Driscoll’s es el proveedor líder en la comercialización de Fresas, Frambuesas, Zarzamoras y Arándanos Azules en el mundo. Con más de 100 años de herencia en agricultura y cientos de productores independiente alrededor del mundo, Driscoll’s es una compañía apasionada por cultivar Berries frescas, hermosas y deliciosas. Nuestros valores de humildad, pasión y confianza han guiado nuestra misión de deleitar a los consumidores en el mundo. Las variedades exclusivas de Driscoll’s han sido desarrolladas a través de años de investigación usando sólo métodos de mejoramiento natural. De la granja a la mesa, nos enfocamos en ofrecer una experiencia de alta calidad con apoyo de nuestros socios de la cadena de suministro. Driscoll’s es la marca de confianza de sólo las mejores Berries.