Johannesburg: Head of R&D – Global Agriculture

About the Role

The Head of R&D – Global Agriculture role is a critical position that drives innovation and growth in our global agriculture business. We are seeking an experienced leader with a strong scientific background and extensive R&D expertise to develop and execute a global R&D strategy aligned with our business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Defining and executing a global R&D strategy aligned with business growth, sustainability goals, and innovation objectives.
• Identifying priority crops, emerging technologies, and solution platforms tailored to key markets in Southern Africa, Australia, USA, and Brazil.
• Translating high-level strategic objectives into actionable regional research programmes that deliver measurable impact.
• Serving as a trusted advisor to the executive leadership team on innovation trends, agronomic challenges, and market opportunities.
• Leading the full innovation lifecycle, managing short-, mid-, and long-term pipelines for new fertiliser and bio-stimulant products.
• Implementing structured stage-gate governance processes to evaluate project viability, regulatory readiness, and commercial potential.
• Making data-driven decisions on project prioritisation, acceleration, termination, and portfolio balancing (incremental, breakthrough, and climate-smart solutions).
• Overseeing global research initiatives, including laboratory, greenhouse, and multi-location field trial programmes.
• Ensuring high standards of scientific excellence through consistent data generation, rigorous analysis, and knowledge-sharing frameworks.
• Fostering seamless cross-functional collaboration with marketing, regulatory, supply chain, and commercial teams to accelerate technology transfer and commercialisation.
• Building and managing strategic partnerships with universities, research institutions, technology providers, and industry ecosystems.
• Ensuring full compliance with global regulatory frameworks for fertilisers, bio-stimulants, and biosafety while anticipating future regulatory shifts.
• Upholding the highest standards of intellectual property protection, scientific integrity, and ethical research practices.
• Leading, developing, and inspiring high-performing global R&D teams across multiple regions and cultures.
• Managing global R&D budgets, optimising resource allocation, and defining long-term infrastructure and research investment strategies.

Requirements

• PhD or Master’s degree in Agronomy, Plant Science, Chemistry, Biotechnology, or a closely related scientific discipline
• Minimum 8+ years of progressive R&D experience specifically within fertilisers, bio-stimulants, or agro-inputs
• Proven track record leading global or multi-regional R&D programmes across different geographies
• Demonstrated success in product innovation and bringing new agricultural solutions from ideation to commercial launch
• Hands-on experience with product lifecycle management and stage-gate portfolio governance processes

Qualifications

• (No qualifications mentioned in the original job description)

Salary & Benefits

• (No salary or benefits information provided in the original job description)