Agricultural research jobs at the CGIAR centres are posted by each centre on its own job board, and the CGIAR careers page links all of them. Read the title of a posting first: on the boards we read, it often says whether the post is recruited internationally or locally, and whether it is a real vacancy or a roster.
CGIAR describes itself as a global research partnership for a food secure future. The research is done by its centres, such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, CIMMYT, the maize and wheat centre in Mexico, and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya. They are separate employers, so a role at one is applied for on that centre’s board, under that centre’s rules.
Where are CGIAR jobs posted?
On each centre’s own job board. The CGIAR careers page has a Vacancies section with one link for the CGIAR System Organization and one for each of 12 centres. The boards run on different systems:
| Employer | Where its jobs are posted | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| CGIAR System Organization | A Workable board | No open jobs on the day we checked |
| CIMMYT | A Workable board, shown on cimmyt.org | 45 postings, read below |
| ILRI | ilri.org, on a Simplicant job board | Staff, fellowship, internship and consultant roles |
| IRRI | irri.org/jobs, through an embedded TalentLink search | The list loads through a script we did not run |
| AfricaRice | vacancies.africarice.org | The site did not answer our request |
| ICARDA, IITA, IWMI, WorldFish | Workable boards | Not read for this post |
| ICRISAT, IFPRI, CIP, the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT | Their own careers pages, CIP on Zoho Recruit | Not read for this post |
Start from the CGIAR page rather than a search engine, because it links the board each centre uses. Bookmark the boards of the centres that work in your field, since each one lists only its own posts.
Who do the centres hire?
Scientists, but not only scientists. The CIMMYT careers page says its staff includes scientists, technicians, communicators, administrators and field workers, more than 1,500 people working in 88 countries. It also says you can work there if you are not a scientist but want to support agrifood systems.
The boards show that mix. On the day we checked, CIMMYT’s board listed 45 postings, among them research associates, finance analysts, legal counsel, communications staff, security coordinators, a gardener and a greenhouse technician. The places were in Mexico, India, Kenya, Bangladesh, Senegal and Zimbabwe. ILRI’s board listed a driver in Mekelle, an accountant in Nairobi and consultancies in Addis Ababa and New Delhi beside its research roles. IRRI’s careers page says its work spans 17 countries across Asia and Africa.
What is the difference between internationally and locally recruited posts?
On CIMMYT’s board, the title often tells you. Of its 45 postings, 3 carried “Internationally Recruited” or a code starting IRS, and 23 said “Locally Recruited” or “Reclutamiento local”. The other 19 said neither, so for those, read the posting itself. Several Mexico postings had Spanish titles, such as a general research assistant post offered in four Mexican towns.
Terms follow the place of the job. The CIMMYT Scientist posting we read, based in Texcoco, lists its benefits “in addition to the provisions of the Mexican Labor Law”: a year-end bonus of 40 days, a vacation premium of 56%, life and medical insurance, supermarket coupons, a savings fund and Mexican social benefits (IMSS, SAR and Infonavit).
If you are applying from another country, look for the internationally recruited posts first, then read each posting’s eligibility lines. A local post may still be open to you if you already have the right to work there. International organization jobs covers how other international employers select staff.
One more thing to read: the same posting can appear once for each city it is offered in. Two CIMMYT associate program director posts were each listed in Texcoco, Nairobi, New Delhi, Dhaka and Dakar, and with the other multi-city posts the board showed 60 entries for 45 postings.
What does a research scientist posting ask for?
A PhD, years of research and a record of publishing. The CIMMYT Scientist posting covers three levels:
| Level | What the posting asks for |
|---|---|
| Associate Scientist | A PhD and some relevant experience |
| Scientist | Typically 5 or more years of research in the discipline |
| Senior Scientist | 8 or more years, a strong publication record and program leadership |
The duties include long-term trials, peer-reviewed papers, training for national agricultural research systems, managing budgets and teams, and raising funding, more so at the senior level. The posting also asks for willingness to spend considerable time away from home across several countries.
That posting is a roster, not a vacancy. It says inclusion in the roster “does not constitute an offer or guarantee of employment”, and that openings depend on project needs, the organisation’s priorities and donor funding. When a suitable post opens, CIMMYT says it will confirm you are still interested and may run a short role-fit assessment before it appoints anyone. Of the 45 CIMMYT postings, 13 were rosters or talent pools, this one included. Apply to one if your field matches, but keep applying to open posts too.
The Scientist posting printed no salary figure. The CGIAR careers page lists a competitive salary, medical, insurance and retirement plans, flexible working, vacation leave and learning among its benefits, also without figures.
Are there postdoc, PhD and fellowship places?
Yes. ILRI lists them on the same board as its staff jobs and consultancies, and CIMMYT on a separate site. On the day we checked, ILRI’s jobs page listed:
- An MSc Graduate Fellow post on the genetic diversity of forage collections in Addis Ababa, for four people.
- A research fellowship in Nairobi whose title names the International Water Management Institute and its Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods science program.
- Internships in Nairobi and in Hanoi, the second in communications.
CIMMYT’s site for student places is the CIMMYT Academy, which offers research places to interns, short-term visiting students and visiting scientists. The Academy’s student research page listed a full-time Ph.D. Scholar in rapid cycling and predictive breeding, on site, and a part-time remote MSc Research Student in digital phenotyping.
Postdoctoral fellows are part of the research teams: the CIMMYT Scientist posting names mentoring post-doctoral fellows among its duties. To find a postdoc in agriculture, search each centre’s board for “fellow”, “postdoctoral” and “scholar” as well as “scientist”, because the title words differ from centre to centre.
How does CGIAR recruitment work?
The CGIAR careers page describes four steps:
- Application. You submit the completed application form. The language to use is set in the instructions on that form.
- Review. The hiring team checks your profile against the role. CGIAR says it reviews every application and tells you the outcome within a few weeks. If you have not heard within a month, it says, consider the application unsuccessful for that role.
- Assessment. Shortlisted candidates take a work sample test, with tasks from the job, and structured interviews made of competency-based questions.
- Selection. The hiring team meets after the interviews and makes an offer to the candidate it finds most suited. Those not recommended are told.
The page gives four tips for the application: say why you want to join, tailor the application to the job description, be specific and concise about what you have done, and check your contact details.
Competency-based questions are answered with examples. STAR method answers shows how to build one from a real project. If you apply to several centres, keep one master CV and cut a version for each board, as one resume for many countries describes. Some CIMMYT posts in Mexico have Spanish titles, so state your level in each language honestly, as in listing languages and skills on a resume.
Questions people ask
Is CGIAR one employer?
No. Each centre hires for itself on its own board, and the CGIAR System Organization has its own board too. The CGIAR careers page links all of them.
Do I need a PhD to work at a CGIAR centre?
For scientist posts, yes: the CIMMYT Scientist posting asks for one at every level. Many posts on the same boards are not scientist posts, such as research associates, technicians, finance, legal and communications staff, so read each posting’s requirements.
What is a roster on a CGIAR board?
A posting that collects candidates for future openings. CIMMYT’s Scientist roster posting says inclusion is not an offer of a job, and that openings depend on project needs and donor funding.
How long does a CGIAR centre take to reply?
The CGIAR careers page says a few weeks after you apply, and that no reply within a month means the application was unsuccessful.
What we know and what we do not
The facts here come from the CGIAR careers page, CIMMYT’s careers page, its Workable board and one of its postings, the CIMMYT Academy student research page, ILRI’s jobs page and its Simplicant board, and IRRI’s careers page, read on the day we checked. AfricaRice’s vacancy site did not answer. IRRI’s list loads through an embedded search that we did not run, so we read none of its postings. We did not read the boards of the other centres, any salary scale, or funders’ pages on research fellowships, so this post says nothing about their pay or terms.
Zorlya does not apply for you. It collects roles from 130+ sources, and jobs appear in the app after you sign in, where the sources are listed. When a role is in your feed, Zorlya scores it against your resume, gives the reasons for the score, names its source and links to the original posting, where you apply. How it works shows the steps.