Research Officer, Digital Controlled Environment Systems

Priority may be given to the following designated employment equity groups: women, Indigenous Peoples* (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), persons with disabilities and racialized persons*.

* The Employment Equity Act, which is under review, uses the terminology Aboriginal peoples and visible minorities.

Candidates are asked to self-declare when applying to this hiring process.

City:
Saskatoon

Organizational Unit:
Aquatic and Crop Resource Development

Classification: RO

Tenure:
Continuing

Language Requirements:
English

Work arrangements:

Due to the nature of the work and operational requirements, this position will require full‑time physical presence at the NRC work location identified.

The role
As a Research Officer, you will play a key role in designing and managing experimental systems that simulate diverse agricultural and environmental conditions. You will lead research and technology development efforts that combine biological, environmental, and digital systems to improve plant productivity, resource efficiency, and sustainability.

Working collaboratively with NRC researchers, engineers, and external partners, you will help establish NRC as a global leader in digital agriculture and controlled environment research.

Key Responsibilities

Develop, operate, and optimize controlled environment systems (growth chambers, greenhouses, vertical farms) to support crop and environmental simulation and production research through programming, sensor integration and systems optimization.

Design and manage experimental systems that mimic various climatic, soil, and environmental factors affecting crop growth.

Implement advanced digital twins and automated technology platforms with a emphasis on indoor agriculture and controlled environment technology (ex. IoT, robotics, drones, AI, autonomous instrumentation, sensors, non-destructive data acquisition and phenotyping platforms).

Design and conduct experiments that examine the effects of environmental variables (light, temperature, humidity, CO₂, nutrient delivery) on plant growth, physiology, and yield through digital and automated crop measurement, and environmental modeling.

Conduct innovative R&D on plant-environment interactions to improve production efficiency, sustainability, and crop quality through simulated environmental platforms and digital twins.

Design and analyze multifactorial experiments integrating environmental, biological, and digital data to support data-driven decision-making and modeling.

Lead the generation of high-quality scientific and technical outputs — including reports, peer-reviewed publications, patents, and prototypes.

Collaborate with NRC teams and external partners in industry, academia, and government to develop and transfer technologies.

Screening criteria
Applicants must demonstrate within the content of their application that they meet the following screening criteria in order to be given further consideration as candidates:

Education
Ph.D. in Controlled Environment Biosystems Engineering or Biological, Agricultural Engineering, Environmental Science, Plant Science, Horticultural Science, or related with combined relevant post‑doctoral experience in controlled environment technologies, system design and optimization, environmental control, data driven farming.

Experience

Significant and recent experience designing, operating, optimizing and troubleshooting integrated controlled environment systems such as growth chambers, greenhouses or vertical farms.

Significant and recent experience developing or applying advanced digital agricultural technologies and automation for plant production environments.

Significant experience with research on plant-environment interactions to optimize plant production, composition and growth systems.

Significant and recent experience with integration of IoT, data acquisition, and automation systems for precision environment and automation control.

Experience in conducting multifactorial experiments and data-driven analyses involving environmental and biological variables.

Recent experience in managing research projects and collaborating across multidisciplinary teams.

Experience with writing and presenting…