CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Soil Health Benchmarking

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Date: 15 Aug 2025

Location: Canberra, ACT, AU

Company: CSIRO

Acknowledgement of Country 

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation. 

 

Role highlights

 

  • Launch your career at Australia’s National Research Organisation
  • Develop a soil health framework for Australian agricultural production systems
  • Join the CSIRO’s Soil and Landscapes Group in Canberra

 

About CSIRO

As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.

 

Visit CSIRO.au for more information.

 

The opportunity 

CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to scientists and engineers who have completed their doctorate and have less than three years of relevant postdoctoral work experience. These fellowships aim to develop the next generation of future leaders of the innovation system.

In partnership with a diverse research team, this successful candidate will develop an industry-funded soil health framework for Australian agricultural production systems. The CERC Fellow will be a broad soil systems thinker and have a strong interest in using spatial approaches to solve challenges in measuring, valuing and reporting the status of Australia’s soil resources. Pedometric tools will be used to define Australian-specific soil health indicators, and to develop regionally and soil-specific quantitative soil health scoring and benchmarking methods.

 

 

Your high-level duties will include: 

    • Carry out research investigations requiring originality, creativity and innovation.
    • Work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary, often regionally dispersed research team, to undertake independent scientific investigations and carry out associated tasks under broad guidance from other Research Scientists.
    • Conceptualise, design and test a novel framework for soil health assessments of Australian agricultural soil resources, taking into account current international and domestic literature, frameworks and expert opinion.
    • Integrate several tiers of spatially explicit, and where applicable, temporal soil data including conventionally measured, proximally and remotely sensed into tools and metrics to support soil health benchmarking and thresholding.
    • Carry out innovative, impactful research of strategic importance to CSIRO that will, where possible, lead to novel and important scientific outcomes.
    • Recognise and exploit opportunities for innovation and the generation of new theoretical perspectives, and progress opportunities for the further development or creation of new lines of research.
    • Record, manage, and analyse data/information using relevant domain data science techniques.

 

Role particulars

Location and office arrangements: Canberra (Black Mountain), ACT

Salary: AU$99,990 - AU$109,527 pa (pro rata for part-time), plus 15.4% superannuation

Tenure & work schedule: Specified term of 3 years, Full-time                  

Reference: 100852

 

As the successful candidate, you will bring:

 

Essential criteria

 

  • A doctorate (or will shortly satisfy the requirements of a PhD). The doctorate must be in a relevant discipline area of soil science, such as soil condition and function assessment, pedometrics, digital soil mapping, soil spatial and temporal analysis.
  • Please note: To be eligible for this role you must have no more than 3 years (full-time equivalent) of relevant research experience.
  • A sound understanding of Australian and/or international soil systems, farming systems, soil spatial variability and agro-ecosystem function.
  • Demonstrated knowledge and skills in designing and implementing field-based research aimed at quantifying or modelling the state and function of soils across spatially variable landscapes.
  • Applied experience in using statistical and mathematical tools to analyse and interpret soil data, spatial modelling, multivariate statistics and/or machine learning, and relevant coding languages (e.g. R, Python), including a sound understanding of FAIR data principles, data management and version control.
  • A current Australian driver’s licence or the ability to obtain one.

 

 
For full details about this role, and other criteria, please review the Position Description.

 

Not sure if you meet all the criteria?

While it is CSIRO policy that the successful candidate must meet all the essential criteria, there are many ways to demonstrate this. Don’t let the list discourage you. If you are unsure about applying, please reach out to the contact person in the Position Description.

 

Setting you up for success

We are committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible to everyone. We recognise that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. Please contact careers.online@csiro.au and let us know how we can support you.  

 

Life at CSIRO and flexible work arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. We can discuss flexible work arrangements with you during the recruitment process. CSIRO also offers a range of leave entitlements, benefits and career development opportunities. To find out more, visit Careers at CSIRO.

 

Inclusion and belonging

Solving Australia's greatest challenges takes a diversity of minds and lived experiences. We know diverse teams are more effective and deliver more innovative outcomes. As an equal employment opportunity organisation, we are committed to creating diverse and inclusive teams where people feel they belong. We recognise true diversity encompasses all ages, abilities, cultures, faiths, levels of education, genders, sexualities, diversity of thought and much more. We focus on hiring people who share our values of People First, Further Together, Making it Real and Trusted.

 

CSIRO holds Gold Status for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and a Science in Australia Gender Equity Bronze Award.

 

Eligibility 

Applications for this position are open to Australian Citizens, New Zealand Citizens, Australian Permanent Residents, and Australian Temporary Residents with a valid working visa for the duration of the specified term. Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.   

 

Child safety 

CSIRO is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs. View our Child Safe Policy. 

 

How to apply 

Please apply online and submit a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) and CV that addresses the selection criteria and demonstrates your motivation and ability to meet the essential requirements of this role.

 

Applications close 

15 September 2025, 11:00pm AEST