A couple thoughts.
I've seen joints such as you describe in the field. I don't know if your end use application is the same as what I've seen....
I would not count on getting a full penetration weld with the joint configuration you sketched out. Even with the radius of the rod allowing some access below the surface of the bar, that's a lot of material to burn through to get to the center of the joint; even with SMAW or FCAW processes.
If you were to hand those pieces to me and request that I joint them with a full penetration weld, I'd bevel the corners of the bar slot on both sides, such that the root face was no more than ~3/16" thick. I'd also enlarge the root opening to ~1/8" all the way around. This would ensure full penetration on the first pass. It would also allow the welder to grind the opposite side of the first pass in order to remove any slag that deposited out on the root side of the first weld pass.
see the attached .jpg file for illustration of bevel prep on bar side of joint.
I'd also bevel the end of the rod, with a double bevel, ~1/8" root face, ~1/8" root opening, about a 30° bevel angle for SMAW welding; smaller for FCAW, or even larger for GTAW. That would make it easier to ensure full penetration into the bottom of the slot in the bar, where the end of the rod meets the bottom of the bar slot. This would be simpler than grinding the bevel on the bottom of the bar slot, I think.