Academic Positions - Data Science And Artificial Intelligence at Durban University of Technology

Position purpose

• The Professor will establish and lead a focused research programme in African-language AI, natural-language processing and speech technologies. The appointee will work within Theme 1: African Data, Language and Knowledge Intelligence and collaborate across the Institute's data, responsible-AI and public-value platforms. The post requires disciplinary depth, interdisciplinary judgement and an ability to produce research that is scientifically rigorous, contextually valid and responsibly translated.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree (NQF 10) in either Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computational Linguistics, Electrical/Electronic or Computer or Communication or Information Engineering, or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A strong record of research and/or academic leadership in African-Language AI, natural-language processing and speech technologies.
• Substantial and sustained period of distinguished academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment with recognised standing in the field.
• A minimum of ten (10) DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline, with evidence of research quality and impact.
• Evidence of substantial record of successful supervision to completion of Master's and Doctoral students.
• Demonstrated success in securing competitive research funding (i.e. grants, contracts or commissioned research).
• Evidence of leading multidisciplinary teams and building national/international research collaborations.

Theme-specific expertise

• African-language NLP and speech: isiZulu and other African-language text, speech recognition and synthesis, translation, code-switching, dialect variation and culturally grounded evaluation;
• Low-resource and multilingual machine learning: transfer, self-supervised, few-shot, active and multimodal learning under limited labelled data and compute; Language and knowledge intelligence: knowledge graphs, information retrieval, foundation-model adaptation, multimodal archives and community- or institutionally grounded knowledge systems; Benchmark and corpus leadership: ethically governed datasets, transparent annotation protocols, benchmark tasks and reproducible evaluation for African languages.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and sustain an internationally visible programme of research aligned to the assigned Institute theme and the Institute's five-year research agenda.
• Produce high-quality peer-reviewed outputs, research software, datasets, methods, policy contributions and/or responsible innovation outputs, as appropriate to the field.
• Attract competitive external research funding and develop accountable partnerships with African and international universities, government, industry, civil society and communities.
• Supervise and develop Master's and Doctoral candidates and mentor postdoctoral fellows and emerging researchers.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary research methods training, postgraduate seminars and selected teaching or curriculum development in relevant DUT academic programmes, as agreed with the Institute's Director and participating faculties.
• Apply rigorous research ethics, privacy, security, data governance, reproducibility, model documentation and responsible-AI requirements throughout the research lifecycle.
• Participate in Institute planning, project stage gates, peer review, reporting, community or industry engagement, and the translation of validated research into public, policy, professional or commercial value.

Ideal / additional recommendations

• An NRF rating or equivalent recognised international research standing.
• A record of building interdisciplinary research platforms, laboratories, datasets or research software with sustainable governance.
• The candidate's qualifications, publications, supervision record and current research programme must demonstrate substantive alignment with the advertised specialisation; incidental use of data analysis or generic AI tools will not, on its own, constitute sufficient alignment.
• Provide intellectual leadership for the Institute's African-language AI portfolio and help establish the KwaZulu-Natal Data and Language Commons.
• Build sustained collaboration with language scholars, communities, public institutions and technology partners so that datasets and systems reflect linguistic meaning, consent, provenance and benefit.
• Lead internationally competitive grants and postgraduate programmes that generate both fundamental methodological advances and practical language technologies.

Position 2

• Professor: Trustworthy AI Assurance, Robustness, Privacy and Security
• Theme 2: Trustworthy, Responsible and Human-Centred AI
• Reference Number: 30002784
• Status of Position: Permanent
• Campus: Durban University of Technology; multi-campus and partner-facing responsibilities as required

Position purpose

• The Professor will establish and lead a focused research programme in Trustworthy AI assurance, robustness, privacy and security. The appointee will work within Theme 2: Trustworthy, Responsible and Human-Centred AI and collaborate across the Institute's data, responsible-AI and public-value platforms. The post requires disciplinary depth, interdisciplinary judgement and an ability to produce research that is scientifically rigorous, contextually valid and responsibly translated.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree (NQF 10) in either Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science/Statistics, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, Applied Mathematics, Electrical/Electronic or Computer or Information Engineering or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A strong record of research and/or academic leadership with demonstrated leadership in trustworthy AI assurance, robustness, privacy and security.
• Substantial and sustained period of distinguished academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment with recognised standing in the field.
• A minimum of ten (10) DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline, with evidence of research quality and impact.
• Evidence of substantial record of successful supervision to completion of Master's and Doctoral students.
• Demonstrated success in securing competitive research funding (i.e. grants, contracts or commissioned research).
• Evidence of leading multidisciplinary teams and building national/international research collaborations.

Theme-specific expertise

• AI assurance and evaluation: model validation, calibration, uncertainty, subgroup performance, auditability and lifecycle evidence; Robustness, safety and security: distribution shift, adversarial machine learning, red-teaming, secure MLOps, model misuse and incident learning;
• Privacy-enhancing AI: federated learning, differential privacy, synthetic data, secure computation, de-identification and disclosure-risk assessment; Responsible generative and agentic AI: methods for mitigation of hallucination, deepfakes and institutional risks, control, provenance, copyright protection and responsible AI assurance metrics.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and sustain an internationally visible programme of research aligned to the assigned Institute theme and the Institute's five-year research agenda.
• Produce high-quality peer-reviewed outputs, research software, datasets, methods, policy contributions and/or responsible innovation outputs, as appropriate to the field.
• Attract competitive external research funding and develop accountable partnerships with African and international universities, government, industry, civil society and communities.
• Supervise and develop Master's and Doctoral candidates and mentor postdoctoral fellows and emerging researchers.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary research methods training, postgraduate seminars and selected teaching or curriculum development in relevant DUT academic programmes, as agreed with the Institute's Director and participating faculties.
• Apply rigorous research ethics, privacy, security, data governance, reproducibility, model documentation and responsible-AI requirements throughout the research lifecycle.
• Participate in Institute planning, project stage gates, peer review, reporting, community or industry engagement, and the translation of validated research into public, policy, professional or commercial value.

Ideal / additional recommendations

• An NRF rating or equivalent recognised international research standing.
• A record of building interdisciplinary research platforms, laboratories, datasets or research software with sustainable governance.
• The candidate's qualifications, publications, supervision record and current research programme must demonstrate substantive alignment with the advertised specialisation; incidental use of data analysis or generic AI tools will not, on its own, constitute sufficient alignment.
• Provide intellectual leadership for the DUT Responsible AI Assurance Lab and develop rigorous, field-tested assurance methods.
• Establish evaluation protocols that integrate technical, ethical, legal, social and environmental criteria without reducing responsible AI to compliance paperwork.
• Lead major partnerships and grants in trustworthy AI, cybersecurity, privacy and high-risk AI evaluation, including independent or comparative studies.

Position 3

• Associate Professor: African Data Engineering, Governance and Privacy-Preserving Data Science
• Theme 1: African Data, Language and Knowledge Intelligence
• Reference Number: 30002785
• Status of Position: Permanent
• Campus: Durban University of Technology; multi-campus and partner-facing responsibilities as required

Position purpose

• The Associate Professor will establish and lead a focused research programme in African data engineering, governance and privacy-preserving data science. The appointee will work within Theme 1: African Data, Language and Knowledge Intelligence and collaborate across the Institute's data, responsible-AI and public-value platforms.
• The post requires disciplinary depth, interdisciplinary judgement and an ability to produce research that is scientifically rigorous, contextually valid and responsibly translated.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree (NQF 10) in Data Science, Computer Science, Informatics, Information Systems, Computer or Information or Communication Engineering, or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A good record of research and/or academic leadership with demonstrated leadership in African data engineering, governance and privacy-preserving data science.
• A significant period of sustained academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment.
• A minimum of seven (7) DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline, with evidence of research quality and impact.
• Successful supervision to completion of Master's and Doctoral students.
• Evidence of success in securing competitive research funding (i.e. grants, contracts or commissioned research).
• Evidence of leading multidisciplinary teams and building national/international research collaborations

Theme-specific expertise

• Data quality and interoperability: provenance, metadata, standards, entity resolution, linkage, missingness, representativeness and reproducible pipelines; African data governance and sovereignty: lawful basis, custodianship, consent, benefit sharing, access tiers, licensing and cross-border data stewardship; Privacy-preserving analytics: federated analysis, synthetic data, de-identification, secure research environments and disclosure-risk measurement; Multimodal and geospatial data assets: documents, images, audio, sensors and spatial data with transparent documentation and meaningful domain annotation.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and sustain an internationally visible programme of research aligned to the assigned Institute theme and the Institute's five-year research agenda.
• Produce high-quality peer-reviewed outputs, research software, datasets, methods, policy contributions and/or responsible innovation outputs, as appropriate to the field.
• Attract competitive external research funding and develop accountable partnerships with African and international universities, government, industry, civil society and communities.
• Supervise and develop Master's and Doctoral candidates and mentor postdoctoral fellows and emerging researchers.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary research methods training, postgraduate seminars and selected teaching or curriculum development in relevant DUT academic programmes, as agreed with the Institute's Director and participating faculties.
• Apply rigorous research ethics, privacy, security, data governance, reproducibility, model documentation and responsible-AI requirements throughout the research lifecycle.
• Participate in Institute planning, project stage gates, peer review, reporting, community or industry engagement, and the translation of validated research into public, policy, professional or commercial value.

Ideal / additional recommendations

• An NRF rating or demonstrable trajectory towards recognised research standing.
• Experience leading a work package, laboratory, research group or multi-partner project.
• Evidence of research translation into datasets, software, policy, standards, professional practice, public value or responsible commercialisation.
• Co-lead the KwaZulu-Natal Data and Language Commons, focusing on research-grade data architecture, stewardship and access.
• Develop methods for usable, representative and responsibly governed data under fragmented records, limited infrastructure and unequal digital access.
• Support Institute-wide data standards, reproducibility, secure research workspaces and postgraduate training in data engineering and governance.

Position 4

• Associate Professor: AI for Sustainable Cities, Infrastructure, Climate, Water and Energy
• Theme 3: AI for Sustainable Systems and Public Value
• Reference Number: 30002786
• Status of Position: Permanent
• Campus: Durban University of Technology; multi-campus and partner-facing responsibilities as required

Position purpose

• The Associate Professor will establish and lead a focused research programme in AI for sustainable cities, infrastructure, climate, water and energy. The appointee will work within Theme 3: AI For Sustainable Systems and Public Value and collaborate across the Institute's data, responsible-AI and public-value platforms. The post requires disciplinary depth, interdisciplinary judgement and an ability to produce research that is scientifically rigorous, contextually valid and responsibly translated.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree (NQF 10) in either Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Civil or Electrical/Electronic or Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Geomatics, Environmental Science, Applied Mathematics, or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A good record of research and/or academic leadership in AI for sustainable cities, infrastructure, climate, water and energy.
• A significant period of sustained academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment.
• A minimum of seven (7) DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline, with evidence of research quality and impact.
• Successful supervision to completion of Master's and Doctoral students.
• Evidence of success in securing competitive research funding (i.e. grants, contracts or commissioned research).
• Evidence of leading multidisciplinary teams and building national/international research collaborations.

Theme-specific expertise

• Smart and resilient systems: IoT, edge AI, digital twins, geospatial intelligence and low-connectivity reference architectures; Infrastructure and mobility: predictive maintenance, transport, ports, logistics, asset management and service-delivery analytics;
• Climate, water and energy intelligence: earth observation, forecasting, anomaly detection, optimisation, early warning and resource stewardship; Implementation and public value: baseline design, adoption, workflow, lifecycle cost, equity, unintended effects and accountable transfer to operational owners.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and sustain an internationally visible programme of research aligned to the assigned Institute theme and the Institute's five-year research agenda.
• Produce high-quality peer-reviewed outputs, research software, datasets, methods, policy contributions and/or responsible innovation outputs, as appropriate to the field.
• Attract competitive external research funding and develop accountable partnerships with African and international universities, government, industry, civil society and communities.
• Supervise and develop Master's and Doctoral candidates and mentor postdoctoral fellows and emerging researchers.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary research methods training, postgraduate seminars and selected teaching or curriculum development in relevant DUT academic programmes, as agreed with the Institute Director and participating faculties.
• Apply rigorous research ethics, privacy, security, data governance, reproducibility, model documentation and responsible-AI requirements throughout the research lifecycle.
• Participate in Institute planning, project stage gates, peer review, reporting, community or industry engagement, and the translation of validated research into public, policy, professional or commercial value.

Ideal / additional recommendations

• An NRF rating or demonstrable trajectory towards recognised research standing.
• Experience leading a work package, laboratory, research group or multi-partner project.
• Evidence of research translation into datasets, software, policy, standards, professional practice, public value or responsible commercialisation.
• Build interdisciplinary programmes with the Urban Planning and Smart Cities Institute, Water and Wastewater Technology Institute, engineering and applied-science disciplines, municipalities and industry.
• Lead transferable methodological research rather than isolated application prototypes, with robust comparison designs and measurable outcomes.
• Develop demonstrators suitable for the KZN AI for Public Value Living Lab and attract funding for resilient infrastructure and sustainable-systems research.

Position 5

• Senior Lecturer: Human-Centred, Explainable and Fair Artificial Intelligence
• Theme 2: Trustworthy, Responsible and Human-Centred AI
• Reference Number: 30002787
• Status of Position: Permanent
• Campus: Durban University of Technology; multi-campus and partner-facing responsibilities as required

Position purpose

• The Senior Lecturer will establish and lead a focused research programme in Human-centred, explainable and fair AI. The appointee will work within Theme 2: Trustworthy, Responsible and Human-Centred AI and collaborate across the Institute's data, responsible-AI and public-value platforms. The post requires disciplinary depth, interdisciplinary judgement and an ability to produce research that is scientifically rigorous, contextually valid and responsibly translated.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree (NQF 10) in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Information Systems, Cognitive Science, Law and Technology, or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A record of research and/or academic leadership in human-centred, explainable and fair AI.
• An appropriate period of relevant academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment.
• A minimum of three (3) DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline.
• Evidence of participation in supervision of Master's students.
• Evidence of participation in grants writing.
• Evidence of participation in multidisciplinary teams and research collaborations.

Theme-specific expertise

• Human--AI interaction: automation bias, cognitive workload, accessibility, trust calibration, meaningful oversight and contestability; Explainability and uncertainty communication: interpretable models, counterfactuals, causal explanation and communication to technical and non-technical users; Fairness and distributional impact: bias measurement, intersectional evaluation, mitigation trade-offs and the effects of AI on differently situated groups; Participatory and responsible design: co-design with affected users, AI impact assessment, model documentation and comparative human-only, AI-assisted and automated decision studies.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and sustain an internationally visible programme of research aligned to the assigned Institute theme and the Institute's five-year research agenda.
• Produce high-quality peer-reviewed outputs, research software, datasets, methods, policy contributions and/or responsible innovation outputs, as appropriate to the field.
• Contribute to the attraction of competitive external research funding and develop accountable partnerships with African and international universities, government, industry, civil society and communities.
• Co-supervise and develop Master's and Doctoral candidates and mentor emerging researchers.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary research methods training, postgraduate seminars and selected teaching or curriculum development in relevant DUT academic programmes, as agreed with the Institute Director and participating faculties.
• Apply rigorous research ethics, privacy, security, data governance, reproducibility, model documentation and responsible-AI requirements throughout the research lifecycle.
• Participate in Institute planning, project stage gates, peer review, reporting, community or industry engagement, and the translation of validated research into public, policy, professional or commercial value.

Ideal / additional recommendations

• Evidence of participation in funded interdisciplinary research or applied research partnerships.
• Experience producing reusable datasets, research software, evaluation tools, prototypes, policy or practice outputs.
• A clear plan for developing an externally funded research and postgraduate-supervision portfolio within the Institute.
• Develop an empirical human-centred AI programme linking technical evaluation with user experience, rights and institutional accountability.
• Contribute evaluation tools and protocols to the DUT Responsible AI Assurance Lab.
• Co-lead postgraduate and partner studies in high-stakes settings while ensuring that affected people can understand, question and contest AI-supported decisions.

Position 6

• Senior Lecturer: AI for Health, Education, Public Services and Inclusive Productivity
• Theme 3: AI for Sustainable Systems and Public Value
• Reference Number: 30002788
• Status of Position: Permanent
• Campus: Durban University of Technology; multi-campus and partner-facing responsibilities as required

Position purpose

• The Senior Lecturer will establish and lead a focused research programme in AI for health, education, public services and inclusive productivity. The appointee will work within Theme 3: AI for Sustainable Systems and Public Value and collaborate across the Institute's data, responsible-AI and public-value platforms. The post requires disciplinary depth, interdisciplinary judgement and an ability to produce research that is scientifically rigorous, contextually valid and responsibly translated.

Minimum requirements

• A doctoral degree (NQF 10) in Data Science/Statistics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Health Informatics, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Engineering, Information Systems, Educational Technology, or a closely related qualification to the theme.
• A Record of research and/or academic leadership in AI for health, education, public services and inclusive productivity.
• An appropriate period of relevant academic experience in research and/or professional experience in higher education or a research environment.
• A minimum of three (3) DHET-accredited research outputs/creative outputs over the preceding three years, relevant to the discipline.
• Evidence of participation in supervision of Master's students.
• Evidence of participation in grants writing.
• Evidence of participation in multidisciplinary teams and research collaborations.

Theme-specific expertise

• Health and care analytics: risk modelling, imaging, operations, population health and accountable decision support with clinical and health-device partners; Education and learning analytics: student support and AI-enabled education with explicit limits on surveillance and automated judgement; Public-sector analytics: planning, resource allocation, service responsiveness and fraud or risk detection with transparency and appeal mechanisms; Inclusive productivity: manufacturing, supply chains, SMMEs, informal economies and worker-centred augmentation, with implementation and equity evidence.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and sustain an internationally visible programme of research aligned to the assigned Institute theme and the Institute's five-year research agenda.
• Produce high-quality peer-reviewed outputs, research software, datasets, methods, policy contributions and/or responsible innovation outputs, as appropriate to the field.
• Contribute to the attraction of competitive external research funding and develop accountable partnerships with African and international universities, government, industry, civil society and communities.
• Co-supervise and develop Master's and Doctoral candidates and mentor emerging researchers.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary research methods training, postgraduate seminars and selected teaching or curriculum development in relevant DUT academic programmes, as agreed with the Institute Director and participating faculties.
• Apply rigorous research ethics, privacy, security, data governance, reproducibility, model documentation and responsible-AI requirements throughout the research lifecycle.
• Participate in Institute planning, project stage gates, peer review, reporting, community or industry engagement, and the translation of validated research into public, policy, professional or commercial value.
• Ideal / additional recommendations
• Evidence of participation in funded interdisciplinary research or applied research partnerships.
• Experience in contributing to reusable datasets, research software, evaluation tools, prototypes, policy or practice outputs.
• A clear plan for developing an externally funded research and postgraduate-supervision portfolio within the Institute.
• Develop co-led applied research programmes with relevant DUT faculties and institutes, government, communities and industry partners.
• Design prospective validation and implementation studies that distinguish model accuracy from adoption, outcomes and public value.
• Contribute programmes to the KZN AI for Public Value Living Lab and build a strong postgraduate and funded-research pipeline.

Application Information applies to all six positions:

Application requirements

• A fully completed prescribed DUT application-for-employment form obtainable from www.dut.ac.za under Quick Links / Careers.
• A detailed curriculum vitae that explicitly demonstrates alignment with the relevant position, priority theme and technical specialisation.
• A covering letter identifying the exact position title and reference number for which the applicant is applying.
• Copies of relevant academic records and qualification certificates, including SAQA evaluation where applicable.
• A copy of the applicant's identity document or passport and current contact information for referees.
• For Professor and Associate Professor positions, a concise research profile indicating DHET-accredited outputs over the preceding three years, citation or other appropriate evidence of quality, completed postgraduate supervisions, grant awards and leadership contributions.

Closing Date 02 October 2026