Candidate Rock Engineer at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

About the job:

The CSIR has a vacancy for Candidate Rock Engineer in the Mining and Mineral Resource impact area within the cluster. The incumbent will be responsible to assist in executing the strategy to improve safety through application of existing rock engineering knowledge in surface and underground, shallow, and deep level mining operations towards re-imagining mining solutions through research, development, and innovation. They will further assist the rock engineering function to execute rock engineering projects on mines. The position is based in Pretoria.

Key responsibilities:

Apply project management processes and applications to projects:

• Ensure that assigned project outputs are completed within agreed timeframes, of good quality and within budget.
• Undertakes specific project management and/or administrative tasks for assigned activities, e.g., managing project timesheets, purchase orders, invoicing, and other tasks.
• Acquire knowledge of CSIR systems, e.g., Peoplesoft, Workflow etc

Contribute to the development of the rock or geotechnical engineering technical discipline:

• Apply sound scientific knowledge in problem solving and synthesising solutions using geoscience domain knowledge, e.g., geology, rock engineering, mining processes, mine value chain, coding, engineering.
• Work in multidisciplinary teams to implement solutions and research.
• Execute software coding to assist with the development of solutions.
• Disseminate technical knowledge e.g., through publications, presenting at conferences.

Business Development:

• Contribute towards proposals for grant and private sector funding.
• Actively scan cutting edge technologies in and outside mining sector to solve critical, primarily mining issues.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Respond to internal client instructions and requests.
• Participate in appropriate technical industry bodies.

Human Capital

• Develop own skills through on-the-job training, participating in projects, reading broadly, and seeking training opportunities.
• Mentor and supervise interns.

Financial sustainability

• Project delivery to enable financial recovery.
• Implement cost containment measures to avoid an operating loss.
• Apply business practices that would result in a clean financial audit.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A bachelor’s degree in Mining,Geology,Engineering geology or related fields.
• One year experience in:
  • On-site work on surface and underground environments.
  • Understanding surface and underground mining practices.
  • Research project execution.
  • Mining, rock engineering and geophysics related equipment, tools and instruments.
• Interest in coding, numerical models.
• Excellent English communication, presentation and writing skills, including the publication of technical outputs.
• Applied research skills.
• Good observational skills in mining environments.
• Good interpersonal and team skills
• Ability to work independently, as well as in a team.
• Problem-solving and solution-seeking orientation
• Be able and fit to conduct site visits and project related trials at surface and underground mines.
• All international qualifications require an evaluation report / certificate issued by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Closing date: 09 April 2024