Senior Lecturer P000844 at North West University

Job description

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION:

• The purpose of the position is to coordinate, manage and support Sequencing and Next Generation Sequencing activities in the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management. Instructions are given by the Director of the UESM.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Research and Innovation:

• Develop an independent research program within the area of expertise and interest.
• Raise funds for own research program.
• Collaborate with internal and external collaborators.
• Develop software, coding pipelines, and applications for scientific or technical use.
• Create novel computational approaches and analytical tools as required by research goals.
• Keep abreast of new chemistries, instrumentation, or software by reading scientific literature and attending professional conferences.
• Improve user interfaces to bioinformatics software and databases.
• Collaborate with software developers in the development and modification of commercial bioinformatics software.
• Design and apply bioinformatics algorithms, including unsupervised and supervised machine learning, dynamic programming, or graph algorithms.
• Manipulate publicly accessible, commercial, or proprietary genomic, proteomic, or post-genomic databases.
• Test new and updated bioinformatics tools and software.
• Communicate research results through conference presentations, scientific publications, or project reports.
• Analysis of high-throughput screening data and perform structure-activity analyses to generate predictive correlations.
• Configuring a NWU HPC server to be fully operational within the UESM.

Teaching, Learning and Training:

• Curriculum development and teaching at the post-graduate level. 
• Coordinate the content of the bioinformatics modules in the School for Biological Sciences B.Sc. Hons program.
• Supervise B.Sc. Honn Students.
• Providing hands-on training for postgraduate students to generate sequencing and NGS data.
• Training of UESM researchers and other students in the principles of analysing sequencing data using computational tools.
• Teaching post-graduate students to develop software libraries and implement the best coding practices to build and continually improve the computational capabilities and workflows.
• Supervision of PhD and M.Sc. candidates is not critical at the onset – will be phased in.

Administration and Management:

• Prepare and manage budgets for the operation of the core facility.
• Prepare and manage service level agreements for the provision of sequencing and bioinformatics support activities.
• Prepare and present reports on the activities of the core facility for the UESM Director and the Dean of Faculties.
• Apply for and manage external (national and international) funding for the development of the infrastructure of the Core Facility.
• Maintain software, hardware, and the network in a bioinformatics setting (Budget and manage the budget).
• Supervise regular updates and recommend state-of-the-art enhancements in bioinformatics hardware and software.
• Direct the work of technicians and information technology staff applying bioinformatics tools or applications in areas such as required for services and collaborations within the University and external partners.

Academic leadership, management, and administration:

• Ensure compliance with all existing safety standards in the area of responsibility.
• Responsible for data management, taking into account laws, regulations, and directives and evaluating potential risks of the research activities.
• Ensure compliance with University Ethics Policies and POPI Act.

 Social responsiveness and Community Engagement:

• Assist with or prepare training material and assist with or present training workshops for neighbouring universities.
• Prepare material and present workshops for high school students and community members.

Ad hoc:

• Ad hoc assignments will be given by the Director of the UESM.

Minimum requirements

• A PhD (NQF level 10) in Bioinformatics, Biochemistry or Microbiology.
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience using PC, Mac, and/or UNIX operating systems, R, Python, and other relevant languages.
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience using various sequencing platforms for short-read as well as long-read platforms.
• Supervision of postgraduate students.
• Published articles in DHET-accredited journals with Scopus references.
• Relevant work experience in herpetology and conservation ecology.
• Oral presentations at national and international conferences.
• Proof of successful funding applications – independently or in a team.

RECOMMENDATIONS / ADDED ADVANTAGES:

• Additional diplomas in programming, in advance bioinformatics, biostatistics.
• Registration with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP).
• Design, implementation and management of high-performance computing and information and data systems.

KEY FUNCTIONAL/ TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

• Able to train students and staff to prepare sequencing reactions independently, using standardized workflows.
• Able to evaluate sequencing data and perform quality control independently.
• Able to train staff and students to troubleshoot independently.
• Able to train staff to prepare the Sanger Sequencing and NGS equipment for long-term storage/Standby
• Must develop an archive of sequencing records to be made available to clients, should it be required for future purposes, using appropriate data management tools.
• Must be able to prepare and transfer sequencing data to high-performance computing facilities.
• Must be able to clean up sequences and to do basic bioinformatics analysis using open-source software and programming languages such as R or Python.

BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES:

• Ability to manage bioinformatics and sequencing staff in the UESM and related schools and research teams.
• Demonstration of language proficiency to function optimally in the various multilingual environments of the NWU.
• Proactively look for ways to assist staff, students, and stakeholders.
• Functioning in a team environment.

Apply by: 13 October 2025