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Overview

• The Reaching Impact, Saturation, and Epidemic Control (RISE) project is a multi-year global project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) working with countries to achieve a shared vision of attaining and maintaining epidemic control, with stronger local partners capable of managing and achieving results through sustainable, self-reliant, and resilient health systems. RISE South Africa is hiring several positions to fulfill the project mandate. Under the direction of the Senior Technical Advisor for the USAID-funded Global Health Security (GHS) project in South Africa, the Principal Medical Scientist will support the Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases (CEZPD) at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to promote research and development in support of surveillance of epidemic-prone and vector-borne viral zoonoses in South Africa.

Responsibilities

• Independent research and managing a research group, producing complex and scientific reports and responsible for overall management of multiple research projects, interpretation, techniques, and procedures. Develop and implement proposals/protocols/new technologies/new approaches.
• Publish peer-reviewed articles and contribution to national and international conference other research forums.
• Training and formal supervision of staff and students at all levels as required on aspects of medical entomology, with a focus on arbovirus vectors.
• Involved in grant development and grant funding management related to epidemic prone and vector-borne viral zoonoses (with a focus on arboviral disease and arbovirus ecology).
• Contribute to evaluation of the surveillance programs for epidemic prone and vector-borne zoonoses in South Africa and develop recommendations and action plan for instituting active vector surveillance in South Africa
• Liase relevant stakeholders for the development of reporting structures, dashboard etc. to communicate vector borne surveillance data for the country
• Contribute to development of policy and strategy for vector-borne viral zoonoses in South Africa.

Required Qualifications

• MSc or equivalent in Medical Science or relevant field/ PhD in relevant field is preferred.
• 5 years’ experience as scientist; at least 1 year laboratory management experience
• No HPCSA registration required for this position.
• Background in medical entomology essential, with a focus on African mosquitoes (Culicinaeand Anophelinae).
• Entomology fieldwork experience in Southern Africa.
• Experience in generate new data for models of vector-borne disease.
• Experience in work with multidisciplinary and international teams.
• Experience with One Health projects.
• Knowledge of laboratory instruments
• Knowledge of interpreting numerical laboratory results
• Communication skills
• Customer care
• Interpersonal skills
• Analytical skills
• Problem solving skills
• Attention to detail
• Ability to work under pressure and dealing with high work volumes while keeping abreast with academic literature
• Computer Literacy skills
• Attendion to detail
   

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Responsibilities

• Manage the NMC data
• Contributes to NMC surveillance to understand trends in relation to outbreaks and notifiable medical conditions.
• Training surveillance officers, epidemiologists and health care workers on NMC
• Produce training material and develop SOPs on NMC
• Deliver scheduled trainings as detailed in training plan.
• Build relationships and establish mechanisms of collaboration with other institutions (NICD centers, Provincial departments of Health, National Programs and other centers that contribute to NMC data, e.g. Leprosy center and Poison Centre)
• Participates in meetings and calls with partners and collaborators
• Provide epidemiological support in the development of research protocols, research design and supervision, grant proposals and dissemination of results within the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response
•  Participate in the writing and submission of reports, scientific papers and presentations to relevant scientific meetings
• Participate in relevant internal, provincial, national and international meetings
• Provide supervision and management of junior staff and participate in teaching and training within and outside NICD 
• Comply with any reasonable and lawful instruction issued by the manager

Required Qualifications

• MSc Epidemiology/ MPH (With Field Epidemiology Training Specialization)
• Valid Driver’s license
• Knowledge of epidemiology and statistical methods
• Experience with Notifiable Medical Conditions
• Computer literacy and high levels of competence with data management programmes (Excel, Access, SQL, etc.)
• Knowledge of statistical analysis programmes (Stata, R) and or GIS
• Understanding of the outbreak response
• Excellent interpersonal and written / verbal communication skills
• Leadership and management skills
• Problem-solving skill
• Time management skills
• Thorough attention to detail
• Team-orientated
• Scientific writing skills.