Fresh Opening at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

About the job:

• The CSIR has a vacancy for a Principal Researcher: Pavement Engineering and Materials within the Transport Infrastructure Engineering Impact Area of the Smart Mobility Cluster. The group plays a leading role in road construction materials, pavement design, road rehabilitation design and analysis methods, monitoring long-term performance of roads and road material characterisation and assessment. This position is based in Pretoria.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide technical and strategic leadership to staff in the Transport Infrastructure Engineering impact area by ensuring quality scientific outputs and the professional development and transformation of the group’s scientific capacity.
• Promote a culture of scientific excellence in terms of both quality and delivery.
• Lead research in the development and validation of innovative/alternative/new materials for use in road construction.
• To become recognised as an expert in the field of pavement engineering and materials and associated research, providing thought leadership.
• Networking ability both nationally and internationally, and proven networks within all aspects of transport infrastructure design, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation.
• Proven contract and project management experience on medium to large-scale projects, preferably involving multi-disciplinary research and development, both in South Africa and internationally.
• Practical knowledge of, and experience in a range of research methods.
• Provide effective mentorship to other colleagues to enhance research capability within the impact area.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A Masters’ degree in civil engineering; a PhD is preferable.
• Registration with a relevant professional body.

A minimum of 8 years of experience in at least five of the following fields related to road engineering:

• material behavioural sciences
• bituminous binders
• cementitious binders
• alternative binders (e.g., polymeric, nano and bio)
• asphalt technology
• concrete technology
• performance assessment and modelling
• construction and maintenance
• risk and vulnerability assessment
• field investigations
• forensic investigation
• procurement/contractual models
• asset management
• sustainability science, inclusive of climate adaptation and mitigation.
• A track record of leading studies in the fields mentioned above.
• Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills.
• A track record in formulating development and implementation strategies.
• Ability to effectively present ideas, concepts, plans and procedures.
• Ability to innovate and generate new knowledge.
• Must have the ability to work accurately, efficiently and independently, as well as in a team.
• Ability to work in a methodical manner is essential.
• Good understanding of the transport sector in South Africa.
• Ability to carry out strategic stakeholder interactions at all levels.
• A track record in attracting and securing funding to support a team.
• Must have excellent communication, presentation and report-writing skills.
• Ability to continuously disseminate research outputs in the form of technical papers and technical articles.
• Must be computer literate as well as have the ability to understand and use domain specialised software.

Closing date: 30 November 2023

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About the job:

The CSIR has an Internship opportunity in the e-Government Impact Area within the Next Generation Enterprises and Institutions Cluster. The purpose of the Internship is to provide graduates with an opportunity to gain practical work experience through providing third line technical support for customers experiencing issues with installation, configuration, operation, and management of National Department of Health System (NDoH). This position is based in Pretoria.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide customer service while responding to phone, e-mail and online requests for technical support;
• Ensure that escalations are addressed appropriately;
• Ensure effective administration of incidents, requests, and problem related to requirements;
• Ensure Service Delivery within Service Level Agreements (SLA) criteria, to resolve and escalate issues where required;
• Ensures that all customer cases are responded to within the SLA, and in a professional manner;
• Track and monitor all support cases to ensure timeous resolution and follow-up;
• Escalate critical customer situations to the appropriate level of management and engineering expertise;
• Provide related service feedback to the management team and leadership – report- repeat incidents/problem areas/proactive trends;
• Contribute to documentation and knowledge base article library;

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A Bachelor’s degree in computer science/engineering, electrical/electronic engineering, information technology, data science, machine learning or related field;
• An Honour’s degree will be an added advantage;
• Working knowledge of Windows platforms;
• Working knowledge and ability of the UNIX or Linux operating system in any distribution;
• Analysis and debugging skill;
• Exposure to SQL;
• Willingness to learn and develop Quality Assurance skills;
• Familiarity with Jira and Confluence (Advantageous);
• Ability to function as an individual contributor and/or a member of a team;
• Ability to work well under pressure, to manage customers, both internal and external in a positive and professional manner;
• All international qualifications require an evaluation report / certificate issued by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Closing date: 29 November 2023

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About the job:

The CSIR has a vacancy for Media Manager within the Human Capital and Communications portfolio. The incumbent will play a pivotal role in developing relevant media and digital media strategies, along with establishing and maintaining strategic relationships with the media and other relevant stakeholders to improve the CSIR’s visibility in public spheres and among relevant stakeholders. This position is based in Pretoria.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop and implement the strategies listed below as part of the Strategic Communications Plan
• Media strategy;
• Social media strategy;
• Crisis communication strategy; and
• Technical inquiries strategy.
• Identify and build strategic relationships with a range of media representatives and key stakeholders to establish networks and communication channels to effectively disseminate information about the CSIR, with the objective of enhancing CSIR awareness and visibility.
• Identify and effectively utilise media opportunities to create and secure regular positive publicity for the CSIR and to raise the profile of the organisation.
• Assume control of the operational implementation of the CSIR media strategy in line with the strategic objectives of the external communication portfolio.
• Manage the establishment of and compliance with processes and guidelines to govern content development for the CSIR website and other digital media platforms.
• Work alongside communication professionals to ensure that the content for digital media is current, comprehensive, relevant, dynamic and accurate.
• Proactively inform CSIR leadership of issues in the public domain that might affect the operations and the brand of the organisation and provide guidance on how to manage those issues in the media.
• Develop and implement a CSIR media training plan to ensure that CSIR employees are familiar with best practices to communicate their work in the media and interact with the media.
• Proactively source and package content in an appropriate manner for different audiences for use in various media engagement activities. This includes, but is not limited to:
• Writing opinion pieces and commentary on behalf of the CEO and Executive Committee members;
• Developing fact sheets/information bulletins for dissemination to media; and
• Writing media releases and repackage scientific content for non-technical audiences. Enhance the CSIR brand through non-paid publicity (editorial).
• Organise and facilitate media interviews and media briefings on behalf of the CSIR.
• Ensure that the CSIR media database is current and sector-specific.
• Monitor the media daily and advise key CSIR stakeholders accordingly – sensitising them to media views and opinions, including any negative coverage, as well as forecast any occurrences that may damage the CSIR’s reputation as a result of media coverage.
• Manage CSIR media buying in an advertorial context.
• Plan the handling of technical enquiries to the CSIR via telephone, email, social media and website, as well as implement related systems and guidelines. Ensure that all enquiries are attended to within twenty-four hours and keep record of all enquiries and how they were resolved.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A Postgraduate degree (Honours or higher) in journalism, communication or public relations with at least eight years’ experience in communications, media or stakeholder relationship management.
• A minimum of three years of management experience.
• Proven experience in identifying and engaging with strategically relevant media stakeholders.
• Proven experience in identifying and capitalising on opportunities for positive publicity that go beyond mainstream channels and mechanisms.
• Proven experience in building legitimate and trusted relationships within an organisation, as well as with with external stakeholders.
• Experience in securing results and planned outcomes in the context of a limited media budget and within strict timelines or deadlines.
• Active problem solving and situation management without prior preparation, including implementing ad hoc reputation management measures.
• Excellent skills in writing, presenting and research communication.
• Expertise in media relations with established networks or contacts in media.
• Strong interpersonal, networking and relationship-building skills.
• Proven track record in the media industry and/or media relationship management for corporate, government or industry.
• Highly computer literate and ability to work at the leading edge of new media.
• Sound budgeting and financial management experience.
• Proven track record in managing staff.
• Ability to think in an innovative and independent manner.
• All international qualifications require an evaluation report or certificate issued by the South African Qualifications Authority.

Closing date: 28 November 2023

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About the job:

The CSIR has a vacancy for Senior Software Developer: Artificial Intelligence in the in the Emerging Digital Technologies for fourth Industrial Revolution (EDT4IR) Research Centre within the Next Generation Enterprises and Institutions Cluster. The incumbent will be responsible to design, develop and implement AI systems architecture and solutions. This position is based in Pretoria.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop innovative solutions in AI and remain well-versed in new technologies in the evolving AI space;
• Supervise/mentor junior staff in the area(s) of expertise;
• Generate and contribute towards science engineering and technology (SET) activity outputs e.g., reports, guidelines, system requirements, peer-reviewed publications, and technology and software packages;
• Understand and interpret client requirements by contributing to user requirement analysis and/or well-articulated proposals;
• Remain current in field of expertise with respect to new approaches in tools, methods or technologies;
• Participate in external task teams or committees in relevant domains;

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A Bachelor’s degree in computer science/engineering, electrical/electronic engineering, information technology or related field with at least five years’ experience in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and software development in Artificial Intelligence Technologies;
• An Honours or Master’s degree will be advantageous;

Experience in the following:

• Applied machine-learning with regression, classification, etc. models for supervised learning;
• Big-data unsupervised learning;
• Data platform engineering;
• Demonstrated experience in bringing theoretical machine-learning approaches illustrated in academia research papers to actual implementations, i.e. implemented and deployed into large-scale production system certain advanced ML and applied ML algorithms;
• Cloud-based platforms: AWS, IBM Cloud, Azure;
• Proficiency and experience building AI models with a deep learning framework such as TensorFlow, Keras or Theano;
• Ability to select hardware to run an ML model with the required latency;
• Exposure to Project Management;
• Understanding of transforming/implementing software/algorithms for use in real-life systems would be advantageous;
• Knowledge of programming in modern object orientated languages, with Open-Source development tools and platforms;
• Ability to demonstrate Object-orientated software engineering skills;
• Strong quantitative skills (mathematics/statistics/computer science);
• Demonstrated ability to supervise/mentor/develop junior staff;
• Demonstrated skills in: analytical thinking, flexibility and adaptability, investigative orientation, planning and organising, problem solving, verbal and written communication, teamwork, self-management (planning, prioritising and time management – includes the ability to work independently), systems level thinking, multi-disciplinary knowledge. 
• All international qualifications require an evaluation report / certificate issued by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Closing date: 06 December 2023