Jobs at Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)

Description

The successful candidates will work within the Optimised electronic patient records to improve clinical monitoring of HIV-positive patients in rural South Africa (MONART Trial) study. The successful candidates will be primarily responsible for the implementation of the MONART Trial protocol. The successful candidates will be expected to follow procedures according to study protocols and to provide high quality clinical care to participants and other clients as appropriate in support of the Department of Health.

Requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

1. Senior certificate (Grade 12)
2. Computer Literacy Certification (MS Office - Word, Excel & PowerPoint)
3. Valid driver’s license with at least 2 years’ experience.
4. Fluency in English and Zulu.

MINIMUM EXPERIENCE

1. A minimum 2 years research experience in a clinical setting (hospital/clinic based research)

ADVANTAGEOUS

1. Clinical research experience or familiarity with clinical research data collection.
2. Good Clinical Practice (GCP) certification

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Description
This role is responsible for partnering with the Human capital team and organization leaders to drive talent management strategies, tools, and methodologies to meet the current and future needs of AHRI.

The role is also responsible for diversity and inclusion as well as organizational design and development activities that enhance the institution's effectiveness.

Talent Management

• Develop talent management policies for the institute, considering current and future needs of the institute and the prevailing supply conditions of talent that is essential to the institute.
• Ensure that AHRI policies, procedures, and processes incorporate talent management principles.

Employment equity

• Responsible for driving workforce transformation, diversity, and inclusion through aligning employment equity initiatives with AHRI’s strategic goals and regulatory requirements (EE, SD, etc.)
• AHRI employment equity manager
• Develop and manage initiatives that enhance AHRI’s ability to create a more diverse and
• inclusive institute.

Performance Management

• Responsible for planning and implementing the performance management framework to
• Drive a performance culture
• Analyse and report on performance trends and recommend appropriate actions.

Define performance review procedure/framework and communicate to the rest of the organization.

• Implement and manage performance management policy, processes, and calendar.
• Participate in the formulation of short-term and long-term plans to ensure that performance
• management is well integrated into institutes’ plans and budgets.
• Manage end-to-end performance review process.

Talent development

• Identify training and development needs of professional and scientific staff, in partnership with internal and external stakeholders, and recommend appropriate learning opportunities.
• Lead the AHRI skills development program including employee bursaries and management development program.
• AHRI Skills development facilitator responsible for the development, management and submission of WSP and ATR
• Design internal training programmes

Stakeholder management

• Establish collaborative relationships and partnerships with relevant departments of higher education institutions (in South Africa and internationally) and Human Resources departments of AHRI’s partners such as UKZN, UCL, etc to support AHRI’s objective of attracting and developing talent.

Requirements
Minimum Qualifications

• Degree or National Diploma qualification in Human Resources or related field

Minimum Experience

• Minimum of 8 years’ experience in a senior human resource generalist role of which 3 of them include talent management experience role
• Experience in working with SETA and compiling and submitting WSP and ATR
• Experience in driving workforce transformation by developing, implementing, and managing employment equity plans
• In-depth understanding of salary benchmarking and remuneration.
• In-depth understanding of the South African Legislative framework (SAQA requirements, Skills development statutory requirements)

Closing date: 01 August 2022

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Overview of duties:

• Act as a key contact person for the education programme.
• Prepare progress reports and presentations as required. Represent and present on behalf of the AHRI education and training programme.
• Oversee implementation of the education and training programme both AHRI research campuses. Although the individual may be located in either Durban or Somkhele there is a requirement that they will split their time equally between both campuses.
• Liaise with trainees, faculty and other stakeholders to ensure an effective research and academic training programme throughout the institution. 
• Liaise with each faculty group to capture training information and maintain a database of all trainees, scientific projects involving trainees and grant applications.
• Identify training needs, organise and manage workshops when needed across AHRI.
• Maintain accurate records on all trainees within the institute and their associated projects including records of ethics approvals. 
• Design, create and implement, or identify, new courses/training opportunities to meet training needs trainees, early/mid-career fellows and faculty within AHRI.
• Develop tools and undertake continuous, accurate and timely monitoring and evaluation of the programme.
• Provide support for faculty groups and other groups for institutional capacity development.
• Provide support to trainees in the institute either in person or via electronic means on a regular basis.
• Assist with the development and implement of trainee personal development plans.
• Ensure a Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) is in place for each trainee in the institute and ensure accurate record keeping for all student-TAC meetings/interactions and student-supervisor evaluations.
• Play a key role in identifying additional sources of financial support for the education and academic training in accordance with the institute’s vision, mission and strategy. This may involve networking at key meetings, giving high quality presentations and taking part in round-table discussions.
• Responsible for the overall management of the programme, prepare budgets and progress reports, in consultation with AHRI Grants and Finance Officers. 
• Facilitate bimonthly meetings with the AHRI education team including the EXCO member responsible for education and academic training (Prof Ndung’u), the programme coordinator and other staff members as needed.
• Help facilitate new science and education-related collaborations to help extend the education and training collaboration within and outside the institute.
• Responsible for overall oversight of the programme budget as it relates to meeting the objectives of the programme.

Requirements

• Minimum Qualifications
• PhD in health sciences. PhD in social sciences, population sciences, epidemiology or clinical disciplines is preferred.

Minimum Experience

• Minimum of 3 years post-doctoral scientific research experience is required, in addition to a good publication record;
• Minimum of 2 years team management experience;
• Experience of preparing and managing budgets;
• Evidence of successful student supervision or co-supervision;
• Experience of managing collaborations.
• Experience organizing scientific meetings or courses

Skills Required

• Good verbal and written communication skills in English;
• Accuracy and precision;
• High computer literacy
• Report writing
• Must be able to work under pressure;

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Description
AHRI has a Research Technician position available. The incumbent will be required to be highly motivated; meticulous; hard-working and able to work independently. The incumbent will report to the Laboratory Manager and the Principle investigator. This position is based in our Durban Site.

Overview of duties:

• Assist senior researcher and team with experiments, quality control and data verification
• Undertake general sample processing of HIV positive blood samples
• Participate in the various academic activities – journal club, lab meetings, quality improvement meetings and audits, etc.
• Health and safety checks of laboratory as required
• Freezing and cataloguing of cells
• Preparation of reagents
• Prepared to work after hours and on weekends when required
• General laboratory housekeeping and maintenance of equipment
• Conduct ELISpot, Luminex, ELISA, Flow cytometry, cell culture, P2+ and BSL3 work, process tissue samples (lymph nodes, guts, Lungs etc)
• Assist the lab manager with reagent inventory maintenance.

Requirements

• Minimum Qualifications
• BSc (Honours) degree in science or equivalent
• Computer literacy (Excel, PowerPoint, Graph Pad Prism)

Minimum Experience

• Minimum 1 to 3 years’ experience in biomedical research laboratory
• Familiarity with biomedical research laboratory procedures and safety requirements
• Experience working with human samples
• Experience in general molecular biology techniques including DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, cloning, sequence analysis
• Experience with tissue culture techniques

Advantageous

• MSc Degree in a related field
• HPCSA registered
• Working with human samples

Skills Required

• Good verbal and written communication skills in English;
• Accuracy and precision;
• Must be able to work under pressure;

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Overview of the Job

Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) seeks a postdoctoral candidate to work on an NIH-funded project investigating human immune development in the first 1000 days of life.

This three-year postdoctoral position in the Leslie Group at AHRI in Durban, South Africa, is embedded in a recently awarded NIH-funded project exploring the impact of sex differences on immune system development during the first 1000 days of life. Data from numerous infectious diseases indicate that females tend to make more effective immune responses to natural infection and vaccination than males. On the other hand, they can also suffer more immunopathology, autoimmune disease, and serious adverse events from vaccines as a consequence of an over-exuberant immune response. In this project, we seek to demonstrate that substantial immune sex differences originate in very early life, starting in utero, and are important in affecting outcomes from infections and vaccines. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these early life immune sex differences is a critical first step to developing sex-specific strategies for improving infection and vaccine health outcomes. This project is part of an international collaborative project of experts in human immunology and infectious disease research based in South Africa (Alasdair Leslie and Veron Ramsuran), the UK (including Phillip Goulder, Paul Klennerman), and the US (Galit Alter). The project will therefore involve regular interactions with this extensive international research network and is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious postdoc looking to develop their career.

Requirements

Qualifications and experience: 

• Ph.D. in a relevant subject (Immunology, Biology, or a related field)
• Experience with high dimensional flow cytometry and data analysis
• Experience with cell culture and in vitro immune assays
• Knowledge of infectious disease research is preferable but not essential (particularly HIV and/or TB)
• Ability to prepare results for publication and draft own manuscripts
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Good interpersonal skills and team orientated 

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Description

This role will be based in one of the 4 implementation districts (Zululand, Ilembe, Umzinyathi, Harry Gwala) and will work closely with the District Health team to support M&E activities related to the Effective Data Use project. The incumbent will identify data needs, support data collection and validation activities and collate data for reporting on grant activities including quality improvement amongst others.  

Requirements

• Minimum Qualifications
• Relevant Health or Allied Health Qualification(s) from a recognised tertiary institution
• Sound experience in monitoring and evaluation
• Sound communication and presentation skills
• Computer literacy
• Detailed understanding of the health information systems and reporting platforms in use in KZN Department of Health
• Must possess a valid South African Code B Driver’s License

Minimum Experience

• 2 years or more experience working in a monitoring and evaluation/ data or information management or reporting role in a healthcare setting in KZN
• Must be willing to travel frequently to work with sub-district or facility teams

Skills Required  

• Good verbal and written communication skills in English;
• Good interpersonal skills and communication
• High computer literacy

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Description

This will include training on data capture, validation and interpretation as well as training on specific data use cases required for the implementation of the grant.

Requirements
Requirements of the Job 

Minimum Qualifications

• Relevant Health or Allied Health Qualification(s) from a recognized tertiary institution
• Sound experience in planning, coordinating and implementing training initiatives
• Sound communication and presentation skills
• Computer literacy
• Understanding of the health systems and patient care within South Africa
• Must possess a valid South African Code B Driver’s License

Minimum Experience

• 2 years or more experience working as a trainer in a healthcare setting