Jobs at The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC)

Responsibilities:

• Contribute to and lead the development of research within the field of health policy and systems and publish scientific research in peer reviewed journals
• Present research findings at local or international conferences or at external meetings
• Collaborate on proposal writing for grant funding
• Contribute and lead scientific project work, including managing timelines, budget, staff support, output quality, project risk, research dissemination and stakeholder engagement
• Capacity development, including the supervision of Masters’ students, facilitating workshops, and mentoring
• Research translation, including contributing to policies, guidelines or legislation; reviewing abstracts, journal articles, proposals; and development of research translation strategies
• Contributing to the scientific life of the Unit through journal clubs, research days and other relevant activities

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Public Health or Clinical Epidemiology
• At least three years working experience in quantitative research including systematic review methods.
• Record of 3 lifetime publications (ISI journal articles, editorials or book chapters and technical reports) with at least 1 as first/senior author.
• Successfully co-supervised at least one post-graduate student to graduation.
• Records of translating professional, scientific or clinical expertise, new knowledge and research findings into public understanding, policy, and/or practice, in order to improve health.
• Experience in leading of research project(s), including mentoring and managing a research team.
• Experience in budgeting, financial and risk management.
• Excellent interpersonal relations and communication skills.

Advantageous:

• Registration for a PhD
• Author on a Cochrane review or systematic reviews
• Teaching experience in Cochrane systematic review methods
• Work experience in the field of climate and health
• Experience in knowledge translation
• Experience in networking and collaborating with international partners and stakeholders, including policymakers.

Closing Date:

• 14 April 2026

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Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the design, management and research integrity of the research project including proposals, ethics approvals and budgets
• Develop and maintain a harmonised operational system for the study across all participating HDSS nodes
• Assist in conducting annual operational audits of HDSS nodal platforms.
• Convene, chair and capacity develop the SAPRIN community engagement community of practice forum.
• Develop and maintain a mechanism to centrally monitor performance and progress of the project, ensuring timely delivery of milestones.
• Ensure optimisation of data collection processes to ensure innovation, cost effectiveness and cost efficiency.
• Organise and facilitate training of HDSS nodal staff on protocol implementation
• Organize and conduct progress review meetings with HDSS nodal Scientists and their operations teams.
• Develop, coordinate, and manage weekly progress reports for HDSS nodal platform and multinodal studies.
• Prepare reports to project funders
• Develop and maintain a quality assurance programme for data collection and processing including writing and maintenance of manual of operations (MOP) and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Coordinate and process annual reports for HDSS nodal platforms.

Requirements

• 4-year tertiary degree in public health, Population Studies/Demography, Social Science, or related field
• At least 5 years’ experience in a research environment focusing on population health issues.
• Experience in designing and managing data collection systems.
• Experience in developing and/or implementing quality assurance/control systems in research studies.
• Experience in monitoring and controlling budget of a research project.
• Experience in coordinating implementation of a research project
• Fluency in speaking and writing in English.
• Experience in training research teams
• Experience in scheduling complex time-driven activities
• Knowledge of research ethics and research regulatory requirements
• Experience in writing progress reports for research studies
• Experience in developing and implementing community engagement strategies and activities for research.
• Experience in developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and manual of operations (MOPs)
• A valid code 08 manual driver’s license.

Advantages:

•  Master’s degree in public health, Population Studies/Demography, Social Science, or related field
• Experience in longitudinal population health cohort studies especially Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) focusing on HIV, TB and Non-Communicable diseases (NDCs)

Closing Date:

16 April 2026