Data Analyst (12 months Contract - Wits NICD)

About the position

Background: 

• The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is a major global player in infectious disease intelligence
• The NICD is a source of knowledge and expertise in regionally relevant communicable diseases to the South African Government, SADC countries, and the African continent
• The NICD assists in the planning of policies and programs and supports appropriate responses to communicable disease problems and issues

Division:

• Wastewater Genomics

Main purpose of the job:

• Specialist back end development and support of the data ecosystem for the Wastewater Genomics Syndicate (WGS) and the Centre for Vaccines and Immunology (CVI)’s communicable disease surveillance programmes at the NICD

Location:

• NICD, Sandringham

Key performance areas:

• Data and information systems development
• Lead the conceptualisation, development and maintenance of appropriate dissemination platforms including, but not limited to:

- Set up and maintain pathogen or diseases specific dashboards 
   and apps using PowerBI, R and other tools
- Other dissemination platforms as maybe necessary to support 
   facilitate uptake of wastewater and environmental surveillance 
   outputs
- Automated reporting systems

• Source, manipulate and coordinate, with appropriate quality checks, and compatibility requisites, various spatial and non-spatial datasets using R, ESRI/QGIS or other packages compatible with PowerBI to support back end development for the dissemination platforms
• Develop, implement and assess probabilistic linkages and deduplication between and within datasets
• Develop and continuously update systems for long-term archiving of data, protecting the integrity of data for future applications and audits

Data processing and analysis:

• Liaise with Epidemiology and Data Management functions in the Surveillance Data Warehouse, WGS and CVI Teams to support input, general management, analysis, reporting and long-term storage of wastewater data, and other associated clinical or other data
• Extract, manipulate and input into relevant data systems in relevant platforms (ETL) to ensure that it can support required use case and application requirements
• Develop, from back end to user end, reports and visualisations to support use case scenarios, research objectives and other purposes
• Compile monthly/quarterly/annual progress reports on dashboard and other dissemination platforms development as required

Training, team and stakeholder support:

• Coach and train Team members, and stakeholders to ensure the acquisition of knowledge and skills required to enable them to contribute to, and utilise the data ecosystem in the wastewater and environmental surveillance programme
• Participate in and represent the Wastewater Genomics in data management meetings as required
• Provide regular updates on the back end processes to team members

Required minimum education and training:

• Master of Science in Data Science, Information Management Systems, Computer Science or related field

Required minimum work experience:

• A minimum of 2 years working experience in/ demonstrating at least:

- Proficiency in database systems, specifically relational 
  databases, data warehousing, analysis, visualization and 
  reporting,
- Demonstrated proficiency in ARCGIS/QGIS visualization of 
  spatial data
- Proficiency in SQL and R, and
- Python will be an added advantage

• Knowledge of spatial (GIS) reporting and Business Intelligence tools
• Self-motivation, ability to work independently, and as part of a multidisciplinary team

Desirable additional education, work experience and personal abilities:

• Knowledge of medical microbiology, and wastewater surveillance would be advantageous
• PhD qualification would be advantageous
• Experience in implementing probabilistic data linkages
• Ability to maintain attention to detail under pressure
• Comfort with using different programming environments to analyse data and ability to learn and pivot to new tools rapidly
• Travelling (national and international) may be required from time to time

TO APPLY:

• Only if you meet the minimum job requirements and experience as mentioned above, you may submit a detailed updated CV.
• Please Apply Online and complete your registration via our website to enable and protect you as a candidate, and to accept the new POPIA terms and conditions.
• This will then create your permanent profile with which you can apply for all jobs as advertised by AJ PERSONNEL.
• However, you may remove your profile from AJ PERSONNEL when you are no longer in the job market.
• Please take note that the applicants who do not adhere to the above criteria will not be considered for the respective position.
• Wits Health Consortium will only respond to shortlisted candidates.
• Candidates who have not been contacted within two weeks of the closing date can consider their applications to be unsuccessful.
• Closing date: 29 August 2025
• Note: No CV will be accepted after the closing date.

Please note:

• WHC, in accordance with its Employment Equity goals and plan, will give preference to suitable applicants from designated groups as defined in the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 and subsequent amendments thereto.
• AJ Personnel is only responsible for advertising and the response handling on behalf of their client Wits Health Consortium.
• AJ Personnel does not have any salary or other information regarding the position.

Desired Skills:

• Data Analyst
• PhD
• Johannesburg
• Masters of science
• Data science
• information management systems
• computer science