Snr Data Specialist (2 yr FTC) - Wits Agincourt

SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:

Background:

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), with DSI/MRC-SAPRIN, are leading research to investigate mortality trends and all-cause excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia using curated data from Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS).

The successful candidate will join a talented and hardworking team addressing some of the country and region’s most pressing health and development challenges. They will work with data managers from at least 10 Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) sites/networks in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to extract, quality control, harmonize and analyze their mortality and cause of death data.

Main purpose of the job:

To develop, implement and maintain procedures and systems to collate and curate data from Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to enable investigation of all-cause excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Harmonized verbal autopsy assessment will be a secondary purpose. To achieve this, working effectively with data managers at involved HDSS sites will be required.Â

Location:

Johannesburg with travel to Agincourt - Bushbuckridge (Mpumalanga Province) and Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) field offices in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal Province.

Key Performance Areas:

• To draw up the specifications for harmonized data sets to send out as requests to participating HDSS sites.
• To lead, support, and develop systems for checking, cleaning, and reporting back to HDSS sites about the quality, completeness, and integrity of their mortality and cause of death data.
• To interact effectively with site-based data managers and contribute to strengthening site-based systems and capabilities for data management.
• To create (pooled) standardized data sets ready for use in comparative cross-site analyses
• To develop a version control system to keep track of the most up-to-date versions of data, and retrieve versions used for published analyses.
• To document and ensure that the harmonized data and transformation procedures used to make the analytical data sets can be understood and used by others
• To perform analyses and contribute to peer-reviewed publications and technical reports, including as lead author.

Required minimum education and training:

At least a Masters''s level qualification in Statistics / Biostatistics / Epidemiology / Demography / Data Analytics / Bioinformatics / Data Science / Computer Science or other highly quantitative and computational field. A doctoral qualification will be advantageous.

Desirable additional education, work experience, and personal abilities

• Experience in processing and analyzing large complex longitudinal datasets.
• Experience in relational database management.
• Working knowledge of SQL (i.e., ability to write queries that involve joining tables, aggregating functions, updating, and inserting into existing tables).
• High-level computer programming language experience, such as C#, Java, Python.
• Demonstrated knowledge and track record of statistics, and proficiency using a statistical software package (STATA, SAS, R) for import, manipulation, and analysis of large datasets.
• Experience with academic writing and publication.
• Team player able to work in a high-performing collaborative environment, and to support scientific investigations across disciplines.
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English.
• Ability to set priorities and work under pressure on a variety of tasks concurrently.
• Valid South African Driver’s license.

Required minimum work experience

• Minimum of 2 years Data management experience
• Working experience in a low- or middle-income country

TO APPLY:

• Only if you do meet the minimum job requirements and experience as mentioned above, you may submit a detailed updated CV.
• Please also send a Cover letter clearly indicating the position you are applying for with a motivation.
• Examples of written/published work
• Certified Copy of ID/passport or work permit
• Certified copy of Driver''s license
• Certified copies of academic transcripts and qualification certificates.
• Please Apply Online and complete your registration on Ditto Hire (our application tracking system) to enable and protect you as a candidate 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.
• AJ Personnel is fully POPIA Compliant.
• Please take note that the applicants who do not adhere to the above criteria will not be considered for the respective position.
• The closing date for all applications: 26 November 2021.
• 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.
• Note WHC, in accordance with their 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.

Please note:

• AJ PERSONNEL is only responsible for the advertising of the advertisement on behalf of their client Wits Health Consortium.
• AJ Personnel does not have any salary or other information regarding the position.

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