Vacancies

Research Data Manager – Cape Town Health and Demographic Surveillance Site [C-SHARP/02/2023]

Vacancy Closed
Application Deadline: 28 February 2023

Background

As part of the South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN), a new urban Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) is being established in Cape Town – the Cape Town Surveillance through Healthcare Action Research Project (C-SHARP). The project is co-ordinated by Western Cape Government Health (WCGH) and is being conducted in partnership with a number of local academic institutions, the City of Cape Town and community NPOs. The initiative seeks to augment routine Community-oriented Primary Care (COPC) projects in two communities to establish ongoing longitudinal population surveillance, in order to address a number of questions related to health and development, in line with the overall SAPRIN objectives.

Objective of this position

The Research Data Manager will be appointed by The Health Foundation and seconded to the Health Intelligence Directorate at WCGH, reporting to the node director. The appointee will be responsible for overall co-ordination of the combined community and surveillance data collection activities in the
COPC sites, liaison with and co-management of the local site research and operations managers, and co-ordination of onward curation, processing and extraction of datasets for analysis.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities will inter alia include:

  • Work closely with key line managers and stakeholders to provide overall data collection co-ordination and management. This will include the C-SHARP Principal Investigator, node director, operational management team, and steering committee; the Provincial Health Data Centre (PHDC), and the metropolitan and subdistrict health management teams; and the NPOs implementing the SAPRIN-augmented COPC protocols in the two communities under surveillance.
  • Work with the SAPRIN secretariat to ensure alignment of data collection and reporting with the shared SAPRIN protocol
  • Co-ordination of software configuration and development to ensure appropriate digital support for both COPC and SAPRIN-augmented surveillance activities, working closely with the data and software teams within the PHDC.
  • Working with and co-managing data and co-ordination staff supporting each of the two communities at site-level to ensure they are able to support the local NPOs in the COPC and augmented surveillance activities.
  • Working with data scientists in the PHDC to ensure that tools are in place to support quality assurance, and the export of curated and enriched de-identified datasets for analysis.
  • Co-ordinating quality assurance and feedback to the sites.
  • Ensuring bi-directional integration with the call centre and verbal autopsy data systems.
  • Provide training on data management to staff within the C-SHARP project.

Requirements

  • Relevant post-graduate degree in quantitative health or information sciences
  • Minimum 5 years’ experience in managing the data operations of a large research or operational project with substantial fieldwork or operational components
  • Ability to work across multiple teams and within a complex environment
  • Willingness and ability to travel to communities involved in the project
  • HDSS or COPC experience would be advantageous

Work arrangement

While there is some scope for hybrid work arrangements, this position requires appreciable time spent in office (WCGH head office), with travel to district, subdistrict and NPO offices.

Enquiries and Applications: tumelo@thehealthfoundation.org.za

Deadline: 28 February 2023

NB: Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. We are committed to equity in our employment practices. It is our intention to appoint individuals with the aim of meeting our equity objectives. We reserve the right not to appoint if no suitable candidates are identified.

About SAPRIN

SAPRIN is a network of Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) nodes in South Africa, funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and hosted by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). SAPRIN integrates three established HDSS nodes in South Africa, namely, MRC/Wits University Agincourt HDSS in Bushbuckridge District, Mpumalanga (1992); University of Limpopo DIMAMO HDSS in the Capricorn District of Limpopo (1996), and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) HDSS in uMkhanyakude District, KwaZulu-Natal (2000), linked to the University of KwaZulu-Natal to create a network of harmonised population-based cohorts for use by the wider research community and national policymakers.

To understand the particular challenges that urban communities face and the impact of rural-urban migration, SAPRIN has started expanding into urban areas. Along with C-SHARP, two other urban nodes have been established in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

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