Data Manager Specialist

Job Advert Summary

The Public Health, Societies and Belonging (PHSB) Division within the HSRC employs a multi-disciplinary group of social scientists and public health specialists who conduct numerous empirical and policy-related studies each year, three-quarters of which are donor-funded. The PHSB division conducts transdisciplinary, intersectional, policy and programme-relevant research to improve health, well-being and promote a socially just and cohesive society.

The PHSB Division is looking for a qualified Data Management Specialist to manage data for various National Surveys that will be conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council. The incumbent will be based in the Pretoria office.

External Advert

Data Manager Specialist (Pretoria)

2-year contract

(Reference: DATA MANAGER Specialist 11/2024)

Minimum Requirements

Education

Essential: Degree or diploma or equivalent qualification in Statistics, IT, Computer Sciences

Desirable:

Qualification or certification includes Data Science

Experience

• Minimum of 6 years of relevant work experience
• Database design and management
• Programming data collection tools for implementation in various devices such as tablets, laptops, mobile phones or barcode machines
• Provide hardware support
• Essential: Proven experience in data visualization and in developing dashboards for real-time data visualization
• Desirable: Experience in developing dashboards for health-related projects using electronic web-based applications for data collection
• Previous working experience managing data sets for national health-related surveys

Skills

Essential:

• Good working knowledge of relational databases MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle Server and PHP
• Proven track record of database programming skills
• Good working knowledge of Stata (able to code, clean data and merge large datasets) and other statistical software packages e.g. R and Python
• Experience with data collection and management for large health surveys, including national surveys Data Analysis, visualization and presentation
• Able to recommend and implement new tools required for dashboards
• Has the appropriate skills for building and maintaining dashboards
• Experience in integrating or connecting databases to automatically sync and refresh data for dashboards
• Good administrative skills including maintenance of adequate documentation and attention to detail
• Good communication skills and ability to facilitate communication between various stakeholders including senior project personnel, data monitoring officers and field staff
• Ability to transfer knowledge and skills for optimum use and maintenance of dashboards
• Statistical/bio-statistical - an added advantage

Language

Excellent written English and communication

Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the development of data management systems
• Back-end programming (proficient knowledge of databases needed e.g. SQL, Visual Basic, Microsoft Access, CSPro, RedCap etc)
• Extract, transform, Load (ETL) of data from different source to secured data warehouse
• Program and optimize data collection tools (handheld devices – tablets, mobile phones etc)
• Set-up and/or initiate linkages between complementary databases (laboratory databases)
• Develop and maintain project documentation such as data management processes, quality control and quality assurance standard operating procedures
• Design, develop and implement data visualization tools - graphic dashboards in line with selected indicators for real-time or near real-time data visualization using appropriate visualization tools and considering the in-house hardware and software capabilities
• Ensure that selected variables from the various databases integrate or connect to the dashboard
• Ensure that data automatically syncs and refreshes at the appropriate intervals to visualize the required indicators for display on the dashboards
• Day-to-day management of data processes in the field (including conducting field-based quality control activities for the project).
• Liaise closely with the data management team responsible for surveys through the initial development, testing and finalization stages of dashboard development
• Code, clean, merge and conduct descriptive analyses on datasets using any data analysis software packages
• Liaise with researchers and stakeholders on data management queries
• Build capacity of the central data management team and field teams to maintain the dashboard after construction and share process flows
• Immediate reporting and resolving of any problems encountered in data management and related to the creation and maintenance of the dashboards
• Reporting lines: The developer/programmer will report to the HSRC-appointed focal point person