Senior Electrical Engineer

Location: Cape Town, Western Cape

Job Level: Skilled / Middle Management

Contract type: Permanent

Closing date: 27 April 2022

About the position:

The National Research Foundation (NRF) supports and promotes research and human capital development through funding, the provision of National Research Facilities and science outreach platforms and programmes to the broader community in all fields of science and technology, including natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities.

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) spearheads South Africa’s activities in the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope, commonly known as the SKA, in engineering, science and construction. SARAO is a National Facility managed by the National Research Foundation and incorporates radio astronomy instruments and programmes such as the MeerKAT telescope in the Karoo, the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) in Gauteng, the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry (AVN) programme in nine African countries as well as the associated human capital development and commercialisation endeavours.

The Senior Electrical Engineer will work in collaboration with the Functional Manager: Electrical and program/project Managers to ensure the successful design and delivery of the SKA infrastructure projects and other instruments within schedule, budget and quality standards.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assume professional responsibility for providing proven specialist/ technical expertise, and leading a diverse team and resources including external suppliers/stakeholders to achieve relevant objectives.
• Provide evidence of experience working on and/or leading multi-million rand projects where the consequence of failure/poor performance is high
• Interpret and in some cases provide guidance, related to user level requirements in order to develop system level requirements
• Lead a team of engineers to develop solution(s) to fulfill requirements at subsystem and system levels and take professional responsibility for these solutions
• Innovate and perform parallel trade studies towards providing optimal solutions -including compliance with relevant statutory laws and regulations
• Assume accountability for meeting all requirements associated with electrical power system to enable overall organisational (or system level) objectives are achieved
• Make technical and operational decisions independently of higher level authority based on sound knowledge of organisational processes, directives and guidelines and applicable laws
• Mentor team members and transfer specific technical knowledge, directives and guidelines and applicable laws.
• Mentor team members and transfer specific technical knowledge.

Key Requirements:
Qualification:

• B.Tech plus 13+ years relevant experience OR
• B.Eng plus 9+ years relevant experience OR
• M.Eng plus 7+ years relevant experience OR
• Ph.D plus 5+ years relevant experience AND
• MUST be professionally registered with ECSA as either Pr Eng or Pr Tech Eng

Experience:

• Preferably come from a consulting engineering background;
• Previous experience on multi-disciplinary projects;
• Held position of responsibility and accountable for designs/project delivery;
• Experienced with complete project lifecycle from inception to close-out

Knowledge:

Project Management

• Monitoring and reporting of technical progress and cost against project schedules, risk identification, planning, management and reporting analysis and development, implementation and control of risk mitigation strategies where applicable;
• Facilitation of effective communication and work flow both internally and externally
• Monitoring and management of project appointed consulting engineers or specialists;
• Change control
• Input to work package status reporting
• Ensuring that costs are contained and options are chosen which reduce costs without degrading performance

Additional Notes:

Personal Qualities

• Leadership
• Mentor
• Highly organised
• Good communicator – verbal and written
• Pragmatic
• Self-driven and goal orientated
• Able to work under pressure
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Attention to detail

Information:
The website www.nrf.ac.za provides more details on the NRF initiatives and activities.

Applications:
Applicants should submit a comprehensive CV by logging to https://ess.nrf.ac.za/Account/Recruitment and apply online. Applications should be accompanied by a letter of motivation indicating the applicant’s suitability for the position. The names and contact details of at least three referees should be provided.

The NRF offers a challenging career and competitive remuneration package which is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

The NRF is committed to employment equity and redress and the appointment to the position will be made in line with the NRF Employment Equity Plan.

The NRF reserves the right not to make an appointment.
Correspondence will be sent to short-listed candidates only.