PURPOSE OF THE POSITION           

The African Wordnet Project is one of SADiLaR's specialisation projects and forms part of the infrastructure's longer-term strategic plan. The successful candidate will be responsible to manage various aspects of the specialization project including academic planning and research in collaboration with the UNISA node as well as technical and day-to-day project management. The position will therefore include a majority of normal academic responsibilities (publications, conference participation, academic oversight of teaching and learning type activities).

As part of the specialisation project, multiple workshops take place on a yearly basis. The successful candidate will therefore be part of the team responsible for coordinating training and activities in SADiLaR's ESCALATOR flagship programme, a national human capacity development programme which also ties to community engagement activities.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:      

               Training and academic material development

•                          Develop and oversee development of new training events, short courses and bespoke workshops within the ESCALATOR programme

•                          to ensure a coherent structure of the ESCALATOR programme offering in collaboration with the ESCALATOR team:

•                          ii. Design and develop training materials, resources, and documentation.

•                          iii. Adapt existing training materials for different audiences and contexts.

•                          iv. Coordination and academic oversight related to the ICAS (Institutional Committee for Academic Standards) process for approval of  short courses/ short learning programmes at the NWU.

               Teaching and learning and coordination of training and/or events

•                          Coordination, managing and planning

•                          Coordination and planning of ESCALATOR and African Wordnet Project events and training in line with available capacity at nodes,

•                          academic and/or support staff at SADiLaR and other collaborators and partners.

•                          Develop and maintain database/CRM of trainers, available ESCALATOR courses.

•                          Maintain database of developed training resources and course material.

•                          Represent SADiLaR and the ESCALATOR programme at relevant national and international forums, conferences, and engagements as required.

•                          Develop and maintain relationships with SADiLaR nodes, university partners, government stakeholders and international bodies in support of ESCALATOR's national mandate.

                Teaching and learning

•                          As part of teaching and learning responsibilities, assist and lead facilitation and lecturing activities as part of workshops, short courses and other training events within the broad SADiLaR ESCALATOR flagship programme.

•                          Provide support and mentorship to guest trainers and facilitators.

•                          Training of linguists involved in the African Wordnet project, in the effective use of all software and tools used in the project, as well as technical assistance and ongoing support in their daily tasks.

               Research        

•                          Research on all aspects of language resource development and application as linked to the mandate of SADiLaR and the African Research Wordnet Project in particular.

•                          Research and integrate best practices in digital humanities training methodologies as part of e.g., Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

               (SoTL) projects.         

•                          Strategic Planning, annual performance plan (APP) development and impact reporting

•                          Contribute to the ESCALATOR's strategic planning and goal-setting processes.

•                          Design and implement a monitoring and evaluation framework for ESCALATOR training activities, including pre- and post-training assessments, participant feedback, and longitudinal impact tracking.

•                          Annual performance planning support for primarily academic staff involved with the ESCALATOR programme in in line with SMART

•                          goal setting, as per Audit Risk and Finance Committee directive, and to a secondary extent, support staff as well as staff at nodes linked to SADiLaR.

•                          Co-create the Annual Performance Plan (APP) for ESCALATOR programme with ESCALATOR team.

•                          Track and report on training metrics and training impact taking place in line with APP.

               Proposal Development & Funding             

•                          Identify and pursue new funding opportunities for ESCALATOR sustainability, African Wordnet Project as well as SADiLaR as an infrastructure.

•                          Mentorship and/or developing project proposals and work packages primarily to the broad ESCALATOR programme.

               Technical academic project management of the AfWN project including:                     

•                          Reporting formally and informally to all stakeholders on progress in the development project.

•                          Tracking progress and implementing steps to ensure project will meet deadlines.

•                          Communicating with project team and stakeholders on a continuous basis.

•                          Facilitating contracting and payments to team members

•                          Ongoing quality control (in cooperation with linguists and collaborators), through automated tools and manual methods as appropriate.

•                          Sourcing alternative funding opportunities and preparing draft proposals.

•                          Communication with SADiLaR's technical team to assist in the design, testing and documentation of the development platform.

•                          A Master’s degree on NQF Level 9 linked to Digital Language Resources, Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, Human Language Technologies.

•                          A minimum of three (3) years’ experience Academic project management experience (funding proposals, general project administration)

•                          A minimum of three (3) years’ Digital Language Resource creation experience.

•                          A minimum of three (3) years’ scholarly experience within the domain on Human Language Technologies (Natural Language Processing).

•                          A minimum of three (3) years’ experience in coordinating and training multiple project workers and collaborators.

•                          A minimum of three (3) years’ experience with lexicographical resources e.g. wordnets in particular

•                          A minimum of two (2) years’ experience in presenting various workshops and trainings.

ADDED ADVANTAGE:

•                          A minimum of two (2) years’ experience General data management/modelling related experience (working with structured data, databases etc.)

•                          Involvement/knowledgeable about existing ESCALATOR activities.

•                          Membership/s with academic societies and/or associations.

KEY FUNCTIONAL/ TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

•                          Knowledge of methodologies applied in linguistic/literary studies especially in the more computational environment related to lexicographical resources e.g. wordnets.

•                          Fully computer literate, i.e. familiarity with software utilised in the domain of Digital Humanities.

•                          Ability to produce academic papers, conference contributions related to digital language resources as linked to SADiLaR or other infrastructures.

•                          Experience with running workshops, training events and developing learning plans for bespoke workshops e.q. experience with Carpentries, or other related training and workshops.

BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES   

•                          Ability to work independently or as part of a team.

•                          Demonstration of language proficiency in order to function optimally in multilingual environments.

•                          Ability to effectively liaise and communicate with the public, students and colleagues at various levels and from diverse backgrounds.

•                          Good project administration and reporting skills.

REMUNERATION:

The annual total remuneration package will be commensurate with the level of appointment as advertised and in line with the NWU policy guidelines.

ENQUIRIES REGARDING JOB CONTENT MAY BE DIRECTED TO:                     Ms. Jessica Mabaso on 018 285 2750

ENQUIRIES REGARDING RECRUITMENT PROCESS MAY BE DIRECTED TO:  Mr. Byron Louw on 018 285 2305

CLOSING DATE:                                                                                                               6 August 2026

PLANNED COMMENCEMENT OF DUTIES:                                                            As soon as possible

Kindly take note: applications must be submitted online through the official nwu vacancy website. Incomplete applications and those submitted through any other platform will not be considered.

The University subscribes to and applies the principles of Employment Equity (EE) Act and is committed to transformation. Preference will be given to candidates from the designated groups, in accordance with the principles of the EE Act and NWU Employment Equity Plan.

The University reserves the right not to make an appointment. Communication will be limited to shortlisted candidates only.

If you are not contacted within two months from the closing date of this advertisement, please accept that your application was unsuccessful.

It all starts here ®