Postdoctoral Researcher, Data Science for Africa Lab

About the role

Two-year postdoctoral position at the University of Cape Town’s Data Science for Africa Lab, working on applied data science research with direct relevance to African policy and development. The Lab runs projects on health surveillance, education outcomes, climate adaptation, and digital economy measurement, with partners across the continent. Application deadline 15 August 2026.

Responsibilities

• Lead an independent research line agreed with the Lab director on an African policy-relevant data science question.
• Publish in NeurIPS, KDD, AAAI, Nature Communications, BMJ Open, or applied development venues.
• Co-supervise PhD students and Honours students in the Lab.
• Collaborate with African Ministry of Health, statistics offices, or partner NGOs on real datasets.
• Run weekly Lab meetings and contribute to the Lab’s open-data and open-code initiatives.
• Present at one major African conference (Deep Learning Indaba, AfricaNLP, or similar) per year.

Requirements

• PhD in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, economics, or a closely related quantitative field.
• Strong publication record in machine learning, statistics, or applied data science.
• Demonstrated experience working with real-world datasets, not just benchmarks.
• Strong Python or R skills.
• Fluent English.
• Open to applicants of any nationality. UCT strongly encourages African applicants.
• Available to be on the Cape Town campus full-time (no fully remote option).

Nice to have

• Prior experience working on African data or with African government/NGO partners.
• Publications in interdisciplinary venues bridging ML and a domain (health, education, climate, economics).
• Open-source contributions.
• Willingness to mentor undergraduate research projects.

How to apply

Open the UCT careers portal at the apply link, search for “Postdoctoral Data Science for Africa”, and submit through the university’s recruitment system. Submit CV, full publication list, research statement (3 to 5 pages), two writing samples (papers), and three references. Closing date 15 August 2026 at 23:59 South Africa Standard Time.