Research Software & Data Engineer (SASRI)

Durban, South AfricaFull-timeMid LevelOn-sitePosted 9 Nov 2026

Job Overview

Ntice Search is recruiting a permanent Research Software and Data Engineer for the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) in Mount Edgecombe, Durban, reporting to the Systems Architect. SASRI's plant breeders, agronomists, soil and water scientists, entomologists, pathologists, crop modellers and economists hold decades of field trial, climate, soil, pest, disease and genetic data that needs turning into tools that change how they work.

The engineer connects SASRI's science with modern programming, data engineering and AI – building pipelines that unify breeding trial data, AI agents that let scientists query data in plain language, and machine learning models that fill gaps in climate records – taking ideas from prototype to production and helping modernise research computing, including hybrid cloud.

Key Responsibilities

Work closely with researchers across disciplines to understand research questions and the mathematical, data and technology challenges behind them
Clarify the real problem before proposing a solution
Apply statistics, mathematical modelling, machine learning and AI to research problems and translate them into tested, reliable code
Build proof-of-concept tools quickly and turn successful ones into reliable production systems
Develop AI-assisted and agentic workflows that automate routine data work
Design and manage research data repositories, data models and ETL/ELT pipelines
Develop and modernise scientific software, research information systems, Oracle databases and APIs
Put good data governance in place so research data is high quality, secure and well documented
Train and support researchers and staff on the tools and data systems built
Recommend emerging technologies and contribute to research computing modernisation, including hybrid cloud

Required Qualifications

BSc Honours or higher in Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, Bioinformatics, Agricultural Informatics or related
At least 3 years' experience in software development, scientific programming, data engineering, research computing or data analytics
Strong Python programming skills, translating mathematical and analytical methods into working code
Sound understanding of relational databases, SQL, data modelling and systems analysis
Solid grounding in statistical and mathematical modelling, machine learning and AI
Advantageous: MSc; Oracle/PL/SQL/APEX/ORDS; agentic AI frameworks (LangGraph, LangChain, CrewAI); Airflow, Prefect or Dagster

Skills & Requirements

PythonSQLData EngineeringETL/ELT PipelinesMachine LearningStatistical ModellingAgentic AILangChainOracle DatabasePL/SQLAPIsData GovernanceHybrid CloudApache Airflow