About the job:
OUR CLIENT has a vacancy for a Senior Research and Development Engineer: Robotics in the Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems (MIAS) emerging research area within the Modelling and Digital Science (MDS) unit. The incumbent’s role will be to conduct research and development for robotic platforms, including robot software design and development, Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm implementation, computer vision and/or machine learning approaches to software, software verification and testing and robot system demonstration. This position is based in Pretoria.
The MIAS group undertakes innovative research in field robotics, including research in areas such as machine learning, computer vision, navigation, and planning. Information on projects within the group can be found at:
Key responsibilities:
• Undertake robotics-related research and development;
• Lead development of technology demonstrators/packages;
• Supervise/mentor colleagues, students and interns in area(s) of expertise;
• Improve Research, Development and Implementation (RD&I) processes within the group and operating unit;
• Generate and contribute towards SET activity outputs e.g. reports, guidelines, system requirements, peer-reviewed publications, and technology & software packages;
• Manage medium complexity projects (multi-year, multi-disciplinary, across groups/operating units to the value of R1mil);
• Contribute to project management processes and procedures;
• Understand and interpret client requirements by contributing to user requirement analysis and/or well-articulated proposals;
• Handle client interaction on projects;
• Participate in external task teams or committees in relevant domains;
• Work independently to resolve problems utilising technical or specialised expertise;
• Link knowledge to current research in the group while staying current in field of expertise with respect to new approaches in tools, methods or technologies;
• Responsible for developing own career by developing a career plan;
• Potentially contracted as co-supervisor for students at higher education institutions;
• Responsible for developing own career by developing a career plan;
• Responsible for identifying business development and commercialisation opportunities for technology demonstrators and packages;
• Securing funding for group research and development projects;
Qualifications, skills and experience:
• A Master’s degree in electrical, electronic, mechanical, mechatronic engineering or computer science. A Doctoral degree would be advantageous;
• Five year’s work experience in the field of robotics or mobile intelligent autonomous systems;
• Three years’ experience in programming using C/C++ and/or Python;
• One year experience in project management and able to demonstrate successful project completion;
• Experience in using the Linux operating system;
• Experience with the Robot Operating System (ROS) would be advantageous;
• Experience in systems engineering would be advantageous;
• Knowledge of approaches and technologies in robotics or mobile intelligent autonomous systems and methods of implementation;
• Demonstrated ability to supervise/mentor/develop junior staff;