Junior Developer and Data Technician

About the role

The FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, within the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town, is recruiting a Junior Developer and Data Technician for a full-time, one-year contract (payclass 09, T1) starting 1 January 2027. The successful candidate will support the technical development and day-to-day running of four ornithological citizen science projects.

Key responsibilities

• Maintain and extend APIs for submitting, retrieving and synchronising citizen science data, working with the Chief Technical Officer.
• Support data integrity, validation and vetting workflows, and coordinate with regional experts on vetting and observer engagement.
• Develop and maintain website functionality, PHP utilities and dynamic page elements, plus API documentation, user guides, data dictionaries and standard operating procedures.
• Maintain documented reference datasets for African biodiversity and geospatial applications, including grid-cell datasets and country/ISO reference tables.
• Support the African Bird Atlas Project administration and liaise with volunteer observers and regional coordinators.
• Resolve data-quality issues and participation challenges.
• Draft and edit project communications and user-facing content, such as platform profiles and conference registration materials.

Required profile

• NQF6 industry-relevant qualification (e.g. Computer Science or Information Systems) plus at least 2 years' relevant experience, or NQF7 plus 1 year.
• Experience developing web-based applications and related technologies.
• Competent oral and written professional communication and collaborative teamwork.
• Advantageous: citizen science or birdwatching experience, and familiarity with biodiversity data publishing standards.

Required skills

• Client-side web development with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, in a PHP and Python server-side environment.
• Relational databases.
• Advantageous: UI design, Python for data processing and automation, GBIF and Darwin Core, QGIS and spatial databases.

The 2026 cost of employment is between R336 151 and R550 000. Applications go through the university careers site with a motivation letter, CV, copies of qualifications and ID, and three referees; the closing date is 16 November 2026.