Postdoctoral Fellow – Reliability Modelling & ALT

About the role

The Unit for Data Science and Computing at North-West University seeks a full‑time Postdoctoral Fellow to conduct high‑impact research in reliability modelling and accelerated life testing (ALT). The position offers an opportunity to work on Bayesian and other modern statistical methods within an internationally collaborative environment.

Key responsibilities

• Investigate the agreed research topic in close collaboration with the host scientist.
• Lead all phases of the research project, from design to analysis.
• Prepare and submit at least two research articles per year to high‑impact international journals.
• Present findings at national and international seminars and conferences.

Required profile

• Age under 45 years.
• PhD obtained within the last five years in Statistics, Reliability Engineering, Operations Research, Applied Mathematics or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated publication record in peer‑reviewed journals.
• Experience in statistical inference and analysis of lifetime, survival or reliability data.
• Experience with accelerated life testing or accelerated degradation studies.

Required skills

• Bayesian ALT modelling for single‑stress and multiple‑stress settings.
• Flexible lifetime models handling censoring, truncation, competing risks or degradation.
• Bayesian parameter estimation, model selection and prior specification.
• Bayesian computational methods and inference for ALT models.
• Design and analysis of ALT experiments using simulation studies and real‑data applications.

What we offer

• Fixed‑term fellowship valued at R320,000 tax‑free per annum.
• One‑off relocation costs and R50,000 per annum research funding.
• Three‑year initial contract, renewable annually and extendable up to five years.
• Potential additional remuneration linked to strong research productivity.
• Location on the Potchefstroom campus, South Africa.