Location: Bryanston, Gauteng (African Parks Head Office) Closing Date: 20 February 2026 (Apply ASAP!) Category: Conservation / Data Science / Ecology Focus: Biodiversity and Science Support (BSS)
Company Profile: African Parks (AP)
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization that takes on direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. Their BSS unit provides the scientific “evidence base” used to make life-or-death decisions for wildlife and ecosystems.
The Role: DMA Intern
You will be part of a specialized cohort of 10 interns tasked with clearing the ecological data backlog. Your job isn’t just to look at data, but to clean, standardize, and automate it. You will be assigned to one of 10 specific thematic streams (e.g., Camera Traps, Aerial Surveys, or Telemetry).
Key Responsibilities
- Data Consolidation: Identify and merge fragmented datasets from various parks and partners.
- Standardization: Onboard data into AP monitoring systems using GBIF/Darwin Core standards.
- Quality Assurance: Implement rigorous control checks to ensure data provenance (origin) is recorded.
- Automation: Run and adapt existing R/Python scripts to generate summary reports and BI templates.
- Documentation: Create structured manuals for data workflows so the parks can repeat them in the future.
Qualifications & Skills
- Education: Pursuing or completed an Honours or Master’s degree in Data Science, Stats, Computer Science, GIS, or Environmental Sciences.
- Technical Stack: Practical skill in R or Python is essential. Spreadsheet competence and basic SQL are major pluses.
- Detail Oriented: Must have “structured documentation habits”—meaning you don’t just write code; you explain how it works.
- Language: English is required; French or Portuguese is highly beneficial due to AP’s footprint in Central and West Africa.
🧠 African Parks Interview & Technical Prep
1. The “Thematic Stream” Strategy
You must rank your top 3 themes in your application. Choose these based on your actual coding projects or thesis work.
- Example: If you did a project on bird migration, Theme 5 (Telemetry/Tracking) or Theme 1 (Observations) are your best bets.
2. Potential Technical Questions
- “Explain the ‘FAIR’ data principles and why they matter in conservation.”
- Tip: FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. In conservation, this ensures that data collected in 2026 is still useful for researchers in 2046.
- “How do you handle ‘missing values’ or outliers in a dataset containing 5 years of aerial survey records?”
- Tip: Discuss data cleaning libraries (like
tidyversein R orpandasin Python). Mention that you don’t just delete data; you document why it was excluded.
- Tip: Discuss data cleaning libraries (like
🚀 Career Advice: The “African Parks” Path
1. Be “Delivery-Focused”
African Parks is an “action” organization. They are less interested in theoretical research and more interested in reproducible workflows. In your cover letter, emphasize that you enjoy creating tools that others can use.
2. Showcase Your GIS Skills
Conservation is inherently spatial. If you have used QGIS, ArcGIS, or Google Earth Engine, highlight this. Even for the non-spatial themes, knowing how to map data is a massive advantage.
3. The Application is a Test
The instructions ask for a very specific cover letter format (ranked themes + 2-5 lines of experience for each). Follow this exactly. If you cannot follow the application instructions, they will assume you cannot follow standardized data protocols.
Apply: Email CV + Cover Letter (with your top 3 themes) to research@africanparks.org