Job Description

Position Description
Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center in Florida invites applications for an open-rank faculty position for an accomplished and innovative T-Cell Engineering Scientist to join the expanding Cell Therapy Discovery and Translational Science Program. This strategic recruitment supports Mayo Clinic's commitment to advancing next-generation engineered T-cell therapies for cancer and selected immune-mediated diseases.

We seek a highly creative investigator with expertise in T-cell engineering, CAR-T development, TCR-based therapies, and Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) platforms to develop and translate novel cellular immunotherapy strategies. The successful candidate will lead efforts to identify and validate new T-cell targets, engineer enhanced CAR and TCR constructs, and optimize TIL-based therapeutic approaches with improved specificity, persistence, safety, and efficacy. This role will play a central part in accelerating translational immune cell therapy efforts, bridging discovery science with IND-enabling development and early-phase clinical trials.

Strategic Role and Scientific Focus
The T-Cell Engineering Scientist will:

• Lead discovery and validation of novel targets for CAR-T, TCR-engineered T cells, and TIL-based therapies across hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.
• Develop strategies to enhance TIL expansion, persistence, functional fitness, and tumor reactivity, including genetic modification approaches to overcome exhaustion and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments.
• Engineer and optimize CAR constructs, co-stimulatory domains, synthetic circuits, safety switches, and multiplex gene editing strategies to enhance therapeutic performance.
• Advance next-generation approaches such as armored CAR-T cells, logic-gated systems, dual-target strategies, universal/allogeneic platforms, and genetically enhanced TIL therapies.
• Collaborate closely with genome editing scientists, tumor immunologists, translational investigators, GMP manufacturing teams, and clinical trial leaders to move engineered T-cell therapies into clinical testing.
• Contributes to building scalable discovery pipelines for antigen identification, functional screening, and preclinical validation.
• Participate in multidisciplinary team science initiatives across Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Mayo Clinic enterprise campuses in Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona.

The successful candidate will help shape an integrated T-cell therapy strategy encompassing CAR-T, TCR, and TIL platforms, strengthening Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center in Florida' leadership in immune cell therapy innovation.

Research Environment
Mayo Clinic Florida provides a collaborative, multidisciplinary academic medical center environment with strategic investment in cancer immunotherapy and cell therapy translation. Faculty benefit from:

• Established CAR-T and immune cell therapy clinical programs
• Growing infrastructure supporting TIL therapy development and clinical implementation
• State-of-the-art cell manufacturing and GMP facilities
• Institutional core resources including genomics, single-cell sequencing, proteomics, bioinformatics, and advanced imaging
• Disease-focused research centers supporting oncology and immune-mediated disease programs
• Cross-campus collaboration opportunities with Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Arizona
• Dedicated support for regulatory strategy, IND-enabling studies, and early-phase clinical trial development

The selected candidate will join a rapidly expanding ecosystem designed to accelerate discovery-to-clinic translation of engineered T-cell therapies.

Qualifications

Candidates must hold a doctoral degree (Ph.D., M.D., M.D./Ph.D., Sc.D., or equivalent) in immunology, molecular biology, biomedical engineering, genetics, or a related discipline.

Applicants should demonstrate:

• A strong record of high-impact, peer-reviewed publications in T-cell biology, CAR-T engineering, TCR development, TIL biology, tumor immunology, or related fields.
• Sustained extramural funding appropriate to academic rank (NIH K award or equivalent for Assistant Professor; R01-level funding or equivalent for Associate Professor or above).
• Demonstrated expertise in CAR or TCR construct design, TIL expansion and functional assessment, antigen target discovery, or translational immune engineering.
• Experience collaborating in multidisciplinary translational teams.
• Evidence of leadership and commitment to mentorship within an inclusive academic environment.

Appointment level (Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor) will be commensurate with experience and years in rank, scholarly achievement, leadership experience, and funding record.