T-Cell Cancer Engineering Scientist

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.
 

Why Choose Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center? 
With 440 members and >1500 aligned cancer physicians working in six Cancer Research Programs (Cancer Prevention, Survivorship & Control; Cancer Risk Assessment, Early Detection & Interception; Cancer Genomics, Signaling, & Metastasis; Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapeutics; Novel Therapeutics & Therapeutic Modalities; Advanced Clinical Trials and Translational Sciences) and 15 Disease Groups focused on clinical trials, MCCCC is a global leader and represents the pinnacle of cancer care, research and education and training. Every year, across its three enterprise sites (Rochester, Minnesota; Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; and Jacksonville, Florida), MCCCC physicians provide expert cancer diagnosis and treatment to more than 150,000 unique patients from across the nation and the globe. MCCCC created one of the nation’s first National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Cancer Center Research Programs focused on early cancer detection and interception: Cancer Risk Assessment, Early Detection, and Interception (REDI). The Center’s other five transdisciplinary research programs include Cancer Prevention, Control, and Survivorship; Cancer Genomics, Signaling, and Metastasis; Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapeutics; Novel Therapeutics and Therapeutic Modalities; and Advanced Clinical Trials and Translational Research.

The MCCCC Mission: To inspire hope and promote health and healing through integrated research, clinical practice, and education, centered around our primary value: the needs of the patient come first.

The MCCCC Vision: To be a global cancer authority: transforming cancer research and practice to assure that our discoveries, knowledge, and expertise are accessible to all, within and beyond our walls, at anyplace and anytime.

MCCCC Goals:

1. To cure cancers through translation of innovative transdisciplinary science to new means of prevention, early detection, interception, intervention, and unparalleled care delivery. 
2. To transform cancer research and practice using category of one data platforms, digital technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and intelligent automation, creating new models for community and patient engagement, and the conduct of research, clinical trials and patient-centered care delivery in clinical, home, and community settings. 
3. To use Mayo Clinic Platform to engage patients and communities in our catchment areas and across the nation and the world in cancer research and distributed and decentralized clinical trials.
4. To educate, train, and mentor the next generation of cancer physicians, scientists, and leaders.

Over the past year, MCCCC has continued to achieve exceptional performance metrics, with high levels of cancer research funding (reporting $61.2M in annual peer-reviewed funding ($41.1M from NCI) and $98.7M in industry and non-peer reviewed funding). The Center currently has over 80 multi-investigator programmatic grants including 6 NCI Specialized Programs of Research Emphasis (SPORES): Myeloma, Ovarian Cancer, Breast Cancer, Liver/Hepatobiliary Cancers, Prostate Cancer, and Sarcoma. In 2025, clinical trial accrual has remained robust, reporting the Center’s highest accrual to therapeutic interventional trials: 2,624 (12% of newly registered cases), with 6,588 interventional accruals (30% of newly registered patients) and 10,367 non-interventional accruals. In 2025, MCCCC members published an exceptional number (1776) of peer-reviewed academic works, 24% of which were published in high impact journals.

Why Choose Mayo Clinic?
Mayo Clinic is a premier, integrated academic medical center consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the nation. All campuses are experiencing strategic growth in cancer immunotherapy, drug discovery & development, regenerative medicine, and translational discovery science.  As noted above, Mayo Clinic offers a highly collaborative academic medical center environment and strong platforms for implementation, evaluation, and pragmatic scientist. Faculty benefit from:

• Membership in Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, the nation’s only three-site, NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Access to institutional expertise in AI, computational and digital biology, biostatistics, epidemiology, bioinformatics, and the Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.
• Opportunities to collaborate across Mayo Clinic sites to evaluate programs, models of care, and implementation strategies using clinical, operational, patient-reported, and population-level data.
• A growing environment for evaluating new models of care, conducting decentralized clinical trials, and advancing data-enabled approaches to improving cancer care delivery.
• Dedicated institutional support for research development, regulatory navigation, commercialization pathways, and team-based science.

We offer:

• Competitive startup and sustained institutional support
• Investment in team science and program-building initiatives
• Access to a $1B+ annual research enterprise
• Infrastructure for IND-enabling studies and early-phase clinical trials
• Exceptional benefits, including retirement and pension programs
• A culture that values innovation, inclusion, and transdisciplinary collaboration
• Mayo Clinic is committed to creating an inclusive and equitable environment, recognizing that diverse research teams drive more innovative solutions to complex biomedical challenges.

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.