Lead in TIL Reprogramming

Weill Cornell Medicine; New York (NY); On-site; USD 160,000 - 186,000; Full time

Job summary

Weill Cornell Medicine on the Upper East Side seeks a Lead in TIL Reprogramming to oversee a focused team advancing next-generation TIL therapies. This role drives reprogramming and optimization of TILs for enhanced potency, persistence, and clinical efficacy, translating insights into scalable, IND-ready cell therapy candidates.

The successful candidate will mentor a multidisciplinary team, define target product profiles, and coordinate IND documentation while collaborating with process

Qualifications

• Doctoral-level scientist with strong leadership experience in cell therapy.
• Over 10 years of hands-on TIL biology and translational work.
• Experience designing and executing IND-enabling studies and regulatory documentation.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small multidisciplinary team focused on TIL reprogramming and optimization.
• Design strategies to enhance TIL function via media, cytokines, drugs, and gene engineering.
• Drive process innovation to improve potency, persistence, and scalability of TIL products.
• Coordinate IND documentation and contribute to CMC and pharmacology sections.
• Collaborate across process development, regulatory, clinical teams and external partners.
• Mentor team members to foster high-performance translational culture.

Skills

Team Leadership

TIL Biology

CRISPR & Gene Editing

Translational Biology

Education

Ph.D. in immunology, cancer biology, bioengineering

Tools

CRISPR

Gene Editing

Job description

Title: Lead in TIL Reprogramming

Location: Upper East Side

Org Unit: MCC Laboratories

Work Days

Weekly Hours: 35.00

Exemption Status: Exempt

Salary Range: $159,900.00 - $186,100.00

• As required under NYC Human Rights Law Int 1208-2018 - Salary range for this role when Hired for NYC Offices

Position Summary

Responsible for leading a focused team advancing next-generation tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapies. This role seeks to reprogram and optimize TILs through integrated media, pharmacologic, and gene engineering strategies to enhance potency, persistence, and clinical efficacy. This position sits at the interface of deep biological discovery and disciplined product development, translating mechanistic insights into scalable processes and IND-ready cell therapy candidates. The successful candidate will play a key role in disrupting current TIL paradigms and advancing transformative therapies from concept to early clinical development.

Job Responsibilities

• Recruit, lead and manage a small, multidisciplinary team focused on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) reprogramming and optimization.
• Design and execute strategies to enhance TIL function including through media and metabolic interventions (nutrients, cytokines); drugs targeting key pathways; gene engineering approaches (CRISPR, viral/non-viral editing, synthetic circuits).
• Drive process innovation and disruption, challenging current TIL manufacturing paradigms to improve potency, persistence, scalability, and cost.
• Integrate deep mechanistic discovery (e.g., T cell biology, tumor microenvironment, translatome/epitope discovery) with translational objectives.
• Develop and optimize robust, scalable workflows for TIL expansion, activation, and modification suitable for clinical translation.
• Lead preclinical development, including: In vitro functional assays and high-dimensional profiling, in vivo biodistribution and persistence, efficacy and toxicity analyses, biomarker strategy development.
• Translate discoveries into disciplined product development, defining target product profiles and critical quality attributes (CQAs); establish data-driven decision frameworks to prioritize candidates and advance programs through stage gates.
• Contribute to and coordinate IND documentation, including authorship of relevant sections (CMC, pharmacology/toxicology summaries, investigator brochure inputs).
• Collaborate cross-functionally with process development, CMC, regulatory, clinical, and close external partners.
• Mentor team members and foster a high-performance, innovative, and translationally focused culture.

Education

• Ph.D. in immunology, cancer biology, bioengineering, or related field, with postdoctoral training and relevant experience in T cell therapy an appropriate field.

Experience

• More than 10 years of hands-on expertise in TIL biology and methods, T cell immunology, genetic T cell engineering, CRISPR screening, molecular biology, mouse models, and clinical translation.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Proven ability to lead projects/teams and translate discovery into preclinical development, with familiarity in process development and scalability for cell therapies.
• Working knowledge of IND-enabling studies (pharmacology, tox) and regulatory documentation, with strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Familiarity with institutional and federal regulatory documentation and compliance standards.
• Effectively manages biospecimen handling and sample integrity practices.
• Knowledge of data management systems and electronic data integrity principles.

Working Conditions/Physical Demands

Ability to work flexible hours, evenings and weekends, when requested for special projects.

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