King's College London

About Us

King’s College London (KCL) and its partner NHS Trusts – King’s College Hospital (KCH) and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital (GSTT) together have one of the largest chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell programmes in the UK with licensed and experimental CAR-T products being administered for patients with B-cell leukaemias, lymphomas, multiple myeloma, solid tumours and autoimmune disease.  

About The Role

This role is to lead GMP manufacturing of CAR-T cells for a Blood Cancer UK funded, first-in-human, multi-centre CAR-T study for relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (TriMM trial) due to open at the lead site King’s College Hospital in 2026. The postholder will join a team of CAR-T cell production scientists and technicians based at KCL, Denmark Hill campus and work across GMP facilities at GSTT and KCH in close collaboration with the pre-clinical, process development and Haematology clinical teams.

The Advanced Therapy GMP Unit at GSTT is purpose built for the manufacture of Advanced Therapy Investigational Medicinal Products (ATIMPs) such as somatic cell therapies, gene therapies and tissue engineered products for early phase clinical trials. The Cell Therapy Unit at KCH (King’s CTU) offers GMP manufacturing facilities for cell and gene therapy products, including lenti/retroviral vectors, hepatocytes, islet cells, mesenchymal stromal cells and CAR-T cells. The postholder will have a strong background in GMP manufacturing of ATIMPs, be proficient in flow cytometry, have prior experience with clinical trials, and an in-depth knowledge of immunology and CAR-T cell biology.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced production scientist to join a rapidly expanding academic CAR-T programme at King’s Health Partners and contribute to innovative research enabling patients with refractory cancers to be treated with potentially transformative CAR-T therapy products.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31/05/2028 (this date would be taken from the recruitment request) 

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience: 

Essential criteria

1. PhD qualified in a relevant science discipline
2. Experience in GMP manufacturing of ATIMPs
3. Experience with viral vectors
4. Experience in flow cytometry
5. Experience with analysing and presenting scientific data
6. Experience in quality management system documentation

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in GMP manufacturing of CAR-T cells
2. Experience with cell manufacturing platforms such as Miltenyi Prodigy, Lonza Cocoon or G-Rex, etc
3. Experience with clinical trials
4. Experience in molecular biology

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

Further Information

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

We welcome your thoughts on how organisations can create an inclusive environment, including one which supports free speech and the exchange of a wide range of ideas.  

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held on the week commencing  23rd February 2026. 

[HR use only – as indicated in the job description} This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and/or Occupational Health clearances.