Senior Researcher in AI-Augmented Immunology & Autonomous Laboratories for Cancer Vaccine Development

Senior Researcher in AI-Augmented Immunology & Autonomous Laboratories for Cancer Vaccine Development

Oxford Centre for Immuno-Oncology, Old Road Campus Research Building, Roosevelt Drive, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7DQ

The Nuffield Department of Medicine is recruiting a Senior Researcher in Agentic AI for Cancer Vaccine Development to join the Oxford Centre for Immuno-Oncology. You will play a leading role in the UK Cancer Vaccine AI Scientist & Supercomputing Project, a government-supported national research initiative that brings together sovereign AI supercomputing, AI Scientists, automated laboratories, advanced immunology and near-patient manufacturing to accelerate the development of personalised cancer vaccines for NHS patients.

Reporting to Dr Lennard Lee, you will lead a significant interdisciplinary research project within the wider programme and provide scientific and technical leadership across artificial intelligence, agentic AI, computational biology, scientific software and research computing. You will lead the development of the programme's AI Scientist, integrating frontier and open-source AI models with sovereign supercomputing and autonomous laboratory technologies. You will also shape research direction, develop new concepts and methods, manage a multidisciplinary research team, contribute to funding applications and strategic planning, and produce high-quality research outputs for publication and presentation at national and international meetings.

It is essential that you hold a PhD/DPhil in Pathology, Immunology or a related field, together with substantial post-qualification research experience and a recognised national research reputation in artificial intelligence, computational biology, AI-enabled science or a related specialism. You will need significant experience of leading complex interdisciplinary research projects and managing research or technical staff, alongside demonstrable experience of building agentic AI systems or comparable AI-enabled scientific software. Practical experience with frontier AI systems, open-source foundation models, research-computing infrastructure and integration with laboratory automation is essential, as is strong knowledge or research experience in cancer biology, genomics, immunology or a closely related field. Experience of AI supercomputing, external research partnerships, research strategy or private-sector/start-up environments would be advantageous.

This role offers the opportunity to work at the intersection of AI, cancer biology and translational medicine, helping to build an end-to-end research platform that connects computational discovery with experimental validation, vaccine manufacturing and NHS clinical trials. You will also contribute to collaborations across academia, industry and research organisations, while supporting the development of students and research staff through supervision, training and mentoring.

Applications for this vacancy should be made online and you will need to upload a supporting statement and CV. Your supporting statement must explain how you meet each of the selection criteria for the post using examples of your skills and experience. Please restrict your documentation to your CV and supporting statement only. Any other documents will be requested at a later date.

This position is offered full time on a fixed term contract until 30 September 2030 and is funded by ARIA. Only applications received before 12 midday on 16 October 2026 will be considered. Please quote 189203 on all correspondence.