Associate Scientist- Kumar Laboratory

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital • Memphis, TN

24d • $65,520 - $114,400

About The Position

The Associate Scientist will work in the Kumar Laboratory within the Department of Host-Microbe Interactions at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The lab studies how medications and host immune factors remodel the gut microbiome and affect intestinal homeostasis, integrating clinical and high-throughput omics datasets with mechanistic molecular microbiology, anaerobic culturomics, and gnotobiotic models.

The role will drive core research projects, lead in vivo operations, and support overall laboratory management. The Associate Scientist is expected to work with high scientific independence, execute complex experimental workflows, and help maintain a productive, well-organized research environment. The role also includes synthesizing research data, contributing substantially to scientific writing, and training junior laboratory members.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant scientific area.
• Research experience requirements vary by education: 7 or more years with a bachelor’s degree; 5 or more years with a master’s degree; or 2 or more years with a Ph.D.
• Proven performance in an earlier or comparable role.
• Interested candidates must submit a cover letter outlining research background, leadership and in vivo workflow experience, and career goals.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading and supporting research experiments.
• Some experience leading laboratory and scientific project coordination, maintenance, and other research support activities.
• Experience guiding and training other laboratory personnel.
• Experience with anaerobic bacteriology, culturomics, mucosal immunology assays, or basic computational workflows for microbiome analysis using R or Python.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate in vivo experiments using germ-free, gnotobiotic (isolator and IVC systems), and conventional colonies, including infectious challenges, oral gavages, colonized consortia studies, and tissue harvests.
• Independently design, perform, optimize, and troubleshoot complex experiments in molecular biology, anaerobic bacteriology, culturomics, and microbial genetics.
• Coordinate day-to-day laboratory operations, including purchasing reagents and consumables, maintaining vendor relations, overseeing equipment maintenance and calibration, and writing or updating SOPs, biosafety protocols, and IACUC amendments.
• Process, organize, and rigorously analyze experimental data.
• Lead or substantially contribute to drafting, editing, and revising manuscripts, figures, grant applications, and progress reports.
• Provide technical guidance, protocol training, and day-to-day support to junior laboratory members, rotation graduate students, and research technologists.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior