About Us

King’s College London (KCL) is one of the top UK universities ranked 36th in the world (Times Higher Education World Rankings 2025). KCL has over 42,000 students from some 190 countries, and over 8,500 employees. It is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of about £1.2BN (2024). KCL was ranked 12th in the world for Clinical, Pre-Clinical & Health in the Times Higher Rankings for 2025.

The Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine (FoLSM), one of the largest and most successful centres for biomedical research and education in the UK. FoLSM is located on four sites – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Waterloo and Denmark Hill on the King’s College Hospital site – reflecting our strong partnership with clinical centres of excellence.

King’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre (CCC), led by Professor Sheila Singh, is the academic arm of one of the leading cancer centres in Europe. Research at the CCC has a strong and broad base of funding, including strategic investments such as the King’s partnership in the Cancer Research UK City of London Centre (CRUK CoL), CRUK RadNet, the KHP Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) and Breast Cancer Now Research Unit.

The Department of Haematology of the CCC is based in the Denmark Hill campus and comprises 10 research groups led by King’s academics, including several clinicians. Research in the Department includes Leukaemia & Myeloma, Lymphoma, Bone Marrow Failure & Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Clonal Haematopoiesis, Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, Molecular Haematology, Sickle Cell Disease and Venous Thrombosis and is supported by flow cytometry and single cell core facilities and the Haematology Biobank.

King’s College London is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process it is the university’s clear stated aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities. We particularly encourage applications from women, people from black and minority ethnic communities, the LGBT+ community and from disabled people.

Selection process

Applications will be shortlisted by a selection committee drawn from across the Faculty and NHS partners. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a two-stage interview process and stakeholder engagement. The final interview panel will be chaired by the Senior Vice President (Health).

About The Role

We wish to appoint an outstanding individual as Professor in Haematology and Head of the Department of Haematology within the Comprehensive Cancer Centre, School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences. We are especially interested in individuals with an academic track record and interest in either haemato-oncology, stem cell transplantation, advanced therapies (either oncological or non-oncological) or patient stratification. In addition to pursuing their own state-of-the-art research programme, the postholder will provide strategic leadership for academic haematology including research, education and mentorship of early career clinical and non-clinical scientists.

The role as Head of Department is normally held for five years and is renewable for a further five-year term. It would be possible to consider a phased move into the academic leadership role for individuals who would like to first take some time to establish their research programme at King’s.

We encourage potential clinical applicants to contact us to discuss the post

The post will be based predominantly on the Denmark Hill campus but will interact closely with colleagues across other King’s Health Partners campuses. We would also encourage potential clinician-researcher candidates with a substantial track record in clinical translational research, to contact us to discuss the post.

This is a full-time post and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

For more detailed information around the responsibilities of the Head of Department, please contact sheila.singh@kcl.ac.uk

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. A PhD in Haematology or a related subject.
2. An established international reputation for research, evidenced by an established track record of programmatic funding and high impact publications, which includes presenting invited research contributions at international meetings.
3. Proven track record in education, research and professional achievement, including successful supervision of postgraduate research students.
4. Evidence of leadership capability or promise, including previously held independent Senior Investigator or equivalent academic leadership positions and previous experience of clinical governance.
5. Ability to lead and function within a team and to plan and prioritise workload.
6. Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias.

Desirable criteria

1. An excellent communicator, capable of inspiring staff and students and driving forward the Department’s ambitions and strategic aims across the full range of its activities.
2. Experience in translational research and the ability to bridge basic science with clinical applications.

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.

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.

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

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearances.