Staff Scientist
Posted Sep 22, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about a grant application you helped write. What was your part, and what happened?
What they are checking: Whether they have real grant-writing experience and can be honest about their contribution and the outcome.
Tell me about a paper you took from raw data to publication. Where did it get stuck, and how did you move it?
What they are checking: Whether they can finish what they start, since this role exists to increase publications.
How do you handle a reviewer's critique that you think is wrong?
What they are checking: Whether they respond to criticism with evidence and patience instead of defensiveness, which grant and journal review requires.
What does it mean to you for research to be directly connected to patient care?
What they are checking: Whether they are motivated by clinical impact, which fits a research institute built into a health system.
What would you do
How do you work with busy oncologists who want to publish but have little time to write?
What they are checking: Whether they can drive projects forward for clinicians without waiting on them or taking over their voice.
This role supports research funding use and scholarly output, and it has to meet donor expectations. How would you show a donor their money made a difference?
What they are checking: Whether they can measure and explain research impact in terms people outside science care about.
You're juggling a grant deadline, a manuscript revision and a data request from the CCRC Director, all due the same week. How do you decide?
What they are checking: Whether they can prioritize by impact and communicate tradeoffs with leadership before deadlines are missed.
About the work
The Cancer Care and Research Center has over 150 active NCI-sponsored studies. How would you find research questions that use that trial network well?
What they are checking: Whether they can turn an existing clinical trial infrastructure into fundable, publishable research ideas.
Walk me through how you'd plan the data collection and analysis for a retrospective study using patient records.
What they are checking: Whether they understand study design, IRB requirements, data quality and the right statistical approach for clinical data.
What statistical methods do you use most for oncology outcomes data, and when would you bring in a biostatistician?
What they are checking: Whether they know survival analysis and related methods and know the limits of their own expertise.
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Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by Sanford Health.