St. Jude opens medical physics assistant role in pediatric proton therapy
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is recruiting a Medical Physics Assistant for its Department of Radiation Oncology in Memphis, a position built around the technical backbone of pediatric radiation treatment. The role sits inside a program that treats about 300 children, adolescents, and young adults each year and operates within roughly 45,000 square feet dedicated to patient care, treatment planning, radiation therapy, and sedation and anesthesia support.
This is not a purely administrative appointment. It is a hands-on clinical support role tied to machine accuracy, patient safety, and the reliability of every delivered fraction.
A role defined by quality assurance, not routine clerical support
The assistant works under the direction of a qualified medical physicist and helps maintain the performance of both photon and proton therapy systems. Responsibilities include routine machine quality assurance, imaging system quality assurance, and patient-specific QA. The post also covers data collection, data processing, equipment maintenance, documentation, radiation safety practices, and quality improvement activities across the department.
Those duties carry real clinical weight. In pediatric radiation oncology, a small calibration drift or image-guidance error can have outsized consequences because treatment margins are often tight and long-term toxicity matters as much as tumor control. Proton therapy, in particular, depends on precise beam delivery and exact patient positioning; the physics team is responsible for preserving those tolerances from planning through treatment.
The department’s structure reflects that complexity. Six full-time medical physics faculty members, one staff clinical physicist, four dosimetrists, two medical physics assistants, a dedicated linear accelerator engineer, research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, clinical research associates, and information systems staff work alongside five full-time pediatric radiation oncologists. Child life, nursing, and radiation therapy teams are embedded in the same workflow.
Proton therapy demands a different level of precision
St. Jude describes its proton therapy center as the world’s first proton therapy facility dedicated exclusively to treating children with cancer. The facility includes a synchrotron, high-energy beam transport, two gantry treatment rooms, and a fixed-beam treatment room, along with high-precision patient positioning, volumetric image guidance, and dedicated scanning nozzles.
For a medical physics assistant, that environment means proximity to some of the most technically demanding systems in pediatric oncology. QA work in this setting is not abstract. It supports the beam characteristics, imaging fidelity, and treatment reproducibility that make proton therapy clinically viable for children whose developing tissues are especially vulnerable to late effects.
The assistant will also support a broader imaging ecosystem that includes image-guided linear accelerator systems, spectral CT, PET/CT, and 1.5T and 3.0T MRI systems used for treatment planning and on-treatment assessment. Those platforms are central to modern radiation oncology, where anatomy can shift between simulation and delivery and where image-informed adaptation often determines whether the prescribed dose reaches the target safely.
Pediatric radiation oncology depends on disciplined workflow
Routine QA in a department like this goes well beyond instrument checks. It includes the orderly collection and maintenance of treatment-related data, the organization of physics documentation, and support for radiation safety protocols. In practice, those tasks protect continuity across busy clinical schedules and give physicists and physicians the confidence that the treatment machine and imaging chain are behaving as expected.
The announcement also places emphasis on quality control and quality improvement initiatives. In a pediatric setting, continuous process monitoring is not a luxury. It is part of the safety net that keeps complex therapy reproducible across hundreds of children and across many months of treatment.
One sentence captures the stakes plainly: radiation therapy only works as intended when the physics is right.
Training requirements point to a technical entry pathway
The posting requires a bachelor’s degree in physical sciences or a related field. A bachelor’s degree in medical physics is preferred, and a master’s degree in medical physics is also preferred. Two or more years of relevant experience is listed as desirable, along with direct experience in proton therapy and routine QA or physics services involving photon and/or proton equipment.
That profile suggests a role for candidates who already understand the language of radiation oncology workflows and want a more specialized clinical environment. It is aimed at applicants who can handle precision tasks, maintain meticulous records, and work closely with physicists in a setting where deviations must be detected early and corrected quickly.
Why the institutional setting matters
St. Jude’s identity gives the post a particular clinical context. The hospital is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children, and families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing, or food. Those policies define the institution’s public mission, but the job itself is anchored in a quieter operational reality: safe pediatric cancer care depends on skilled technical staff who keep advanced equipment aligned with clinical intent.
The position is permanent, full time, and based in Memphis. The posting also lists a salary range of $29.00 to $50.50 per hour, with compensation shaped by skill set, experience, training, licensure, certifications, and organizational needs. Relocation assistance is available.
For radiation oncology services, especially in pediatrics, the most visible clinical decisions often rest on less visible technical work. QA, calibration, data integrity, and safety checks determine whether the treatment plan that left the console is the treatment that reaches the child. In a proton center built for pediatric cancer care, that chain of responsibility is the real center of gravity.