Summary

The Kenneth L. Mattox, MD Center for Trauma and Acute Care Innovation at Baylor College of Medicine seeks an internationally recognized trauma and acute care surgeon–scientist to serve as its inaugural Executive Director. This is a senior leadership position for a visionary academic surgeon with an established record of scientific innovation, clinical excellence, and program development.

The Executive Director will build and lead a multidisciplinary center dedicated to transforming the future of acute care surgery through translational research, clinical innovation, commercialization, and data science. The successful candidate will develop the infrastructure, culture, and collaborative environment necessary to position Baylor College of Medicine as a national leader in acute care innovation while fostering the next generation of surgeon-scientists.

Job Duties

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and execute the long-term strategic vision for the Kenneth L. Mattox, MD Center for Trauma and Acute Care Innovation.
• Build a nationally recognized research program focused on innovation in trauma, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care.
• Foster collaborations across Baylor College of Medicine, affiliated hospitals, engineering, basic science, industry, and federal agencies.
• Serve as a mentor and catalyst for innovation throughout the Division of Trauma, Bariatrics, and Acute Care Surgery.

Research Leadership

• Create an environment that enables division faculty to successfully compete for NIH, Department of Defense, BARDA, NSF, PCORI, and other peer-reviewed federal and foundation funding.
• Mentor junior and mid-career faculty in grant development, study design, manuscript preparation, and career advancement.
• Develop internal grant review and mentoring programs that increase funding success.
• Promote multidisciplinary translational and clinical research programs that address critical challenges in acute care surgery.

Innovation and Commercialization

• Develop programs that accelerate the translation of discoveries into commercial products, including medical devices, diagnostics, digital health technologies, therapeutics, and clinical decision support tools.
• Establish partnerships with industry, venture capital, engineering programs, and technology transfer offices.
• Facilitate intellectual property development, licensing, startup formation, and commercialization activities.
• Promote a culture where innovation becomes an integral component of clinical practice and research.

Research Infrastructure

• Design and oversee a comprehensive shared research infrastructure supporting investigators across the division.
• Develop centralized resources including:
  • • Clinical research coordination
    • Biostatistics and epidemiology support
    • Regulatory and IRB assistance
    • Grant development services
    • Data science and artificial intelligence resources
    • Biospecimen management
    • Clinical trials support

Job Duties Continued

Data Science and Clinical Informatics

• Lead development of an enterprise-wide acute care surgery clinical database utilizing Epic and other institutional data resources.
• Create scalable data pipelines that facilitate observational studies, pragmatic clinical trials, quality improvement initiatives, predictive analytics, and machine learning applications.
• Develop standardized data definitions and governance to support multicenter collaborations and high-quality research.
• Expand institutional capabilities in clinical informatics and outcomes research.

Surgical Critical Care Network

• Establish a unified research infrastructure across the five surgical intensive care units covered by Baylor faculty.
• Harmonize data collection, research protocols, quality metrics, and clinical innovation initiatives across all ICUs.
• Foster multidisciplinary collaboration among surgeons, intensivists, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and other healthcare professionals.
• Promote multicenter and system-wide research initiatives that improve outcomes for critically ill surgical patients.

Clinical Responsibilities

• Maintain an active clinical practice in trauma surgery, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care.
• Demonstrate excellence in patient care while serving as a role model for faculty and trainees.
• Integrate clinical challenges into innovative research and quality improvement initiatives.

Minimum Qualifications

Required:

• MD or equivalent medical degree.
• Board certification in General Surgery.
• Board certification or eligibility in Surgical Critical Care.
• Academic appointment at the Associate Professor or Professor level.
• National or international reputation in trauma, acute care surgery, or surgical critical care.
• Established record of sustained extramural funding (NIH R-series funding or equivalent federal funding such as DoD, BARDA, VA Merit, or comparable peer-reviewed awards).
• Demonstrated success mentoring faculty and developing funded research programs.
• Significant experience leading multidisciplinary teams and collaborative research initiatives.
• Outstanding record of peer-reviewed publications and academic scholarship.

Preferred:

• Experience directing a research center or major academic program.
• Demonstrated success in technology development, patents, licensing, or startup creation.
• Expertise in clinical informatics, data science, artificial intelligence, or large clinical databases.
• Experience leading multicenter clinical trials or translational research programs.
• Proven ability to develop partnerships with industry and governmental agencies.

Desired Leadership Attributes

The successful candidate will be:

• A visionary leader capable of defining the future of acute care surgery research.
• An accomplished surgeon-scientist with exceptional academic credibility.
• A collaborative builder who fosters multidisciplinary partnerships.
• An effective mentor dedicated to developing future surgeon-investigators.
• An innovative thinker who embraces emerging technologies and translational science.
• An entrepreneurial leader capable of moving discoveries from concept to clinical implementation and commercialization.
• A strategic communicator who inspires faculty, trainees, institutional leaders, and external partners.

Success Metrics

Within five years, the Executive Director will be expected to demonstrate measurable progress toward:

• Significant growth in NIH and other federal funding awarded to division faculty.
• Increased number of independently funded surgeon-scientists.
• Development of a comprehensive acute care research data platform spanning Baylor's surgical ICUs.
• Expansion of multicenter clinical and translational research programs.
• Growth in intellectual property, patents, licensing agreements, and commercial partnerships.
• National recognition of the Kenneth L. Mattox, MD Center for Trauma and Acute Care Innovation as a premier center for research, innovation, and translational science in trauma, acute care surgery, and surgical critical care.