Job description

The Division of Multi-Disciplinary Design (MDD) is now accepting applications for a full-time assistant or associate professor in design, with a focus on product/interactive/experience / industrial or systems design. This is a full-time 9/12 faculty position. The position will commence in July 2025.  

Housed within the College of Architecture + Planning, MDD promotes design education across disciplines through an innovative curriculum and broad research activities.  With 3 areas of curriculum focus across digital, physical and exploratory design areas, we are a community of academics, professionals and students engaging in design to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. Students in the program move through a series of experiences exposing them to new technologies, grounded research, making, ethics, leadership skills, entrepreneurship and systems thinking. Faculty collaborate across campus and around the world, with funded projects resulting in spatial design interventions, installations, exhibitions, systems, policies, programs and scholarly outputs that address multiple scales and environmental and social issues. Collectively, we design products, experiences and the relationships around them, intelligently tackling complex social and environmental problems by creating innovative design solutions – see? https://www.uofu.design/? . We currently offer a Bachelor of Science in Design with a sequential studio practice component; our curriculum is seeking to expand to offer emphases in design studies. 

The successful candidate will join a growing community of design educators, creative practitioners, and researchers. We invite applicants who are passionate about supporting students to grow as future leaders and innovators -  strategists, makers, researchers, problem solvers, communicators - in cultural institutions, education, the public and private sectors. University level teaching and/or research experience is essential. We are excited to work with faculty who bring a robust skill set in design processes, as well as the vision to innovate with new tools and methods. We are also seeking a colleague who is active in research, with the potential to develop an internationally recognized research or practice area.  

Minimum qualifications: 
A terminal degree or its equivalent in physical or digital product design or a related field 
Excellent communication skills that facilitate discussions and interactions beyond disciplinary boundaries
Ability to work with a range of design tools and processes, including digital tools and / or physical modeling and visualization
Demonstrated record of design experience, with examples of innovative and ethical product development 
Demonstrated record of teaching courses related to product design and innovation to students across year levels 
Experience practicing design management and strategy, for example leadership of multi-disciplinary project teams (and ability to teach this) 

Preferred qualifications: 
Ability to  span across disciplinary boundaries to see the relationship between making, theory, history, sustainability, and the non-human world 
Ability to explore and integrate innovative technologies and alternative ways of making and crafting 
Advanced degree (doctorate)  
Evidence of recognition of teaching and design achievements (eg awards)  
Experience of curriculum design, assessment, and review 
Potential applicants are encouraged to consult the program web site at www.design.utah.edu 

Qualified applicants must submit: 
A curriculum vitae 
A letter of application including statements of pedagogical and research/creative objectives 
A website link with portfolio and/or a 20 page (max) design portfolio (20 MB limit submitted as pdf with examples of design and / or teaching and / or scholarly work. 
A list of three references (with phone numbers, mailing and e-mail addresses)  

The search committee will begin reviewing applications on  3 January 2025.  Applications will remain open for consideration until this position is filled.