Assistant or Associate Professor of Industrial Design, Full Time, Tenure-Track

About MassArt:

Founded in 1873, having celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2023, Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), is the nation's first and only independent, free-standing public college of art and design in the country. MassArt is an inclusive community of thinkers, doers, makers, educators, innovators and leaders striving to shape the future through art and design. We've spent 150 years demonstrating the truly amazing things that happen when a world-class art and design education is an option for every deserving student. Located in Boston's hub of arts and culture along the Avenue of the Arts, MassArt enrolls 2,000 students and offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate degrees in 18 disciplines, as well as continuing education and youth programs.

MassArt strives to be a model of diversity and inclusion; the campus community reflects the layers of cultural and self-identity that proudly make up our region, nation, and world. We build effective partnerships with co-workers throughout the College by freely sharing appropriate information and providing assistance to all and maintain an environment that is welcoming to persons of all backgrounds, nationalities, and roles.

Job Description:

Salary: $72,000-$78,000 commensurate with experience.

Collective Bargaining Agreement: This position is governed by the MSCA bargaining agreement

Hours: 37.5

About the position

We invite applicants who are accomplished industrial designers and educators with a demonstrated practice that connects physical products with the digital, service, and systemic dimensions that shape how products are made, perceived, and experienced. This is a full-time, tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor in our Industrial Design Department.

In this role, you will join a department that values studio teaching and physical making. We are looking for a dynamic colleague with notable professional design experience, a strong commitment to being an educator who can meet students where they are and help them grow, a collaborative spirit, and has a breadth of knowledge to contribute across our undergraduate curriculum.

The successful candidate will understand products as complete experiences and ecosystems. This includes physical form, materials, manufacturing, digital behavior, interfaces, services, human factors, and the broader social and environmental contexts in which products operate.

At the same time, the successful candidate understands that the role of the industrial designer is being redefined. They see the designer as a future leader, a storyteller, a translator, and an orchestrator of multidisciplinary teams. They are someone who connects business strategy, human insight, design, technology, and implementation across the full product lifecycle and development team. They will prepare students to work fluently with AI as a creative tool and a material in intelligent products, while building the judgment, taste, and critical framing that has become even more valuable. They bring awareness of emerging trends like circular and regenerative design, the convergence of physical and digital experience, and emerging models of production and entrepreneurship. Overall, their focus is to prepare our students to anticipate change and see it as an opportunity to become a leader in something new.

About the Industrial Design Department

MassArt's Industrial Design program prepares students to become creative, critical, and capable problem solvers by developing meaningful products, experiences, and systems. The program is grounded in a hands-on studio culture that integrates research, drawing, form development through digital and physical modeling, prototyping, human factors, materials and manufacturing, professional practice, and clear visual and verbal communication.

As a department, we strive to model the profession we want students to enter: collaborative, supportive, experimental, and forward-looking. Faculty share responsibility for curriculum development, support one another's teaching and professional growth, and maintain active relationships with alumni, industry, community partners, and the local, national, and international design communities. We welcome a colleague who wants to contribute to this shared culture and, over time, develop the experience and trust needed to assume departmental leadership.

Teaching Areas

• The department seeks a broadly capable designer who can teach across several areas of the curriculum. Applicants are not expected to specialize in every area, but should demonstrate strength in several of the following:
• Introductory through advanced level studio courses;
• Form development and design principles;
• Analog and digital drawing, visualization, and storytelling;
• Design research, human factors, inclusive design, and user testing;
• Materials, manufacturing processes, CMF detailing, and design for production;
• CAD, digital and physical, prototyping, traditional and digital fabrication;
• Product systems, connected products, services, interfaces, and product ecosystems;
• Professional practice, entrepreneurship, and industry collaboration;
• Critical perspectives of the discipline, sustainability, and the social impact of design;
• Computational and AI-assisted design workflows within industrial design practice;
• Interdisciplinary collaborative courses e.g. Footwear Design, Object making, & Integrated product design teams.

Primary Responsibilities

• Teach six courses per academic year, including studio, lecture, and technical courses at multiple levels of the Industrial Design curriculum. Teaching through an iterative, student-centered studio process that connects research, drawing, and form development through digital and physical modeling, testing, refinement and presentation when appropriate.
• Help students understand products as integrated physical, digital, service, and system experiences while celebrating the material and form-based foundations of industrial design.
• Introduce computational and AI-assisted methods where they support learning, while helping students evaluate when these methods are appropriate, ethical, and useful.
• Advise, mentor, evaluate, and support student learning and growth understanding their wide range of backgrounds and levels of preparation.
• Collaborate with faculty and department chair on: creating a dynamic & exciting department culture; developing and assessing curriculum; incorporating iterative, student-centered, studio process best practices; sequencing courses; and understanding emerging areas of industrial design education.
• Develop relationships with industry, alumni, community organizations, and other academic programs that create meaningful learning opportunities and highlight the connections between design decisions and business strategy, brand, and market context.
• Maintain an active professional, creative, scholarly, or research practice that informs their teaching and contributes to the field.
• Participate in departmental and college-wide service e.g.: peer reviews, committees, exhibitions, recruitment, advising, and shared governance.
• Contribute to the department's future direction and demonstrate the capacity to grow into leadership responsibilities.

About MassArt:

Founded in 1873, having celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2023, Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), is the nation's first and only independent, free-standing public college of art and design in the country. MassArt is an inclusive community of thinkers, doers, makers, educators, innovators and leaders striving to shape the future through art and design. We've spent 150 years demonstrating the truly amazing things that happen when a world-class art and design education is an option for every deserving student. Located in Boston's hub of arts and culture along the Avenue of the Arts, MassArt enrolls 2,000 students and offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate degrees in 18 disciplines, as well as continuing education and youth programs.

MassArt strives to be a model of diversity and inclusion; the campus community reflects the layers of cultural and self-identity that proudly make up our region, nation, and world. We build effective partnerships with co-workers throughout the College by freely sharing appropriate information and providing assistance to all and maintain an environment that is welcoming to persons of all backgrounds, nationalities, and roles.