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

MassArt•Boston, MA

About The Position

Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) seeks an accomplished industrial designer and educator for a full-time, tenure-track position in its Industrial Design Department at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. The successful candidate will bring notable professional design experience, a strong commitment to student-centered education, a collaborative spirit, and the breadth to contribute across the undergraduate curriculum. The department values studio teaching and physical making, and seeks a colleague who can help students grow while connecting physical products with digital, service, and systemic dimensions. The candidate should understand products as integrated experiences and ecosystems encompassing form, materials, manufacturing, digital behavior, interfaces, services, human factors, and social and environmental contexts. They will help prepare students for an evolving profession in which designers connect business strategy, human insight, design, technology, and implementation across product lifecycles and multidisciplinary teams. The role includes preparing students to use AI as a creative tool and material in intelligent products, while developing judgment, taste, and critical framing. Awareness of circular and regenerative design, physical-digital convergence, and emerging production and entrepreneurship models is also relevant. MassArt’s Industrial Design program develops creative, critical problem solvers through a hands-on studio culture integrating research, drawing, form development, digital and physical modeling, prototyping, human factors, materials and manufacturing, professional practice, and visual and verbal communication. Faculty share responsibility for curriculum development, support one another’s teaching and professional growth, and maintain relationships with alumni, industry, community partners, and design communities. The successful candidate will contribute to this culture and may develop into departmental leadership over time. The position teaches six courses per academic year, including studio, lecture, and technical courses at multiple curriculum levels. The faculty member will advise and mentor students, collaborate on curriculum and departmental culture, build external relationships that create learning opportunities, maintain an active professional or scholarly practice, participate in departmental and college-wide service, and contribute to the department’s future direction. The position is governed by the MSCA bargaining agreement. Salary is $72,000–$78,000, commensurate with experience, and scheduled hours are 37.5 per week. MassArt does not support employment-based visa sponsorship or non-student exchange visitor visa sponsorship. Selected candidates must be eligible to work in the United States and complete required onboarding, including CORI and SORI background reviews.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in industrial design, product design, or a closely related field.
Notable professional experience in industrial or product design, demonstrated through a strong portfolio of completed work showing the design process.
Demonstrated competency in teaching, mentoring, or comparable educational experience in studio-based design.
Ability to balance aesthetic, technical, material, systemic, and human considerations in design practice.
Competency with physical and digital making, prototyping, materials and manufacturing, and contemporary design tools and methods.
Evidence of collaborative practice and effective communication, and commitment to student success.
Commitment to working with and supporting a diverse and inclusive academic community.

Nice To Haves

Terminal degree in industrial design, product design, or a related field, or a record of professional achievement demonstrating equivalent preparation.
College-level teaching beyond a teaching assistant experience, across more than one area or level of an industrial design curriculum.
Experience connecting physical products with digital behavior, interfaces, services, or broader systems.
Experience developing or evaluating AI-assisted and computational workflows in professional practice or design education.
Evidence of curriculum development, interdisciplinary collaboration, industry partnerships, or community-engaged work.
Evidence of leadership in professional practice, education, research, or collaborative initiatives.
Capacity to contribute to graduate programs.

Responsibilities

Teach six courses per academic year, including studio, lecture, and technical courses at multiple levels of the Industrial Design curriculum.
Teach through an iterative, student-centered studio process connecting research, drawing, digital and physical modeling, testing, refinement, and presentation as appropriate.
Help students understand products as integrated physical, digital, service, and system experiences while emphasizing the material and form-based foundations of industrial design.
Introduce computational and AI-assisted methods where they support learning, and help students assess when these methods are appropriate, ethical, and useful.
Advise, mentor, evaluate, and support students’ learning and growth, taking into account their varied backgrounds and levels of preparation.
Collaborate with faculty and the department chair on departmental culture, curriculum development and assessment, studio-process practices, course sequencing, and emerging areas of industrial design education.
Develop relationships with industry, alumni, community organizations, and academic programs to create learning opportunities and connect design decisions with business strategy, brand, and market context.
Maintain an active professional, creative, scholarly, or research practice that informs teaching and contributes to the field.
Participate in departmental and college-wide service, including peer reviews, committees, exhibitions, recruitment, advising, and shared governance.
Contribute to the department’s future direction and demonstrate capacity to grow into leadership responsibilities.