Assistant Professor, Scenic Design

University of South Florida • Tampa, FL

50d

About The Position

Assistant Professor, Scenic Design. This position is a 9-month tenure earning faculty position with a start date of August 2026. The School of Theatre and Dance embraces, inspires, educates, and educates students in all of their capacities as explorative and thoughtful artists who impact their local and global communities. The faculty of the School of Theatre and Dance is comprised of professional creatives, whose work has international reach. Students experience a guest artist series coupled with one-of-a-kind study abroad program in Paris, and research opportunities in dance medicine and science. Graduates of the dance program go on to enjoy success with the likes of Broadway, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Dance Company, Kate Weare Dance Company, Disney World, Busch Gardens, and Norwegian Cruise Lines; they perform, design and direct for television and film, become artistic and managing directors, high school teachers, college professors, choreographers, arts in health/somatic practitioners, healthcare professionals, and technical professionals. The USF School of Theater and Dance fosters and cultivates adaptable thinkers, intelligent, compassionate leaders and creative risk takers who will impact the arts field and beyond As the creative center of the University of South Florida, the College of Design, Art & Performance provides an enriched, creative, and professional environment for tomorrow's leaders in architecture, design, art, art history, dance, music, and theatre. The college is home to the university's arts district, Contemporary Art Museum, Graphicstudio and the Florida Center for Community Design. The college embraces opportunities to embed new and existing arts programming in the rapidly growing regional communities and serves as an integral engine for socioeconomic progress through its research, advocacy, and engagement. The School of Theater and Dance is excited to recruit a scenic designer. This tenure track position will be part of a re-envisioning of design programs in the College of Design, Art & Performance and the School of Theater and Dance and will contribute to design majors in the School of Theatre and Dance and in the college more broadly.

Requirements

• Terminal Degree in related field, or significant equivalent professional experience.
• Ability to teach scenic design and other design courses, as per your experience and effectively mentor young designers.
• Ability to design scenery for main stage productions in theatre, dance, and in other Interdisciplinary interests in multiple styles of theatre spaces.
• Applicants MUST provide the following documents when completing the application: Letter of interest Curriculum vitae Links to an online portfolio of work examples. If the works require passwords for viewing, please include them. Files that cannot be easily accessed may not be reviewed.

Nice To Haves

• Terminal degree with emphasis in Scenic Design.
• Incorporation of projections into design and knowledge of projection software and implementation.
• Teaching experience in scene painting, CAD, and other emerging technologies.
• Experience in designing for touring to varied spaces, designing for site specific and outdoor locations, themed/entertainment design, immersive theatre, and other genres.
• National and/or international professional design credits in theatre, dance and /or music.
• Interdisciplinary research involving technology, and/or art, music, and health sciences.
• Must meet university criteria for appointment to the rank of Assistant Professor.

Responsibilities

• Faculty in the School of Theater and Dance are required to maintain an active research agenda and annually report on progress toward promotion and tenure.
• Teaching responsibilities will generally include 2 assignments per semester, comprised of a combination of designing major productions and course work.
• The service profile will be comprised of mentoring students, work on School, College, and/or University committees, professional memberships, and curricular development.

Benefits

• Our first-class benefits package includes medical, dental and life insurance plans, retirement plan options, employee and dependent tuition programs, generous leave, and hundreds of employee perks and discounts.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Industry: Educational Services
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees