Speculative Design Jobs (NOW HIRING)

As a robotics professor, you will join a dedicated, award-winning faculty in the School of Creative Technology. You will play a key role in shaping a progressive curriculum and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration across SCAD locations, fostering connections with related disciplines such as industrial design, interaction design, animation, and immersive media. You will prepare talented students for rapidly evolving careers at the intersection of robotics, design, and human experience. You will do so through professional, positive, and engaging courses that cultivate curiosity and critical thinking, empowering students to explore emerging areas such as soft robotics, wearable systems, biomimicry, storytelling, and more.

In this position, you will advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration and foster an environment that encourages diverse perspectives and innovation to create robotic systems that are functional, expressive, emotionally resonant, and socially responsive. Responsibilities include adherence to all duties and expectations outlined in the SCAD Faculty Handbook, which encompasses coursework preparation, syllabus design and approval, office hours, midterm grade reviews, and more. Among other responsibilities, you will provide students with extra help sessions, extended learning opportunities, and field trips outside of regular class hours.

In this role, you will model professionalism, fulfill all grading and academic documentation requirements, and record attendance. You will assist with all academic assessment and institutional effectiveness efforts. Occasionally, you may support departmental and university-wide initiatives by attending both in-person and virtual events, such as faculty councils, admission activities, accreditation support, curriculum development, and exhibitions, among other duties. Professors must fulfill teaching assignments determined by contact hours as specified in the Employment Agreement.

The ideal candidate is passionate about teaching in higher education and has in-depth understanding of robotics development, digital fabrication, physical fabrication, electronic design, design methodologies, and human-centered design principles. They are adept at guiding diverse groups of students and faculty and can provide students with a comprehensive, hands-on education that integrates both technical systems and design-driven inquiry. The candidate demonstrates project management, organization, and curriculum building skills to prepare students for real-world challenges. They also demonstrate an expertise in prototyping robotic systems digitally and physically, including electronics, sensors, actuators, and embedded systems.

To succeed in this role, the candidate must be forward-thinking and can thrive in an environment that values collaboration, creativity, and experimentation. They possess a strong understanding of form, behavior, and interaction design. The candidate is also familiar with designing and developing interactive systems that communicate intent, personality, and meaning through movement, gesture, and form. They are also interested in speculative, critical, or future-oriented approaches to robotics and human-machine interaction.

Minimum qualifications:

• Terminal degree in robotics or a relevant field
• Academic and professional credentials to teach in robotics
• Two years of work experience in robotics, physical computing, or interactive systems development or post-secondary teaching experience
• Cross-disciplinary design experience or collaboration across industrial design, UX, animation, computation, or media arts
• Background in studio-based teaching, iterative prototyping, and experiential learning

Travel required:

• Less than 10%

Required application documents:

• Current résumé and/or CV
• Cover letter
• Portfolio demonstrating technical execution and design thinking
• Unofficial academic transcripts

Work hours: As noted in the Employment Agreement.

ADA tag: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements and minimum qualifications listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions and/or meet the minimum qualifications.