Director of Doctoral Studies at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design

Description

The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University invites applications for a Director of Doctoral Studies starting Fall 2027

The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon is a learning community where designers and design are formed. Together, we shape the discipline through creative studio practice, critical research, and reciprocal partnerships across our university and the world.

Director of Doctoral Studies

We are looking for a dynamic faculty member to lead the world’s first PhD program in Transition Design into its next chapter while advancing the contemporary role and purpose of Design. The candidate will bring strong design underpinnings in making and critical thinking—and show enthusiasm and promise in design-led research, creative practice, and teaching and advising at undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.

The program draws some of the most ambitious researchers in the field, people who have chosen to spend years of their lives investigating how design can help us understand and shape complex societal, technological, and ecological change, including transitions toward more sustainable, balanced, and place-based ways of living. The Director is responsible for guiding the intellectual and scholarly environment of that program, and for the conditions that allow those researchers to finish what they started.

Transition Design remains central to our doctoral work, and we are looking for a Director genuinely devoted to it: someone who will sustain the quality and ambition it has built, while expanding the program’s intellectual reach and cultivating new areas of doctoral inquiry.

Expectations of the Role

• Set the strategic direction of the PhD program

• Advance the program’s standing internationally

• Advise doctoral researchers, and lead the faculty who advise them

• Oversee the program’s recruitment and admissions

• Teach seminars at doctoral and master's level, and contribute to teaching elsewhere in the School

• Work with the Head of School on funding and partnerships

• Sustain your own program of research and publication

• Commit to building an academic environment that supports collaboration, scholarly exchange, and meaningful engagement through teaching, research, creative practice, and service

• Exhibit strong leadership and a commitment to teamwork

Position

This position is a tenure-track position at the rank of Associate or Full Professor. As a senior leadership position, the Director sits on the School's leadership team and reports to the Head of School. The Director teaches three courses per academic year, reflecting a course release for the leadership responsibilities of the role.

In addition to teaching, tenure-track faculty are expected to produce research, scholarly work, artistic work, and/or engage in design practice that elevates the field. Examples of faculty activities include but are not limited to: participation in practice-based research, professional activities, exhibitions; work published, in print or online, in peer-reviewed academic journals, books, and/or trade publications; invited talks and workshops at notable national and international venues; patents held; items in production or collections; grants and sponsored research; professional honors and awards; and significant contributions to professional societies and organizations.

This position includes a comprehensive benefits package and a competitive salary.

About the School of Design

We are unified in our beliefs, which center curiosity, conviction, craft, and community. Design is exploratory, so we confront complex problems with tenacity, fusing technologies, disciplines, and ways of knowing. Design is consequential, so we debate decisions openly, stress-test them against one another, and measure them against the futures we are building towards. Design is material, so we are critical makers who think across pencils and pixels, matter and code. Design is relational, so we work in-community with all life, human and more-than-human, local and global.

Playing an important role in shaping design’s futures for decades, the School of Design takes its responsibility seriously. Design is never neutral, so neither are designers. We expect the people here to be clear about the futures they are designing for, and against, and to hold their craft to a standard equal to that ambition. We believe our story is inspiring yet unfinished. Join us in writing the next chapter.

Engaging theory and practice with sincerity, we approach thinking and making as inseparable. Moving fluidly between these two postures leads to consequential work. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and it is what we look for in colleagues. If that is already how you work, you will find good company here.

Excellence in academic contexts comes in many forms, is built over time, and stems from life experiences. We embrace various approaches and are eager to work with people who are passionate about teaching, learning, researching, practicing, and working with us to shape the future of Design.

Qualifications

• A PhD, with at least one degree in a design field

• Recognized standing in Transition Design or another area of design research that engages questions of societal, technological, cultural, or ecological change

• An extensive record of research and publication, and international visibility in your area of expertise

• A record of securing research funding

• A sustained record of advising doctoral researchers through to completion, and evidence that you hold teaching and advising to be crafts in their own right

• Program leadership at master's or doctoral level, including curriculum development

Application Instructions

Interested individuals should include the following in their application package:

1. A Letter of Application that includes:

2. Your interest in the position and how you see yourself contributing to the overall success of the program, which may include existing or proposed courses within our curriculum that you might teach, projects you aspire to conduct, and initiatives you would like to develop

3. Your teaching philosophy, outlining your position on the current and future state of design education and practice, and your approach and overarching goals as an educator

4. Your former and current contributions to building a positive academic environment that supports collaboration, scholarly exchange, and meaningful engagement through teaching, research, practice, and service

5. A Research Statement (one page) describing the topics you aim to investigate and their potential contribution to the field of Design. Please include links to any relevant publications, research proposals and evidence of funding

6. A Full CV , including academic qualifications, work experience, notable research and/or professional outputs, technical skills and competencies, and/or examples of community engagement work.

7. Work Samples :

8. Personal and professional work relevant to the position, such as visual examples and descriptions of creative practice and research, excerpts from selected publications (web link preferred)

9. Descriptions of potential and/or existing courses and projects, including visual examples of student work where applicable

10. Three Professional References . Please include name, title, phone number, and email. References will not be contacted until the final shortlisting stage, and all communications will be held in the strictest confidence.

Deadline for Submission of Applications

The search is rolling. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and the search will remain open until the position is filled. Candidates are encouraged to apply early in anticipation of a winter interview process and a fall 2027 academic start date. Questions about these positions can be addressed to [email protected] . If you need assistance with the application platform, please contact [email protected]

More information on the School of Design can be found on the school’s website at: www.design.cmu.edu

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Carnegie Mellon University is an equal opportunity employer. It does not discriminate in admission, employment, or administration of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related condition, family status, marital status, parental status, religion, ancestry, veteran status, or genetic information. Furthermore, Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate and is required not to discriminate in violation of federal, state, or local laws or executive orders.