| Location | Providence, RI |
Posting Details
Position Information
Title Assistant or Associate, Master of Arts in Design Engineering (MADE) and Industrial Design Department Industrial Design Division Architecture & Design Employment Type Full-Time Critical Review Track (similar to tenure track) Yes Position Description
The Department of Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) invites applications for a full-time faculty appointment at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor, to commence in fall 2027. Rank will be dependent on professional status and teaching experience.
RISD recognizes principles of social equity, inclusion, and diversity as fundamental to its mission as an art and design school. These principles require sustained attention to a multiplicity of differences and call for an expansion of the forms of knowledge that shape our curricula and pedagogy. RISD is committed to the collective work of institutional transformation and values applicants whose teaching, pedagogical and professional experiences have prepared them to foster and sustain equitable learning environments. We especially welcome faculty whose pedagogy engages diverse perspectives, expands forms of knowledge, and helps foster a culture of belonging where all students, staff, and faculty can thrive.
We invite applications for a full-time faculty position in the Industrial Design Department with a focus on the Master of Arts in Design Engineering (MADE), a joint graduate program offered in collaboration with Brown University's School of Engineering. Applicants should expect to serve a minimum of one 3-year term as Graduate Program Director, the primary academic and administrative contact for MADE from RISD.
The faculty member will work across the Brown Engineering and RISD Industrial Design communities and with industry partners to bring contemporary design challenges into the studio. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable in a boardroom, a workshop, and a classroom, and understands that meaningful innovation often happens where disciplines meet.
We seek candidates who are accomplished designers, have a clear and compelling research agenda - as evidenced through their creative, scholarly or professional work - and who share our deep commitment to teaching and design education. Candidates should be able and ready to teach a range of core and advanced coursework. The ideal candidate will demonstrate substantial experience bridging industrial design, technology development, research, and making, whether through industry R&D, technology centers, research laboratories, technology companies, independent practice, or comparable environments. Candidates with significant professional practice and advanced technical expertise are encouraged to apply, including those whose primary experience has been outside traditional academic settings.
The faculty member will initially teach primarily in MADE, with responsibilities that will also include undergraduate and graduate courses in the BFA and MID programs in Industrial Design.
Rank (Assistant or Associate) will be determined based on the candidate's qualifications and experience, with opportunities for promotion through RISD.
About the MADE Program
MADE is an intensive eleven-month graduate program that combines the strengths of RISD and Brown University's Department of Engineering. It prepares students to merge visionary thinking with pragmatic problem solving, qualitative with quantitative methods, and creative inquiry with technological innovation to produce solutions that improve lives.
At the core of the curriculum is a sequence of interdisciplinary studios in which students investigate real-world challenges through research, experimentation, prototyping, and implementation. Working in collaborative teams, students learn to synthesize diverse perspectives, communicate across disciplines, and turn ideas into products, systems, services, and experiences.
Required Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
RISD/ Department Description
RISD is a nonprofit college and museum of art and design founded in 1877 in the city of Providence, RI. Today 2,606 students from 62 countries engage in more than 40 full-time bachelor's and master's degree programs, supported by a committed faculty and worldwide network of more than 33,000 alumni.
By cultivating expansive and elastic thinking, RISD equips artists, designers and scholars to generate and challenge the ideas that shape our world.
RISD has a critical review process, which is very similar to the tenure process at other institutions. RISD supports faculty professional practice with sabbaticals, pre-critical review leave, conference funds, and professional development grants. For more information about
With 13 full-time faculty and 41part-time faculty, the Industrial Design departments runs 110 classes (per year) for 264 BFA candidates, 33 MID candidates, students from the joint Masters of Arts and Design Engineering (MADE) with Brown University, and a limited number of non-major students from across RISD and Brown.
The Industrial Design Department is aligned with Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)'s efforts to shape more just societies, to address sustainability and the climate crisis, and to contribute new knowledge through creative inquiry and practice.
In Industrial Design we believe that designers must be critical makers and critical thinkers. To enable our students to learn, think, and lead, we use material making and material design to gain hands-on design experience; to explore how to apply these processes to new products, services, and systems; and to gain mastery of the mindsets and methods to create new and meaningful innovation. For more about the department visit: https://id.risd.edu/
Our alumni go on to become professional and academic leaders in a field that is no longer narrowly focused on the creation of industrial goods. They design the objects, experiences, services and systems that give shape to contemporary life and beyond.
Faculty Responsibilities
The full-time faculty teaching load is five teaching units per year. One teaching unit equals three weekly contact hours for a seminar and five weekly contact hours for a studio. In most departments, this correlates to teaching five courses per year spread across fall, wintersession, and spring semesters. In addition to teaching, faculty are expected to maintain an active professional practice; advise students; participate in curriculum development and college committees; engage in departmental and/or divisional activities and projects; and contribute to the intellectual life of the college.
Union Yes Salary Information
For information about base pay for this position, please refer to Article XII "Salaries" (p. 19-22) in the Faculty Association Collective Bargaining Contract 2025-2028. The contract indicates the minimum base salary for each rank.
Pre-employment Requirement
The successful candidate will be required to meet our pre-employment background screening requirements.
Special Instructions to Applicants
RISD Faculty Search Committees comprise colleagues from within and outside of the hiring Department.
Please attach the following to to the appropriate links in the section labeled "Documents Needed to Apply":
1.) Letter of intent addressing the qualifications and responsibilities outlined above (2 pages maximum).
2.) Curriculum vitae or résumé including academic, professional, and research experience.
3.) Teaching philosophy- A statement that describes your approach to inclusive pedagogy, provides examples of how you have put them into practice through teaching, mentoring, or professional experience, and it explains how your expertise informs your teaching (2 pages maximum).
4.) Evidence of teaching or mentoring experience - Syllabi or other evidence of teaching experience, including leading workshops, design sprints, onboarding or training activities, mentoring teams or junior designers, or serving as an academic visiting critic. Materials should demonstrate your ability to structure learning, facilitate groups, and communicate effectively with students. If you do not have teaching experience, provide a sample syllabus that demonstrates how you would bring your expertise to the classroom.
5.) Two brief course descriptions (an undergraduate skills course and an undergraduate studio) that you would be interested in teaching.
6.) Creative Work/Professional Work/Scholarship portfolio of recent professional work (20 images maximum, in one PDF). The portfolio should include a brief statement to assist the committee in understanding the work and its relation to your research statement. URLs within the PDF to digital or motion work are allowable.
7.) A research statement that includes a summary of your area of interest, current goals, outcomes and future plans (Attach to section labeled "Other 1").
8.) Examples of student work - A portfolio of examples of student work, where possible these selections should reflect your teaching pedagogy and teaching philosophy (20 images maximum, in one PDF). The portfolio should also include a brief statement to assist the committee in understanding the work and its relation to your teaching statement. URLs within the PDF to digital or motion work are allowable.
Applications may not be edited once they are certified and submitted.
Only materials that have been requested will be considered.
Names and contact information for three references are requested as part of the application process at the finalist stage.
Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the position is filled. Candidates who submit their materials by January 5, 2027 are assured full consideration.
EEO Statement
RISD is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics, or any other protected characteristic as established by law.
Posting Detail Information
Posting Number F00138P Open Date Close Date Open Until Filled Yes
Supplemental Questions
Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).
Documents Needed To Apply
Required Documents
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