The School of Engineering (https://engineering.stanford.edu/) at Stanford University invites applicants for an all-ranks faculty search in the area of Design. The appointment will be at the tenure-track assistant professor, tenure-track or tenured associate professor, or tenured full professor rank. The primary home department will be one of the nine departments in the School of Engineering (https://engineering.stanford.edu/faculty-research/departments) and will be determined during the search process.
Designers produce physical artifacts, computational systems, and human organizations; they draw on new materials and affect natural and built environments. Design is central to all branches of engineering, contributing cross-disciplinary methods for framing and refining a design problem, generating novel approaches, and evaluating candidate solutions. Modern perspectives in design have moved beyond solely functional requirements to include stakeholder need-finding, socio-technical constraints, and attention to ethics and societal implications.
We invite applications from individuals who are pursuing research at the intersection of design and engineering, especially in the following modes: research into design (the study of how people design new artifacts, systems, or organizations), research for design (tools and methods to support designers and engineers, including interactive, computational, and optimization techniques), and research through design (applying the design process to understand and create novel outcomes). Candidates can be conducting this work in the context of any engineering discipline.
Successful candidates should be conducting world-class research and translating their results into real-world impact in their domain, or in the case of junior candidates, have demonstrated potential to do so. In addition to excellence in research, we expect candidates to be or become leaders in design engineering education, and to effectively communicate the role of design in shaping technology, including considering its impacts. A successful candidate will be expected to teach courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels and to build and lead a team of graduate students in Ph.D. research.
Applicants must have completed, or be completing, a Ph.D. in the engineering field in which they apply their work, or a closely related one.
The School of Engineering and Stanford University value faculty who will help foster an open and respectful academic environment for colleagues, students, and staff with a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. Candidates may choose to include as part of their research and teaching statements a brief discussion about how their work and experience will further these values.
Applications should include the following materials:
- Cover letter
- CV
- Brief statements of research and teaching interests (3-5 pages total for both combined). Candidates are encouraged to describe not only their accomplishments but also specific planned research projects and courses that they might like to teach.
- Two representative publications
- Names and e-mail addresses of 3-5 references. Applicants for untenured rank positions should request that all letters are submitted by the application deadline. Applicants for tenured rank positions should submit the names and contact information, but we will only request letters of recommendation for candidates that are short listed.
- In the cover letter, applicants should identify potential home department(s) in the School of Engineering. In addition to applying to this search, if a potential home department has an active search at their rank, they should also apply to the departmental search and indicate in that application that they have also applied to the Design search.
Candidates should apply online at the link. Review of applications will begin on December 1, 2025.
If you have questions regarding this opening or require assistance with the online application system, please contact the Faculty Search Administrator at soefacultysearch@stanford.edu.
The expected base pay range for this position is:
Assistant Professor: $141,247- $159,910
Associate Professor (untenured): $152,547 - $191,506
Associate Professor (tenured): $162,547 - $201,506
Professor: $178,000 - $266,391
This base pay range is for a nine-month academic appointment and does not include summer salary. For more information about compensation and our wide range of benefits, including housing assistance, please contact the hiring department.
Stanford University has provided a pay range representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for the position. The pay offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on factors including (but not limited to) the experience and qualifications of the selected candidate including years since terminal degree, training, and field or discipline; departmental budget availability; internal equity; and external market pay for comparable jobs.
Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Stanford welcomes applications from all who would bring additional dimensions to the University’s research, teaching and clinical missions.
Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact disability.access@stanford.edu.
