Job Number: 561655
Position Rank and Title: Assistant Professor, Graphic Design
School/Department Name: Department of Design
Compensation: Commensurate with qualifications, experience, and rank as established by the CSU Salary Schedule . Anticipated hiring academic year annual salary range: $90,000–$94,000 depending on qualifications.
Faculty employee benefits are very competitive for the higher education sector. See the CSU Employee Benefits Summary for details about the CSU’s excellent benefits package.
Target Start Date: August 17, 2027 (Fall 2027)
Application Deadline: January 8, 2027.
Position Description
The Department of Design at San José State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Graphic Design, beginning in Fall 2027. This is a nine-month, academic-year appointment. We seek a designer, educator, and researcher whose practice bridges analog and digital forms, and who can teach across the undergraduate and graduate graphic design curriculum, including foundational studios, typography, visual systems, interaction design, and advanced electives aligned with the candidate's expertise. The ideal candidate will bring a strong foundation in typography, visual systems, and critical and experimental approaches to design-making, with agility in contemporary digital tools, technologies, and emerging practices.
We are particularly interested in designers who expand the possibilities of graphic design through experimentation, systems thinking, collaboration, and engagement with contemporary social and technological questions. The ideal candidate demonstrates formal rigor, conceptual depth, and an active practice that contributes new knowledge through creative practice, design research, scholarship, or public engagement. The department recognizes multiple forms of scholarly and creative activity, including peer-reviewed publications, exhibitions, commissioned work, funded research, public scholarship, and other contributions that advance the discipline.
The Department of Design is centered on design research, creative technologies, and interdisciplinary collaboration. We seek faculty who use technology in adaptive, inclusive, poetic, collaborative, and experimental ways while advancing socially responsible design practices. The department offers four professional degrees and is organized around five discipline groups: Interior Design, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Graphic Design, and Animation. Our faculty includes designers, architects, artists, and historians committed to excellence and collaboration across the department, college, university, Silicon Valley, and beyond. Prospective faculty will have opportunities to engage with the Advanced Institute for Ethical Technologies (AI-ET) , which advances interdisciplinary and community-centered dialogue about responsible technology, and the Digital Humanities Center , a collaborative hub for digitally informed research, teaching, and public engagement.
The Department of Design and San José State University value institutional excellence and are committed to advancing equity through research, teaching, and service. We enroll more than 40,000 students, many of whom are historically underserved; approximately 45% of our undergraduate students are first-generation college students and 38% are Pell Grant recipients. In addition, we are both a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). SJSU aspires to create holistic learning environments that facilitate both individual and collective transformation. We seek teacher-scholars who cultivate inclusive, empowering spaces for mutual learning, skill-building, and knowledge exchange for all students. Our commitment to lifelong learning supports meaningful connections among faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the broader communities we serve.
We invite all applicants to include a Statement of Institutional Excellence (or incorporate it into your cover letter) to share how your lived and professional experiences will contribute to the SJSU community—particularly in relation to student success. A guide to writing this statement can be found at SJSU Institutional Excellence Statement Guidelines .
Required Qualifications
Position Rank and Title: Assistant Professor, Graphic Design
School/Department Name: Department of Design
Compensation: Commensurate with qualifications, experience, and rank as established by the CSU Salary Schedule . Anticipated hiring academic year annual salary range: $90,000–$94,000 depending on qualifications.
Faculty employee benefits are very competitive for the higher education sector. See the CSU Employee Benefits Summary for details about the CSU’s excellent benefits package.
Target Start Date: August 17, 2027 (Fall 2027)
Application Deadline: January 8, 2027.
Position Description
The Department of Design at San José State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Graphic Design, beginning in Fall 2027. This is a nine-month, academic-year appointment. We seek a designer, educator, and researcher whose practice bridges analog and digital forms, and who can teach across the undergraduate and graduate graphic design curriculum, including foundational studios, typography, visual systems, interaction design, and advanced electives aligned with the candidate's expertise. The ideal candidate will bring a strong foundation in typography, visual systems, and critical and experimental approaches to design-making, with agility in contemporary digital tools, technologies, and emerging practices.
We are particularly interested in designers who expand the possibilities of graphic design through experimentation, systems thinking, collaboration, and engagement with contemporary social and technological questions. The ideal candidate demonstrates formal rigor, conceptual depth, and an active practice that contributes new knowledge through creative practice, design research, scholarship, or public engagement. The department recognizes multiple forms of scholarly and creative activity, including peer-reviewed publications, exhibitions, commissioned work, funded research, public scholarship, and other contributions that advance the discipline.
The Department of Design is centered on design research, creative technologies, and interdisciplinary collaboration. We seek faculty who use technology in adaptive, inclusive, poetic, collaborative, and experimental ways while advancing socially responsible design practices. The department offers four professional degrees and is organized around five discipline groups: Interior Design, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Graphic Design, and Animation. Our faculty includes designers, architects, artists, and historians committed to excellence and collaboration across the department, college, university, Silicon Valley, and beyond. Prospective faculty will have opportunities to engage with the Advanced Institute for Ethical Technologies (AI-ET) , which advances interdisciplinary and community-centered dialogue about responsible technology, and the Digital Humanities Center , a collaborative hub for digitally informed research, teaching, and public engagement.
The Department of Design and San José State University value institutional excellence and are committed to advancing equity through research, teaching, and service. We enroll more than 40,000 students, many of whom are historically underserved; approximately 45% of our undergraduate students are first-generation college students and 38% are Pell Grant recipients. In addition, we are both a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). SJSU aspires to create holistic learning environments that facilitate both individual and collective transformation. We seek teacher-scholars who cultivate inclusive, empowering spaces for mutual learning, skill-building, and knowledge exchange for all students. Our commitment to lifelong learning supports meaningful connections among faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the broader communities we serve.
We invite all applicants to include a Statement of Institutional Excellence (or incorporate it into your cover letter) to share how your lived and professional experiences will contribute to the SJSU community—particularly in relation to student success. A guide to writing this statement can be found at SJSU Institutional Excellence Statement Guidelines .
Required Qualifications
- A terminal degree (MFA, MDes, PhD) in a graphic design discipline or closely and demonstrably related field. The degree must be completed before the targeted start date.