"Assistant Professor in Smart and Resilient Infrastructure (Tenured Track, F0020A)"

Posting Details

Job Title
Assistant Professor in Smart and Resilient Infrastructure (Tenured Track, F0020A)

Department
RESILIENCE CLUSTER HIRE

Position Number
F0020A

Job Description

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) in the Batten College of Engineering and Technology (BCET) at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, VA, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Smart and Resilient Infrastructure starting in Fall 2026. This is a 10-month appointment.

The position is part of ODU’s Centennial Faculty Cluster Hire initiative within the SLR and coastal resilience research focus area and will play an important role in advancing the strategic vision of both the BCET and ODU in terms of addressing global challenges associated with SLR and natural hazards. This faculty member is expected to develop transdisciplinary research, education, and outreach programs that can integrate advanced sensing networks, autonomous monitoring systems, digital twin technologies, and intelligent materials to improve the durability, performance, and hazard protection of onshore and offshore coastal infrastructure. The design of climate-smart infrastructure for vulnerable coastal communities through development of accurate hazard and risk assessment tools is a desired outcome of these efforts. This position is envisioned to foster synergy with other cluster hire faculty members, including that in the Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences (OES), and across several subdisciplines within CEE, including coastal engineering, geotechnical engineering, coastal geotechnics, transportation engineering, structural engineering and environmental and water resources engineering.

The successful candidate will develop and lead research on smart, resilient infrastructure—such as coastal defenses, offshore structures, and critical facilities—designed to withstand oceanic forces and natural hazards. They should have strong expertise in wave–structure interaction and/or community-scale planning, including hazard mitigation, coastal adaptation, and economic resilience (e.g., cost-benefit and life-cycle analysis). The work may involve collecting and integrating field data from instrumented and monitored infrastructure with coastal hydrodynamic data and analyzing those data using AI/ML tools, numerical modeling, coastal hydrology, spatial planning, and socio-economic analyses, to produce results that can be used to design and develop resilient coastal infrastructure systems and adaptation strategies using advanced and sustainable materials.

Position Type
FullTime

Type of Recruitment
General Public

Minimum required education and/or special licenses, registrations, trainings, or certifications

Ph.D. in civil engineering or equivalent in a related engineering discipline completed by the position start date.

Minimum required level and type of experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities

Must be able to develop and teach both graduate and undergraduate courses in civil engineering.

Have plans for acquiring and sustaining sponsored research.

Preferred Qualifications

• A record of disseminating knowledge through archival journal publications.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license or plan to acquire in the near future.
• Have experience in teaching and conducting sponsored research.
• Able to transfer existing projects.
• Have plans for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations that align with the goals of the cluster hire.

Conditions of Employment

Location
Norfolk, VA

Job Open Date
10/15/2025

Application Review Date
12/15/2025

Open Until Filled
Yes

Application Instructions

Interested candidates should submit materials at https://jobs.odu.edu/postings/24466 and include the following in their application:

1. A cover letter
2. A curriculum vitae
3. Unofficial graduate transcripts
4. A statement of teaching philosophy
5. A statement of research interests
6. Contact information for 3 references

Applications should be submitted by December 15, 2025, for full consideration. The position will remain open until it is filled.

Telework Friendly
No

About the College

ODU, located in Norfolk, is Virginia’s forward-focused public doctoral research university with more than 23,000 students, an R1 research ranking, rigorous academics, an energetic residential community and initiatives that contribute $2.6 billion annually to Virginia’s economy.

About the Department

CEE is one of five departments in the BCET and offers an ABET-accredited B.S. in Civil Engineering as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering. The Department’s research areas include coastal engineering, transportation engineering, environmental and water resources engineering, structural engineering, and geotechnical engineering.