HES - Instructor, Clothing, Textiles and Interior Design, Renewable Faculty

Department/Organization
217301 - Clothing Textiles/Interior Design

Rank
Instructor

Position Summary

The Department of Clothing, Textiles, and Interior Design invites applications for a full-time 9 month, non-tenure track position, at the rank of Instructor in Fashion Design.

Detailed Position Information

The Department of Clothing, Textiles, and Interior Design invites applications for a full-time 9 month, non-tenure track position, at the rank of Instructor in Fashion Design. This position combines undergraduate teaching in the Fashion Design concentration with responsibility for the operation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and continued readiness of the department's apparel design and production laboratories and industrial equipment. Faculty teach lecture and studio courses (80%) and engage in service to the University and the Community (20%). This role is an on-campus position.

Fashion Design at The University of Alabama brings together creativity, craftsmanship, technical knowledge, and human-centered approaches to design. Students learn through making, experimentation, problem solving, and hands-on engagement with materials, processes, technologies, and people. Coursework connects foundational apparel design and construction skills with contemporary approaches including design thinking, co-creation, inclusive and adapted apparel design, emerging technologies, and collaborative design practices.

The successful candidate will bring substantial professional apparel industry experience into this learning environment and contribute expertise in areas such as garment construction, flat patternmaking, production design, garment fitting, product development, and apparel manufacturing. Teaching responsibilities will include Fashion Design courses that develop students' creative, technical, and professional capabilities while helping them understand the complete process of moving an idea from concept through development, fitting, production, and final realization.

A significant component of the position is supporting the department's culture of hands-on learning and making. The Instructor/Lab Technician will operate, service, troubleshoot, maintain, and support industrial sewing machines and related apparel production equipment; assist with preventive maintenance and equipment readiness; and help maintain safe, organized, and functional laboratory environments while supporting laboratory safety procedures for students and faculty.

The position will work collaboratively with Fashion Design faculty to support studio instruction, student learning, and the continued development of industry-relevant laboratory experiences. The ideal candidate will value both the creative and technical dimensions of design and understand that effective fashion design requires an integration of ideas, people, materials, processes, craftsmanship, and production.

Minimum Qualifications

• MFA or MS in Fashion Design, Apparel Design, Clothing and Textiles, or a related design field.
• College-level teaching experience in Fashion Design or closely related apparel design courses.
• Professional experience in the fashion or apparel industry.
• Demonstrated professional expertise in garment construction, sewing techniques, and apparel production methods.
• Professional experience using flat pattern techniques within the apparel industry for an apparel company or apparel brand.
• Professional experience with garment fitting, production design, and apparel production processes.
• Demonstrated experience operating, troubleshooting, servicing, maintaining, and repairing industrial sewing machines and related apparel production equipment.
• Ability to teach undergraduate Fashion Design courses at introductory through advanced levels, particularly in apparel construction, patternmaking, production, and related studio-based courses.
• Demonstrated ability to teach, demonstrate, and communicate technical apparel construction and equipment processes effectively to students.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor students in the development of technical, creative, and professional skills for careers in the apparel industry.

Preferred Qualifications

• 15-20 years of significant professional fashion design experience in the apparel industry.
• 15-20 years of significant experience servicing and maintaining industrial sewing machines and related apparel production equipment.
• Experience working directly with domestic and overseas garment manufacturers.
• Experience traveling internationally to work with garment manufacturers and production partners.
• Product development experience within the apparel industry, with preference given to luxury brand experience.
• Experience managing apparel products from design development through sampling, fitting, production, and final realization, with preference given to high end product.
• Experience teaching adapted apparel design, inclusive design, human-centered design, co-design, or related approaches to apparel design.
• Experience with draping and advanced patternmaking techniques.
• Experience with industrial cutting, pressing, finishing, or other apparel production equipment.
• Experience maintaining apparel design laboratories, including equipment organization, preventive maintenance, inventory, and laboratory safety.
• Experience using contemporary apparel technologies and digital tools utilized within fashion design, pattern development, technical design, product development, and apparel production.

Instructions and Required Materials for Application

Required application materials: Cover Letter Current Curriculum Vitae Applicants chosen to interview will be expected to demonstrate sewing machine maintenance and a teaching demonstration. They will also need to provide three letters of reference. Review of applicants will start October 15, 2026. All applications must be received by December 1, 2026. Expected start date of appointment is January 4, 2027. Applicants with questions should contact Rebecca Burney at: rrburney@ua.edu.

About the Division/College/School

At the College of Human Environmental Sciences, we empower students to bring about positive change in the world. Our faculty conduct advanced research, provide outreach and prepare a new generation of professionals with a shared goal of improving lives.

CHES brings together a wide range of disciplines which focus on the interaction between individuals, families and the environment. Five distinct departments cover a multitude of human science programs that help individuals across the lifespan improve their mental, physical and financial well-being. We touch people's lives in the home, at school, in the workplace, at the dinner table, on the athletic field, and in a myriad of other arenas.

About the University

The University of Alabama is located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, named one of Travel + Leisure's 25 Best College Towns and Cities in the U.S. As one of the nation's premier universities, UA offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in nearly 200 fields of study. With more than 1,400 acres of tree-lined academic core campus and over 300 state-of-the art facilities, UA has been ranked among the most beautiful and most impressive college campuses in the South, in the state of Alabama and in the nation.

In Fall 2023, the Capstone set a new enrollment record with more than 39,000 students, including more than 8,200 in the freshman class. The current enrollment includes students from every county in Alabama, every state in the nation and 92 countries around the world. More than 1,100 National Merit Scholars are currently enrolled, making UA one of the largest enrolling institutions of the scholars in the country.

UA was recently recognized as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. students for the seventh time in nine years, as well as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Scholars for the first time. UA is one of only 12 universities in the nation to receive both honors.

For reasons like this, the University made Forbes list of America's Top Colleges for 2023 and Time magazine's list of Top 50 Best Colleges for Future Leaders. It also made Princeton Review's list of Top Value Colleges.

UA is also designated among the top doctoral research universities in the United States in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. One of the fastest growing major research institutions in the nation, UA saw a 21% increase in sponsored awards in the 2023 fiscal year.

Since 2015, UA has invested over $1.1 billion in the physical campus, adding more than 2.55 million gross square feet of space, over 150 new research-intensive faculty, signature research areas (e.g., "The Alabama Research Institutes"), and a growing number of partnerships with industry and with state and federal agencies.

The University employs nearly 2,100 faculty and over 4,500 staff, with 52 UA researchers included in the National Academy of Inventors. An additional 40 current faculty have received the NSF CAREER Award, the nation's most prestigious recognition of top performing young scientists in disciplines ranging from nanoscience and engineering to biological sciences.

Background Investigation and EEO Statement

Background Investigation Statement: Prior to hiring, the final candidate(s) must successfully pass a pre-employment background investigation and information obtained from social media and other internet sources. A prior conviction reported as a result of the background investigation DOES NOT automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration for this position. A candidate with a prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags will receive an individualized review of the prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags before a hiring decision is made.

Equal Employment Opportunity: The University of Alabama is an Equal Employment/Equal Educational Opportunity Institution. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment or volunteer status without regard to any legally protected basis and will not be discriminated against because of their protected status. Applicants and employees of this institution are protected under Federal law from discrimination on several bases. More information is available in the EEOC's Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal poster.

The University of Alabama affirms its longstanding commitment to institutional neutrality, free speech, and academic freedom.

Advertised: 01 Oct 2026 Central Daylight Time
Applications close: 01 Dec 2026 Central Standard Time