About this role
The Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, invites applications for a full-time Senior Lecturer or Professor of Practice in Aerospace Engineering. Areas of special interest include space vehicle design, space navigation, spaceflight mechanics, space structures and control, space environments, and human factors. We will also consider entry level candidates at the Lecturer level and candidates working in other areas of aerospace engineering that will bring additional dimensions to MANE’s teaching and research mission. These appointments may be made for one to five years, and are renewable, contingent upon available funding, enrollment, satisfactory performance, and the business needs of the School of Engineering.
This is an exciting time to be a part of MANE and RPI. MANE is undergoing unprecedented growth across all three disciplines with a dynamic cadre of recent faculty hires. Faculty have access to world-class facilities and a collegial atmosphere that promotes interdisciplinary collaborations. Approximately 1,600 undergraduate students and 220 graduate students are currently enrolled in MANE. RPI’s Aerospace Engineering program has a legacy of an outsized impact on space exploration through an unbroken thread that continues today, from George Low'48 to numerous recent alumni throughout NASA and the space industry. MANE researchers are developing new space instruments to search for life outside our solar system and finding optimal spacecraft trajectories leveraging natural pathways in astrodynamical systems. Our alumni play leading roles from the building of the James Webb Space Telescope to the NASA Artemis and Europa Clipper missions.
Nestled on a beautiful 275-acre campus in upstate NY, Rensselaer is home to five schools, 32 research centers, three makerspaces, and an IBM Quantum One computer - the first university-based quantum computer in the U.S. With over 200 years of experience advancing scientific and technological knowledge, RPI remains focused on addressing global challenges with a spirit of ingenuity and collaboration.
Expected hiring range: Lecturer $80,000-95,000, Senior Lecturer $92,000-$106,000, Professor of Practice $96,000-$140,000 per 9-month academic year.
Pay transparency disclosure: The selected candidate’s salary will be determined based on factors that include the final candidate’s qualifications, experience, and education. This hiring range is provided as RPI’s good faith estimate of the expected hiring range at the time of posting.
RPI is committed to the cultivation of a community that is welcoming, inclusive, and above all values learning. We welcome candidates who bring a variety of perspectives to RPI’s work and campus communities. RPI is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or other characteristic protected by law.
Key Requirements
- Candidates must possess an earned Ph.D. or foreign equivalent in Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related field and have professional experience in the field. In some circumstances, experience may substitute for the Ph.D. degree requirement. For the Professor of Practice position, the candidate must have substantial leadership experience and a national or international reputation for excellence in their field of expertise. The successful candidate must actively and meaningfully contribute to the core teaching mission of MANE, and engage in department, institute, and professional service activities.
