Tenure-Track Assistant Professor - Civil and Environmental Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 143,000 - 147,000; Full time

Job summary

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), potentially joint with IDSS. The appointment will begin July 1, 2027, at the assistant professor level, with possible exceptions for senior candidates.

The role emphasizes foundational infrastructure decision-making research and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in a relevant field by the start of employment.
• Ability to connect methodological advances in ML, OR, control, statistics to infrastructure problems.
• Interdisciplinary education and teaching experience welcome.

Responsibilities

• Teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
• Advise students and develop course materials.
• Conduct original scholarly research and contribute to CEE and IDSS educational programs.
• Contribute to the two-subject teaching load per year and coordinate teaching across units.

Skills

Foundational contributions to decision

Education

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field

Job description

Tenure-track Assistant Professor - Civil and Environmental Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Cambridge, MA

Full Time

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), together with the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, seeks applicants for tenure-track faculty positions to begin July 1, 2027, or on a mutually agreed date thereafter. Appointment will be at the assistant professor level. In special cases, however, an untenured associate or senior faculty appointment may be possible, commensurate with experience.

We seek candidates who can make foundational contributions to the science and engineering of decision-making for networked infrastructure. We are interested in researchers developing learning, optimization, and control methods for infrastructure systems that sense, decide, and adapt - safely and at scale - with strong connections to real-world systems such as supply chains, energy, transportation, water, logistics, and other critical infrastructure networks.

Particular areas of interest include: sequential decision-making at scale, including learning, optimization, and control under uncertainty across supply chains, energy systems, transportation, and logistics; hybrid physics and data models that combine first-principles physics with data, real-time sensing, state estimation, and rigorous uncertainty quantification; and trustworthy AI for critical infrastructure, including foundations for safe operation, verification, guardrails, human oversight, and resilience to human-cyber-physical failures.

We are especially interested in candidates who connect methodological advances in machine learning, operations research, control, statistics, or related fields to fundamental and consequential infrastructure problems. The successful candidate will help deepen the intellectual bridge between CEE and IDSS and contribute to the development of intelligent infrastructure systems in which physical dynamics, sensing, inference, decision-making, and control are integrated into a coherent engineering framework.

The successful candidate will demonstrate excellence in original research and a strong commitment to interdisciplinary education. Faculty responsibilities include teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, advising students, conducting original scholarly research, developing course materials, and contributing to both CEE and IDSS educational programs. The normal teaching load is two subjects per year, with teaching responsibilities coordinated across the two units.

Applicants should hold a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related science or engineering field by the beginning of employment. Candidates from adjacent disciplines are encouraged to apply when their work advances the science and engineering of infrastructure decision‑making.

The pay range for a 9-month academic appointment at the entry-level Assistant Professor rank (excluding summer salary): $143,000 - $147,000. The pay offered to a selected candidate during hiring will be based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate's work experience and education/training, internal peer equity, and applicable legal requirements. This pay range represents base pay only and does not include any other benefits or compensation. Employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background check, including possible verification of any findings of misconduct or pending investigations from prior employers.

MIT is an equal employment opportunity employer. We value diversity and strongly encourage applications from individuals from all identities and backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive equitable consideration for employment based on their experience and qualifications and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin. See MIT's full policy on Nondiscrimination (https://policies.mit.edu/policies-procedures/90-relations-and-responsibilities-within-mit-community/92-nondiscrimination).

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