Working Title: Head, Department of Engineering

State Role Title: N/A

Position Type: Instructional / Teaching Faculty

Position Status: Full-Time

FLSA Status: Exempt: Not Eligible for Overtime

College/Division: College of Integrated Science and Engineering

Department: 100590 - Department of Engineering

Pay Rate: Commensurate with Experience

Specify Range or Amount:

Is this a JMU only position? No

Is this a grant-funded position? No

Is this a Conflict of Interest designated position? No

Beginning Review Date: 10/27/2025

About JMU:

Mission
We are a community committed to preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens who lead productive and meaningful lives.

Vision
To be the national model for the engaged university: engaged with ideas and the world.

Who We Are
Situated in the heart of Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley, the city of Harrisonburg is a vibrant community with a population of approximately 52,000. Harrisonburg is conveniently located approximately 120 miles from Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA.

JMU is a selective, public institution with a growing national reputation for offering experiences that lead to an outstanding education and supportive environment for students, faculty and staff. The student body includes approximately 21,000 undergraduate and 1,800 graduate students, with over 1,000 full-time instructional faculty.

JMU offers thriving programs in the liberal arts, science and technology, and professional disciplines at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. JMU has achieved national recognition for the high quality of its academic programs, focus on maintaining strong student/faculty interaction, and innovative faculty research.

General Information:

The Department of Engineering at James Madison University (JMU) invites applicants to join our community and support our project-intensive undergraduate engineering curriculum. We are seeking to hire an Academic Unit Head to start in July 2026. The Head of the Department is responsible for the academic unit’s program administration and strategic leadership, and reports to the Dean of the College of Integrated Science and Engineering. This position is a 12-month, tenured or tenure-track faculty appointment at the rank of Full Professor or Associate Professor.

The JMU Department of Engineering is a community of educators who support each other in achieving broad success in teaching, scholarship, and service. The department offers an ABET-accredited BS degree in engineering with new concentrations in civil and environmental, geo-environmental, and electromechanical systems. Anchored in the liberal arts through the university’s general education program, JMU’s engineering major is characterized by experiential learning of engineering in team-based settings, and the major culminates in a two-year-long engineering project experience. The department currently has fifteen full-time faculty members representing multiple engineering disciplines, seven support staff, and approximately 750 students. Its strengths include dedicated faculty and staff, an engaged and invested student body and alumni, strong administrative and lab support, and well-equipped laboratories and design studios. JMU prizes collaboration among departments and provides unique opportunities for interdisciplinary, team-based teaching and scholarship, with a strong focus on undergraduate research opportunities. More information about the department and undergraduate engineering curriculum may be found at https://www.jmu.edu/cise/engineering/index.shtml.

Duties and Responsibilities:

We seek a candidate who will:

Implement the department’s strategic vision in the evolving landscape of higher education;
Advocate for the department, both internally at JMU and externally to industry, prospective students, academic peers, etc.
Manage and conduct academic administration including course assignments and scheduling, annual faculty evaluations, and departmental budget.
Foster departmental cohesion focused on building consensus within the faculty from various engineering backgrounds.
Work effectively with college and university leadership in a collaborative and constructive way.

Qualifications:

Each candidate will be evaluated based on their qualifications in relation to the department’s needs, but should demonstrate an aptitude for academic leadership within an undergraduate Engineering context. Successful candidates will hold a PhD in an engineering discipline or a closely related field. Additionally, successful candidates will have experience commensurate with the rank of Associate Professor or higher in the Department of Engineering, meeting our standards for accomplishment in service, scholarship, and high-quality teaching.

Additional Posting Information:

JMU faculty embrace the teacher-scholar model and maintain a student-centered approach to teaching, scholarship, and service as an institution newly categorized as R2 in the Carnegie classification. At JMU Engineering, we adapt these core values to meet our educational mission as we continue to grow and evolve into the R2 space.

In our approach to teaching, specifically, our four-year undergraduate engineering curriculum features courses in the first and second years that emphasize holistic design thinking and systems thinking to create engineering solutions that meet client’s and community’s complex needs while accounting for various social, economic, and environmental factors. Additionally, our two-year-long engineering project experience spans across the third and fourth years, providing our students a platform for customized learning in a focused area of interest. Several of these project teams participate in regional and national engineering student competitions.

In our approach to scholarship, we involve students at all levels in our research projects. We value many forms of research, including interdisciplinary scholarship that responds to the needs of our region and beyond. Our faculty typically share the artifacts of their scholarship at regional and national meetings as well as publish their work in peer-reviewed conference proceedings and journals. Our faculty take advantage of internal and external funding sources to support their scholarly projects.

In our approach to service, we contribute to the operation of our institution and the well-being of its people. We also share our academic expertise with professional engineering organizations and community partners beyond the university, contributing to the betterment of our engineering disciplines.

How to Apply:
Candidates should prepare their application materials in relation to the duties, responsibilities, and qualifications articulated in this job posting. Note that only complete submissions that are uploaded electronically to the JMU application portal will be considered. A complete submission must include:
-A cover letter overviewing your professional career trajectory that prepares you for this position
-A curriculum vitae
-A reflection detailing your approach to leadership in an academic context and how those experiences might apply to the Department of Engineering at JMU (limit of two pages, submitted under “Other Document #1”)
-A reflection of your career as a teacher and scholar (limit of two pages, submitted under “Other Document #2”)
-A list of three references who can comment on your leadership and/or administrative aptitude and abilities

The JMU application portal will ask you to list three references who can comment on your potential for success in the position. References will not be contacted until a candidate is being considered for a campus visit; please do not request letters of reference until instructed to do so by the search committee chair. For additional information, applicants are encouraged to contact the chair of the search committee: Dr. Henry Way, wayha@jmu.edu.

JMU’s Dual Career and Community Resources Program is available for candidates that will be relocating to the area. For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2OTF1NG.

Conditions of Employment:  

Employment is contingent upon the successful completion of a criminal background check.

E-Verify Notice: After accepting employment, new hires are required to complete an I-9 form and present documentation of their identity and eligibility to work in the United States. James Madison University uses the E-Verify system to confirm identity and work authorization.

EEO Statement:

James Madison University is committed to creating and supporting a diverse and inclusive work and educational community that is free of all forms of discrimination. This institution does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national origin, parental status, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status.

We promote access, inclusion and diversity for all students, faculty, staff, constituents and programs, believing that these qualities are foundational components of an outstanding education in keeping with our mission. The university is interested in candidates whose experience and qualifications support an ongoing commitment to this core quality.

Anyone having questions concerning discrimination should contact the Office for Equal Opportunity: (540) 568-6991.

Reasonable Accommodation:

If you are an individual with a disability and need assistance searching or applying for jobs please contact us at (540) 568-3597 or jobs@jmu.edu. You may also visit the JMU Human Resource Office, located at 752 Ott Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 and we will be happy to assist you.