About the position
The Batten College of Engineering & Technology (BCET) at Old Dominion University (ODU) seeks an experienced, accomplished, and visionary leader to serve as the Inaugural Director of a newly established Institute for Autonomous & Connected Systems (IACS) starting Fall 2025. This is an open tenured/tenure-track faculty position for all engineering disciplines with a 10-month appointment at the Associate or Full professor rank in one of the departments in the college. The primary responsibility of the Institute Director is to provide strategic leadership for the institute to realize its vision and mission in alignment with the BCET's Strategic Plan 'Focus on the Future'. The Inaugural Director will work collaboratively with the institute faculty and stakeholders to establish effective strategic goals and develop a robust strategic plan for enhancing the quality, quantity, impact, and recognition of the sponsored research activities. The Director will encourage the institute faculty to pursue and secure research funding, oversee and coordinate the research activities, foster a culture of innovation within the institute, promote excellent research through synergistic interdisciplinary collaboration, cultivate relationships and develop partnerships with other universities, government, industry, and funding agencies, create new and improve existing interdisciplinary engineering academic programs relevant to the institute mission, communicate research impact and represent the institute to the public and stakeholders, and advise the Dean on all matters relating to the Institute and its mission. The candidate must demonstrate a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion among students, faculty and staff.
Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership for the institute.
- Establish effective strategic goals and develop a robust strategic plan for enhancing research activities.
- Encourage faculty to pursue and secure research funding.
- Oversee and coordinate research activities.
- Foster a culture of innovation within the institute.
- Promote interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty.
- Cultivate relationships and develop partnerships with universities, government, industry, and funding agencies.
- Create and improve interdisciplinary engineering academic programs.
- Communicate research impact and represent the institute to the public and stakeholders.
- Advise the Dean on matters relating to the Institute and its mission.
Requirements
- Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree in an engineering field relevant to the Institute's core area of research.
- Eligibility for a tenured or tenure-track appointment at the rank of Associate or Full Professor.
- Recognized expert with extensive research experience.
- Distinguished record of scholarly accomplishments and peer-reviewed publications.
- Strong commitment to shared governance practices, transparency, consensus building, and collaborative leadership values.
Nice-to-haves
- Strong leadership, administrative, and communication skills.
- Ability to develop and articulate a vision for advancing the mission of the institute.
- Prior leadership experience in leading large grants or in academic leadership roles such as department chair.
- Experience as a Director of Research Center.
