Assistant Professor, Applications of Artificial Intelligence (multiple positions and disciplines)

Workplace Culture

NAU aims to be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of economic mobility, and driver of social impact by delivering equitable postsecondary value in Arizona and beyond.

About NAU

Northern Arizona University serves almost 30,000 students. We are a vibrant community, with 21,000 students in Flagstaff—the home of our largest campus—and the remainder online or at our 20+ statewide locations. Our institution has carefully integrated on-campus education with distance learning, forming seamless avenues for students to earn degrees.

Committed to an inclusive university environment, NAU has all the benefits of a large institution with a personal touch. We carefully balance teaching, scholarship, and service for faculty members. Supporting our core value of student-centrism, NAU’s faculty members promote learning and help students reach academic milestones.

Flagstaff is an outdoorsy mountain town with four seasons and a thriving cultural scene. Located at 7,000 feet, Flagstaff houses 70,000 people and sits at the base of the sacred San Francisco Peaks.

For more about inclusive excellence at NAU, visit the Center for Inclusive Excellence and Access.

About the Position

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is seeking to recruit for multiple positions that build on our long-standing and distinctive strength in developing interdisciplinary and use-inspired academic and scholarly initiatives to build transformational capacity in the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) across multiple disciplines, embracing the centrality of AI to the future of teaching, learning, and scholarship.

NAU’s mountain campus is located in Flagstaff, nestled in the heart of northern Arizona’s majestic mountains and pine forests. Consistently celebrated as one of the best college towns in the nation, Flagstaff offers a welcoming community and provides excellent opportunities for outdoor recreation, with hiking, mountain biking, and skiing available just minutes away. Flagstaff’s vibrant culture is rooted in a thriving arts, music, and restaurant scenes and the town’s cultural institutions honor its history and the heritage of its indigenous peoples. Flagstaff offers an exceptional setting for both living and learning.

Faculty recruited as part of this initiative will join a faculty community that is committed to providing access to innovative academic programs, passionate about student success, and collaboratively leading world-class scholarly programs. This work supports our goal to be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of economic mobility, and driver of social impact by delivering equitable postsecondary value in Arizona and beyond.

By infusing AI expertise across a broad range of disciplines and academic units, we envision that faculty recruited in this initiative will (a) innovate in the application of AI to teaching and learning, (b) advance scholarship and research in interdisciplinary and use-inspired applications of AI, and (c) contribute to shaping and leading our future institutional initiatives in this area.

Exceptional candidates with expertise in the application of AI technologies to use-inspired research, scholarship, and creative activity across the broad range of disciplines represented in our academic colleges, especially work that focuses on instructional applications of AI that support student learning, are encouraged to apply. More specifically, we seek faculty with expertise in the application and use of various AI methods (e.g., supervised and unsupervised machine learning, deep neural networks, natural language processing, large language models, expert systems, generative modeling) to:

• Digital humanities and creative activities, applied linguistics and language understanding and learning, applications to cultural management and arts leadership;
• Applications of AI to business challenges, including business analytics, decision-support systems, optimizing financial models, and automating marketing strategies;
• Adaptive learning systems, curriculum development and assessment support;
• Engineering education, prompt engineering, and intelligent cyberphysical systems across computer science, engineering, bioengineering, and healthcare;
• Data analysis and AI applications in wildlife management, conservation, ecology and evolutionary biology, and materials science;
• Geospatial and environmental modeling and forecasting, integrated climate risk analysis;
• Healthcare decision-support systems and diagnostic support supporting increased efficiency and quality, applications of AI to improve public health outcomes, applications in mental health therapies and behavioral data science; or
• Ethical considerations of AI applications, including professional ethics, algorithmic bias, privacy and transparency, intellectual property and media forensics, societal impacts, policy and regulation, inclusion, and environmental impacts.

Responsibilities include:

• Teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels and mentoring students;
• Building and maintaining a vibrant and productive scholarly program, including securing extramural funding; and
• Contributing to service to the institutional, academic, and professional communities.

Each of these multiple positions is a nine month tenure track faculty position. Each position is an on-site position which requires the incumbent to complete their work primarily at the NAU Mountain campus in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Minimum Qualifications

• An earned terminal degree in any discipline represented in our academic colleges, conferred by August 2025.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise in AI methods and applications to a disciplinary area of interest;
• Demonstrated effectiveness in teaching, student mentorship, and instructional applications of AI to support student learning;
• Promise of continued and future excellence in high-quality scholarly dissemination and securing extramural funding; and,
• Demonstrated interest in contributing to multi- and inter-disciplinary instructional and scholarly initiatives.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Knowledge of effective pedagogy, innovative learning methodologies across varied modalities, and best-practices in course and program curricular design and development.
• Knowledge of the Canvas learning management system.
• Knowledge extramural funding management, planning, proposal and budget development, and policy compliance.
• Knowledge of current trends in higher education teaching and research and emerging demographic trends.
• Effective verbal and written communication abilities.
• Ability to effectively work as part of a community of individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to mentor students and teach a wide variety of courses across undergraduate and graduate levels.

Compensation & Benefits

Commensurate with candidate’s qualifications and related experience.

This is a Faculty (FAC) position. NAU offers an excellent benefit package including generous health, dental and vision insurance; participation in the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) or the Optional Retirement Program (ORP); sick leave accruals and 10 holidays per year; and tuition reduction for employees and qualified family members. More information on benefits at NAU is available at the NAU HR benefits page. Faculty are hired on a contract basis, renewable according to terms of the Conditions of Faculty Service. Employees offered a position will be eligible for state health plans (including NAU’s BCBS Plan). Employees will have 31 days from date of hire to enroll in benefits, and their benefits will then be effective the first day of the pay period following their completed enrollment. If a new employee chooses the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) retirement option, participation in the ASRS Plan (and the long-term disability coverage that accompanies it) will begin on the first of the pay period following 183 days of employment. New employees who choose to participate in the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP; an alternative to the ASRS plan) will begin to participate on the first day of the pay period following election. The long-term disability plan that accompanies the ORP will begin on the first day of the pay period following election. More information about NAU benefits is available at the NAU HR benefits page. 

Pre-Employment Check

Northern Arizona University requires satisfactory results for the following: a criminal background investigation, an employment history verification and a degree verification (in some cases) prior to employment. You may also be required to complete a fingerprint background check. Additionally, as an employer in the state of Arizona, NAU is required to participate in the federal E-Verify program that assists employers with verifying new employees’ right to work in the United States. Finally, each year Northern Arizona University releases an Annual Security Report. The report is a result of a federal law known as the Clery Act. The report includes Clery reportable crime statistics for the three most recent completed calendar years and discloses procedures, practices and programs NAU uses to keep students and employees safe including how to report crimes or other emergencies occurring on campus. In addition, the Fire Safety Report is combined with the Annual Security Report for the NAU Flagstaff Mountain Campus as this campus has on-campus student housing. This report discloses fire safety policies and procedures related to on-campus student housing and statistics for fires that occurred in those facilities. If you would like a free paper copy of the report, please contact the NAUPD Records Department at (928) 523-8884 or by visiting the department at 525 E. Pine Knoll Drive in Flagstaff.

FLSA Status

This position is exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and therefore will not earn overtime or compensatory time for additional time worked.

Submit Your Application

Vacancy will remain open until filled. Applications received before November 22, 2024 will receive full consideration.

To apply for this position, please click on the “Apply” button at the end of the job description (if viewing this position through the NAU HR website). Otherwise, to view the original post and to apply, proceed to nau.jobs, follow the ‘Current Openings’ link, locate vacancy 608122, and then “Apply” at the bottom of the page.

Application must include (saved as PDF and/or Word documents):

1. a cover letter highlighting your particular qualifications for this position. Within the cover letter, express your interest for any particular college. Final placement will be determined by the selection committee.

• the College of Arts and Letters
• the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences
• the College of Education
• the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences
• the College of Health and Human Services
• the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• the W. A. Franke College of Business

1. a curriculum vitae; and
2. names and contact information for three references.

Please do not include any other documents.

For any questions about our AI hiring initiative please reach out to John Georgas at john.georgas@nau.edu.

If you need assistance completing your application there are instructions available on the HR website or in person in the Human Resources Department located in Building 91 on the NAU Campus – on the corner of Beaver and DuPont Streets.

If you are an individual with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to participate in the hiring process, please contact the Disability Resources Office at 928-523-8773, DR@nau.edu, or PO Box 5633, Flagstaff AZ 86011.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Northern Arizona University is a committed Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution. Women, minorities, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. NAU is responsive to the needs of dual career couples.

Know Your Rights Poster

NAU is an Employer of National Service. AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and other National Service alumni are encouraged to apply.

Read Full Description