Associate or Full Professor in Artificial Intelligence
This tenure-track or tenured role is for a scholar with a proven record in AI research, teaching, and interdisciplinary collaboration, advancing the institution’s mission through impactful AI scholarship and mentorship. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does an Associate or Full Professor in Artificial Intelligence do?
This full-time, tenure-track or tenured role is designed for a candidate with a proven track record in AI research, teaching, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The successful candidate contributes to the institution’s academic mission through impactful AI-focused scholarship, teaching, and mentorship, maintaining an active research agenda spanning AI applications, societal impact, and ethics.
It is a senior faculty role within the higher education sector, typically housed in computer science or an information school, with strong interdisciplinary ties.
Associate Professor is a tenured mid-career rank; Full Professor is the most senior faculty rank, requiring an established reputation. This posting is open at either. AI ethics, the study of fairness, privacy, and bias in AI, is a priority area, informed by frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
What does the professor focus on?
Key responsibilities of an Associate or Full Professor in AI
- Establish and maintain an active research agenda in AI, with a focus on applications, societal impacts, and ethical considerations.
- Publish in high-impact journals and present findings at leading conferences.
- Pursue and secure external funding to support research activities.
- Develop and deliver courses in face-to-face and online modalities, primarily at the graduate level, with opportunities for undergraduate instruction.
- Create curricula exploring the intersection of AI and information sciences, particularly applications for libraries, education, and knowledge systems.
- Advise and mentor graduate students, providing guidance on research projects and professional development.
- Conceptualize, create, and evaluate AI-driven designs, tools, and curricula that enhance learning and information systems.
- Investigate the ethical, societal, and cultural dimensions of AI, emphasizing privacy, inclusivity, and bias mitigation.
- Contribute to departmental, institutional, and professional service that promotes the institution’s leadership in AI research and education.
What qualifications does the role require?
- PhD in computer science, artificial intelligence, library/information studies, or a closely related field, with a demonstrated record of excellence in research and teaching.
- Associate Professor: at least five years of academic experience with a focused scholarly agenda. Full Professor: at least nine years and an established reputation in AI research.
- A record of impactful research in areas such as AI in education, ethics in AI, AI literacy, and AI-driven tools for learning and information systems.
- Demonstrated teaching effectiveness, experience mentoring Master’s and Doctoral students, and a record of securing or potential to secure extramural funding.
- A proven commitment to interdisciplinary research and a collaborative academic environment.
Why is the senior AI professor role important?
Senior AI faculty define a department’s research reputation and train the next generation of AI researchers. Their work on applications, funding, and especially AI ethics shapes how the field develops and how responsibly AI gets built, which matters more each year.
Because the role is senior, the hire signals where a department wants to lead. The strongest candidates bring an established research program, funding momentum, and the judgment to mentor students through a field that is moving faster than its norms.
A hiring note from Excelon
Senior AI faculty are among the most competitively recruited people in academia, courted heavily by industry as well. Through our higher education practice, we look for established researchers with funding momentum and genuine teaching commitment, and we help departments make the case for an academic path, since at this rank the hire sets the department’s research direction for a decade.
At this rank, the hire signals where a department wants to lead.
Related sample job descriptions
Associate or Full Professor in AI: frequently asked questions
What does an Associate or Full Professor in Artificial Intelligence do?
This senior faculty role maintains an active AI research agenda, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses, mentors graduate students, secures external funding, and contributes service. The focus spans AI applications, societal impact, and ethics.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires a PhD in computer science, AI, information studies, or a related field, with at least five years of academic experience for Associate Professor or nine years and an established reputation for Full Professor.
What is the difference between Associate and Full Professor?
Associate Professor is typically a tenured mid-career rank, while Full Professor is the most senior faculty rank, requiring a longer record and an established national or international reputation. This posting is open at either rank.
What research areas does the role emphasize?
Preferred areas include AI ethics, privacy, and bias mitigation; AI in education and information systems; development and evaluation of AI-driven tools and curricula; and the societal impacts of AI.
Why is this role important?
Senior AI faculty define a department’s research reputation and train the next generation of AI researchers. Their work on applications, funding, and especially AI ethics shapes how the field develops and how responsibly AI is built.
Hiring a Professor of Artificial Intelligence?
Excelon Associates recruits senior faculty, AI researchers, and emerging-technology academic talent for colleges and universities across the United States through our higher education recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.