Assistant; Tenure-Track) Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; MAE

Job #JPF
10461

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering / Henry Samueli School of Engineering / UC Irvine

Salary range:
The salary range for this position is $111,400 - $139,200. The posted UC salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and step  Table Salary scale "Off-scale salaries", i.e. a salary that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions.

Open date:
October 19, 2026

Tuesday, Dec 15, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Wednesday, Jun 30, 2027 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Assistant (Tenure-Track) Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)

Aero/Space Structures

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) is inviting applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the assistant professor rank, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2027.

The rapidly evolving landscape of aerospace engineering, driven by advances in next-generation aircraft, urban air mobility, hypersonic and high-speed vehicles, and ambitious space initiatives such as NASA’s Artemis program, the United States Space Force, and the growing commercial space sector, calls for pioneering innovations in aerospace and space structures. Future air and space platforms will demand structures that are lighter, stronger, more adaptable, and more efficient than conventional approaches allow, spanning applications from high-performance airframes to deployable, in-orbit, and lunar/planetary structures..

To address these challenges, UCI’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering seeks exceptional applicants with demonstrated potential to become a leader in aero/space structures.

Areas of Interest span experimental, computational, and theoretical thrusts and include:

• Advanced structural concepts for air and space platforms, including deployable, reconfigurable, and morphing structures (origami- and kirigami-inspired, thin-shell composite, and tensegrity concepts), in-space manufacturing, and in-space/in-field robotic, modular, and autonomous assembly and repair of large-scale structures.
• Aerospace structures leveraging advanced composites and additive manufacturing, including AI-driven strategies for manufacturing, computational design and optimization, and adaptive or multifunctional structures with integrated actuation and sensing.
• Structural mechanics and life-cycle assessment of aircraft and spacecraft structures with emphasis on materials behavior and characterization, including fatigue, fracture, and damage tolerance, aeroelasticity, and structural health monitoring across airframe and space-structure applications with extreme thermal, mechanical, and/or dynamic loading.
• Emerging structural challenges in hypersonic, reusable, and autonomous platforms, including thermal-structural and aerothermoelastic response, and resilient, rapidly manufacturable structures for next-generation defense and space missions.
• Structural dynamics of large, flexible, and ultralight space structures, including pointing-error mitigation under attitude-control maneuvers.

For full consideration, applications should be submitted by December 15, 2026. This position will remain open until filled. Apply online .uci.edu/JPF
10461.

Documentation

Required:

Curriculum Vitae, Cover Letter, Statement of Research, Reflective Teaching Mentoring Statement, Publications (three publications or manuscripts), References (contact information only - 3 required). Reference letters will be requested at a later stage of candidates under serious consideration.

The University of California is one of the premier public university systems in the world. UCI is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), is ranked as a top ten public university by U.S. News and World Report and was identified by the New York Times as number one among U.S. universities that do the most for low-income students.

UCI is a Minority Serving Institution (MSI), a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI). These federal designations align with UCI’s…