Visiting Fellow: Graduate User Experience Design Department
STATUS: Full time, 9-12 Months
DIVISION: Graduate Studies
REPORTS TO: Dean of Graduate Studies
FLSA STATUS: Exempt
SUPERVISES: N/A
Position Summary
The College for Creative Studies (CCS) invites applications for a full-time, 9 – 12 month Visiting Fellow in User Experience Design. The Fellow will play a key role in reviewing the graduate UX curriculum for industry alignment, mentoring graduate students, and expanding industry partnerships.
Primary duties are centered within the Graduate UX Design department, supporting a full-time 2-year MFA (60 credits), a part-time 2-year MA (30 credits), and a new, fully online 18-month MPS (30 credits). The Fellow will teach across these programs, bringing senior industry expertise in emerging technologies – such as Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI Interactions, Agentic Workflows, Multimodal Interfaces, and Physical-Digital UX – to prepare students for high-level professional practice.
The Graduate Programs:
CCS’s UX Design graduate programs foster cross-disciplinary collaborations in areas such as artificial intelligence, informatics, human-machine interactions, and autonomous mobility. Graduate students situate their creative practice within new and emerging technologies, contributing to the field by advancing new frontiers for art and design. Employing critical, creative and practical thinking, students create technologically mediated interactions for humans with objects, spaces, and interfaces. Whether working with hardware or software, in virtual or physical realms, students are guided by their creativity and critical practice.
With studio projects grounded in practical, hands-on learning, students with a foundation in art, design, engineering, social sciences, digital technology, or systems thinking will thrive in one of CCS’s graduate programs in UX Design.
Position Accountabilities and Essential Functions
The Fellow will audit the current MFA curriculum for industry alignment, provide student mentorship and strengthen industry partnership.
– MFA Program Audit and Curriculum Revision
- Curriculum Audit: Conduct a systematic review of existing syllabi, teaching spaces, equipment, software, and studio outcomes against current and 3–5 year industry trajectories.
- Industry Alignment Report: Deliver a formal assessment identifying critical gaps in technical depth, prototyping workflows, spatial/AI interaction models, and ethical design practices.
- Emerging Tech Integration Roadmap: Develop concrete recommendations to infuse advanced UX subjects into existing studio modules (e.g., micro-credentials, updated project briefs, or new elective proposals).
– MFA Student Mentorship and Instruction
- MFA Thesis Committee Participation: Serve as an Industry Advisor for thesis candidates
- Hybrid Office Hours & Design Reviews: Conduct regular 1-1 office hours (in person and remote) for professional development, portfolio refinement, and upskilling.
- Emerging Technology Guidance: Mentor students on framing design problems and prototyping new and emerging interfaces.
- Career and Professional Coaching: Run targeted career planning sessions to prepare MFA graduates for high-level industry roles
- Instruction: Develop and teach one advanced 15-week graduate elective (OR Design Masterclasses – 2-day Design Sprints or Hackathons)
– Support Program Leadership
- On-Campus Residency Visits: Complete on-campus visits (3–5 days each) for in-person studio critiques and workshops.
- Industry Masterclasses and Hackathons: Facilitate short (2-day) design sprints
- Deliver one College-wide lecture or symposium on the future of design practice at the intersection of emerging technology.
EXPECTATIONS:
- On-Campus Commitments: 2 to 3 residency periods (3–5 days each) per semester
- Remote Commitments: Average of 4 to 6 hours per week direct virtual 1-on-1 mentoring and studio reviews.
- Thesis checkpoints (1 – 2 hours per week)
- Asynchronous curriculum audit, syllabus reviews, feedback (15 hours per week)
- Strengthen Industry alignment and partnerships
Qualifications and Experience
Qualifications and Experience
- A graduate degree
- A Bachelor’s Degree will be considered if the candidate has a significant level of professional experience in User Experience Design
- Teaching experience at the college level is preferred
- Demonstrated knowledge of new and emerging technologies
- Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively as a team leader and colleague
- Knowledge of instructional design for online teaching and learning is desirable.
Work Environment
This job operates in a professional office and college campus environment. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. The employee is occasionally exposed to outside weather conditions.
Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to maintain a stationary position, use a computer and other office equipment, and communicate effectively in person, by phone, and virtually. Frequent interaction with others, including staff, faculty, students and third parties is required. The employee may occasionally be required to move files or other objects weighing up to 25 pounds, including from low and high places. The ability to move around within the office and between buildings on campus, attend off-site meetings and events, and travel between Ford Campus site to Taubman Center site are required. CCS will make reasonable accommodations that will allow individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Application Procedure/Additional Information
Applicants are encouraged to apply immediately. The search will close when a suitable candidate is hired. Interested candidates should submit the following in PDF format: Resume and a letter of application should be submitted to: hr@ccsdetroit.edu
About CCS
The College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a nonprofit, private college authorized by the Michigan Education Department to grant Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. CCS, located in midtown Detroit, strives to provide students with the tools needed for successful careers in the dynamic and growing creative industries. CCS fosters students’ resolve to pursue excellence, act ethically, engage their responsibilities as citizens, and learn throughout their lives. With world-class faculty and unsurpassed facilities, students learn to be visual communicators who actively use art and design toward the betterment of society. The College is a major supplier of talent to numerous industries, such as transportation, film and animation, advertising and communications, consumer electronics, athletic apparel, and many more. Its graduates are exhibiting artists and teachers, design problem solvers and innovators, as well as creative leaders in business.
The College for Creative Studies, a leading college of art and design, represents a community composed of individuals with many perspectives, personal experiences, values, identities and worldviews and we value the diversity this brings to our organization. CCS is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. We consider applicants for all positions without regard to age, race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, height, weight, gender identity, marital or veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.
The College for Creative Studies subscribes to the principle of equal opportunity in its employment, admissions and educational practices and strives to provide an environment and workplace free from unlawful harassment or discrimination. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are part of our Core Institutional Values and we encourage applications from all individuals.
posted on September 23, 2026 at 3:21 pm