The Division of Games at the University of Utah invites applications for a non-tenure-track career-line Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Games, with a focus on entrepreneurship and industry leadership, to begin Spring 2027 or Fall 2027. We seek an applicant with firsthand experience founding and building a games company, combined with a substantial career as an executive or senior leader within the games industry. Candidates should bring deep, practical knowledge of the business of game development, including studio formation, funding and financing, publishing and distribution models, team and product leadership, and the operational realities of running a game studio at scale.
The successful candidate will teach existing courses in game creation and will work with Division leadership and faculty to expand our curriculum, engaging students in entrepreneurship and the industry practices that surround the business of making and shipping games. This is an opportunity to help shape how the next generation of game makers understands founding, financing, and leading a studio, not only how to build the game itself.
Successful candidates will share our vision of the power that games hold to transform players, groups, and society. Hires are part of the PRESS PLAY Initiative (https://games.utah.edu/pressplay/), a significant, multi-year commitment for faculty growth in the Division of Games.
Note: The Division of Games is dedicated to connecting students with industry professionals and contemporary game development practices. For industry professionals wishing to transition into academia, the Division provides training and onboarding around academic and administrative practices.
Necessary Qualifications
- Demonstrated experience as a founder of a games company (studio, publisher, or games-adjacent venture).
- Ten or more years as an executive or senior leader within the games industry (e.g., studio head, CEO, COO, general manager, or equivalent leadership role).
- Teaching experience is required.
- Ability to lead existing courses in game creation and to teach across the B.S. in Games and Master’s of Entertainment Arts & Engineering (MEAE) curricula to students in person on the Salt Lake City campus.
- Demonstrated commitment to teaching and/or mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in lectures and studio-based courses.
- Ability to develop new curriculum connecting entrepreneurship, business practice, and the games industry for students across the Division.
- A Bachelor’s degree plus ten or more years of industry leadership experience in the games industry, or a terminal degree in a related field.
- In addition to teaching, candidates are expected to contribute to university and professional service, for example, collaborative work to expand our curriculum, outreach to local industry and government partners, and recruitment efforts.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience founding or leading more than one games company or venture, or leading a games company through founding to operation at significant scale.
- A network of active relationships across the games industry that can support student mentorship, internships, and placement.
- Experience fundraising, financing, or negotiating publishing and distribution agreements.
About the Division
The Division of Games is a world leader in games education, with consistently top-ranked programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and is currently ranked #1 among public institutions by both the Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. We are one of the four academic units of the College of Architecture and Planning, which also includes the School of Architecture, the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, and the Division of Multi-Disciplinary Design.
The Utah Games faculty includes artists, computer scientists, designers, learning scientists, philosophers, producers, social scientists, writers, and other games makers and scholars who collectively work together to push the boundaries of what is possible in games. This breadth of backgrounds is one of the core elements of our identity. We strongly value inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to research and education, and we seek to foster collaboration across the University of Utah. Currently, our faculty sustain ongoing collaborations with other departments within our College of Architecture + Planning, as well as the School of Medicine, the Colleges of Education, Humanities, Social and Behavioral Science, and Engineering, and other campus partners. We also maintain strong collaborations with the vibrant local game development community and other significant industry-wide partners.
Our unit is committed to being a responsible member of our campus and professional community, and we strive to recruit and support faculty committed to acting in furtherance of our unit’s values. Interested candidates may view these values by visiting games.utah.edu/utah-games-values.
If you are interested in joining us to build a culture of academic excellence; to create ideas that advance our understanding of games; to share those ideas with our students, communities, and society; and to apply those ideas to change the world for the better, we strongly encourage you to apply.
About the University of Utah
The University of Utah is a Carnegie Research I institution located in Salt Lake City, nestled in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains. With thriving arts and culinary scenes and a growing high-technology sector, Salt Lake City offers a mix of urban life alongside access to national parks, ski resorts, hiking, and climbing, all just minutes from campus.
