Lecturer / Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor

Classification: Academic Level B, Level C or Level D
Salary package: $124,638 - $189,967 per annum plus 17% superannuation
Term: Full time, Tenure Track 

• Establish Cybernetics in Australia and activate it for national capability building.  
• Deliver value to the ANU through exceptional education, research, and engagement activities.  
• Build a strong diverse culture for an impact and engagement-oriented school, of the scale to support ANU and the nation. 
• Generate sustainable funding for ANU through education, research and engagement. 

About the opportunity

The School of Cybernetics at ANU is a place for people who think across boundaries. Our work spans emerging technology, futures practice, systems design, and the governance of complex change. We want to transform human systems to be more just and capable of genuine renewal. We are looking for colleagues who bring both deep expertise and genuine desire to steer the systems we are embedded in for the better. This is a tenure track position.

The area we are looking for is: Emerging Technology and Social Robotics

How are artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and robotics disrupting and transforming social and environmental systems? How do they change us; how do we change them, and what does safe, responsible, and sustainable design, deployment, and decommissioning look like? At SOCY we study and build purposeful technologies in their broader social, environmental, and organisational contexts. Our research in emerging technology and social robotics spans novel autonomous systems for collective intelligence, human-environment-machine teaming for exploration and discovery, and the design intelligence required to shape these systems toward genuinely beneficial ends.

Whoever joins us will work across the full range of the School’s impact and engagement focused activity, including the Master of Applied Cybernetics, our Learning Experiences (where leaders and practitioners from industry, government, and community come to think differently about the systems they inhabit and the futures they are making), and the School’s creative research space, Cybernetic Studio.

About You

You will have:

• A transdisciplinary background in AI/autonomous systems, robotics, human-computer interaction, human-machine teaming, sociotechnical and environmental systems, policy and governance, design theory, futures studies, or related fields.
• Capacity to work across disciplinary boundaries using diverse research approaches, including speculative, practice-based, and systems-building methods (e.g. prototyping and developing novel systems).
• A strong track record in research, including publications, securing funding, research supervision, and project management. Experience in policy engagement, design outputs, or public scholarship will be highly regarded.
• Experience teaching at postgraduate level, ideally with adult or professional learners.
• Expertise in experiential, facilitated conversation and studio-based pedagogies, in addition to more traditional teaching approaches.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with government, industry, and other external partners; communicate complex ideas to diverse audiences; and contribute to the development and delivery of collaborative initiatives.
• A genuinely transdisciplinary mindset, with the ability to advance and extend the School of Cybernetics' research, creative outputs, engagement activities, and learning experiences.
• A commitment to transformative impact, demonstrated through developing and sustaining relationships that enable the initiation, delivery, and completion of collaborative projects.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to engage diverse audiences and effectively share emerging ideas, knowledge, and practices.

Applications are particularly invited from researchers who undertake high impact collaborative and cross-disciplinary research, and whose expertise will strengthen  and extend the Schools activities. 

About the School

The School of Cybernetics works at the intersection of research, education, and practice in cybernetics and systems thinking, with a shared commitment to ensuring that complex technological systems are steered toward safer, more responsible, and more sustainable futures. We partner with government, industry, and community to bring cybernetic thinking and practice to complex challenges that do not fit neatly within any single discipline. Our research is transdisciplinary by design; we aim to create transformative educational experiences, and we value a culture that is diverse, collaborative, inclusive, and are genuinely open to new ways of working.  

About the College 

As one of the great universities of the world, ANU is driven by a culture of excellence in everything we do. Our lived experience is increasingly one of large-scale systems of people, whose actions and interactions are influenced by our digital, physical and biological environment. The ANU College of Systems and Society (CSS) hosts many of the key disciplines necessary to help us design, build, regulate and secure the future.

CSS brings together expertise in social, technical, computational, ecological and scientific systems to build a new approach to systems design and build new national capabilities in data-driven policy and business development. The work we do in the College is to strengthen our national mission and meet our unique responsibilities as Australia’s national university. We will deliver on our mission by building a strong community, providing transformative educational experiences, conducting high-impact research, seeking meaningful engagement, and becoming a resilient organisation.

We welcome and openly acknowledge differences in expertise, research / education / professional focus, experience and perspective.

CSS is a vibrant and diverse community of more than three thousand students, staff, and visitors. Our College is comprised of the School of Computing, School of Cybernetics, School of Engineering, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Mathematical Sciences Institute, and the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, supported by the Professional Services Group

Enquiries

To enquire about this role, please contact Associate Professor Matthew Holt, Deputy Director, via email matthew.holt@anu.edu.au. 

Our commitment to diversity, belonging, inclusion and equity

ANU is committed to building a diverse and inclusive community, and particularly welcomes applications from women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and candidates from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, it is practice in the ANU College of Systems and Society to actively seek a gender mix of shortlisted candidates for interview. For more information about staff equity at ANU, visit https://services.anu.edu.au/human-resources/respect-inclusion. For more information on employment opportunities, contact our Indigenous Employment Consultant at indigenous.employment@anu.edu.au     

We welcome and develop diversity of backgrounds, experiences and ideas and encourage applications from individuals who may have had non-traditional career paths, who may have taken a career break or had career disruptions. We support applicants who require flexible arrangements in their work environments or patterns. If your experience looks a little different to what we’ve described, but you’re passionate and motivated by this position, we welcome your enquiry and application. 

For more information about staff equity at ANU, click here. For enquiries about the application process, or if you require reasonable adjustment to apply for this role, please contact the hiring manager on the above listed details.

What we offer

The ANU provides attractive benefits and excellent support to maintain a healthy work/life balance and offers generous remuneration benefits, including four weeks paid vacation per year, assistance with relocation expenses and 17% employer contribution to superannuation. We also offer generous parental leave, the possibility of flexible and part time working arrangements, a parental and aged care support program, dual career hire programs, staff and family tuition fee discounts, ANU school holiday programs, and childcare facilities on campus. For more information, visit: https://services.anu.edu.au/human-resources  

How to apply

Applicants must apply online via the ANU recruitment portal and should upload the following separate documents: 

• A detailed curriculum vitae (CV) including a full publication list and the names and contact details of at least three referees (preferably including a current or previous supervisor). If your CV does not include referees, you can complete these online when prompted in the application form. 
• A cover letter that links your areas of expertise to the field of cybernetics and systems thinking at the School of Cybernetics
• A 3-page statement addressing the selection criteria
• Optional - Achievement relative to opportunity statement where appropriate
• Other documents, if required. 

Applications which do not address the selection criteria may not be considered for the position.

Please note: The preferred candidate will be required to complete mandatory pre-employment declarations and background checks relevant to the role they have applied for, in accordance with the Background Checking Procedure and the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence