Built Environment Researcher for Buildings, Cities and Ecosystems

The Opportunity

This position is ideal for entry-level researchers who are passionate about advancing climate action and sustainability in the built environment. As a Research Support Specialist I, you will help drive the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning’s collaboration with the Atkinson Center for Sustainability’s Radical Collaboration Initiative in Sustainability. Your work will focus on transdisciplinary research addressing the real-world sustainability challenges of planning, designing, constructing and living in buildings and cities.

You’ll work closely with a principal investigator to design, implement, analyze, and communicate research that may involve qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods approaches. Projects span a wide range of topics, such as climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience, buildings and materials reuse, ecosystem and social impacts, environmental data and sustainability guidance and frameworks. You’ll help coordinate research teams and partnerships, and track research impacts on policy, practice, and public engagement.

This is a three-year term position with the possibility of renewal based on performance and funding. It’s a great opportunity for someone looking to build meaningful experience at the intersection of sustainability and the built environment, especially those interested in collaborative, cross-disciplinary research.

About the College, School, Unit or Department

The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University (Cornell AAP) includes the departments of Architecture, Art, City and Regional Planning, the Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate, jointly led by AAP and the SC Johnson College of Business, the multicollege Department of Design Tech, and the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities. The college spans three locations in Ithaca, New York City, and Rome, Italy, each with world-class facilities and cutting-edge technologies.

Cornell AAP is about acts of transformation. We are committed to reimagining and reshaping the world in new ways, every day. A vital college at one of the nation's foremost research universities, Cornell AAP brings faculty, staff, and students together from around the world to take up some of today's most urgent challenges and advance research, inquiry, and collaborative approaches to designing, making, and doing that make a more just and resilient future.

What We Need

We’re looking for someone with:

• A Bachelor’s degree in architecture, urban planning, environmental design, sustainability, or a related field, plus 2–4 years of relevant research experience (or equivalent).
• Experience supporting research and working in collaborative project environments.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
• Proficiency with relevant tools or analysis methods appropriate to your background. Please specify your level of competence in areas such as:
  • 3D modeling
  • Visual scripting
  • Building performance and energy modeling
  • Social or environmental impact modeling such as life cycle assessment

If you have all those things, great! We have a few more things that we would prefer you to have, but it’s ok if you don’t.

• Strong graphic, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Experience collaborating across disciplines or sectors.
• Training in design, architecture, planning, or visual arts research methods.
• Ability to conceptualize and implement research plans independently.
• Experience translating complex research for non-expert audiences.
• Familiarity with sustainable design principles and performance frameworks.
• Understanding of sustainability indicators and data visualization tools.
• Engagement with stakeholders across academic, government, nonprofit, and corporate sectors.
• Awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and how they relate to the built environment.

Rewards and Benefits

Cornell receives national recognition as an award-winning workplace for our health, wellbeing, and sustainability.

• Our benefits programs include comprehensive health care options, generous retirement contributions, access to wellness programs, and employee discounts with local and national retail brands. We invite you to follow this link to get more information about our benefits: Understand Your Benefits | Working at Cornell.
• Cornell's impressive educational benefits include tuition-free Extramural Study and Employee Degree Program, tuition aid for external education, and Cornell Children's Tuition Assi