Career opportunities

Durham Academy seeks dedicated teachers with advanced degrees and classroom experience that put them at the top of their field. DA faculty actively engage in the extracurricular life of the school and create connections with the larger Triangle community. DA is committed to a faculty that reflects the diversity of our student body. Our teachers inspire and encourage our students to strive for growth by challenging themselves through a broad variety of opportunities including academics, arts, athletics, experiential learning, and service.

Founded in 1933, Durham Academy is a coeducational, independent day school with 1,228 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. DA is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools.

Current Openings

Please also visit our friends at The Hill Center and Student U for a list of their career opportunities.

Durham Academy accepts applications to fill vacancies as they become available. Due to the high volume of inquiries we receive, we regret we cannot respond to telephone calls and we are unable to interview every candidate. We will process employment application materials as quickly as possible and make every effort to acknowledge receipt of your application.

It is the policy of Durham Academy to make employment decisions on the basis of qualifications for a specific job without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national or ethnic origin, age, veteran status, or the presence of a disability, except where such is a bona fide occupational qualification.

Meet our Faculty & Staff

Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Faculty Spotlight: Upper School Technical Theater Director Jake Kananagh

Jake Kavanagh's design résumé may read like a who's who in the worlds of athletics, arts and entertainment, but the thrill of those bright lights couldn't hold a candle to his calling to teach, and that's what brought Kavanagh to Durham Academy in 2016.

Faculty Spotlight: Physics and robotics teacher Leyf Starling '99

Jeff Peirce took his young daughters to his environmental engineering lab at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering long before there was a "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." He would take Leyf Peirce Starling and her sister into his lab on the weekend to help him.

Faculty Spotlight: Kindergarten teacher Sloan Nuernberger

Sloan Nuernberger loved playing football and basketball with her two older brothers when she was growing up, but it wasn't until she was the mother of three young boys that she discovered running.

Faculty Spotlight: Second grade teacher Ashley Hinton

Enthusiasm practically bubbles out the door of Ashley Hinton's second grade classroom, which is understandable because she comes from a family of teachers — her great-grandfather, both of her grandmothers, her mother and her aunts have all been teachers. But Hinton set off on a different path when she headed to college, in part because there were so many teachers in her family.

Faculty Spotlight: Middle School digital learning coordinator Karl Schaefer

Karl Schaefer views his life as "a long, circular path," from childhood on a farm in Wisconsin to home now on a 10-acre farm in Efland. Along the way he has been a railroad worker in the Midwest, dipped ice cream in Massachusetts and sold Toyotas in Kansas before finding his way to North Carolina as a teacher.