Before joining the Law School faculty, Sabel was a professor in several capacities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This included serving as the Ford International Professor of Social Science in the Department of Political Science from 1990 to 1995; a professor of social and political science from 1987 to 1990; an associate professor of social and political science in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society from 1984 to 1987, and the Ford International Assistant Professor of Social Science in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society from 1977 to 1984.