As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. 

The University of Washington (UW) is proud to be one of the nation’s premier public research universities. Our people are the most critical asset in our pursuit of achieving excellence in education, research, and community service. Our staff not only enjoys outstanding benefits and professional growth opportunities, but also an environment noted for diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

The Department of Earth and Space Sciences (ESS), a unit within the College of the Environment (CoENV) at the University of Washington, seeks a full-time Human Resources Manager to support approximately 200 faculty and staff employees.

The Department of Earth and Space Sciences leads world-class programs about our home planet and our solar system while emphasizing direct field and laboratory research and educational experiences. Our mission is to further the understanding of Earth, the solar system, and their histories. The Department’s scope extends from the center of Earth to the rim of the solar system, and its activities cut across traditional disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and mathematics. ESS faculty, students, and staff examine Earth’s interior structure, chemistry, motion, and dynamics; geologic hazards; processes affecting the surface environment; the surrounding space environment; planetary processes; and geobiology.

The Human Resources Manager reports directly to the Administrator and takes direction from the Chair, working closely with managers, faculty, staff, and students to achieve department goals within the University’s policies and procedures. This position plays a key role in managing all aspects of Academic Human Resources and other human resources-related duties for the Department, using Workday. The HR Manager will be responsible for all facets of Workday operations including job requisitions, job changes/terminations, and compensation changes, along with running reports, data cleanup, and providing all HR-related Workday data to the Administrator. The HR Manager must also understand foreign national visa standards and lead the department’s work with Academic HR, the International Scholar’s Office, and the College of Environment to manage international visas. The HR Manager is expected to exercise independent judgment, solve problems, and develop innovative approaches to the management of a wide variety of departmental academic and staff human resources and payroll, to ensure operational efficiency.

Given privileged and highly confidential information and trusted to act upon this information accordingly and with discretion, this position independently determines the best operational practices and how to implement them for the department, involving long-range strategic planning. The HR Manager position requires a high degree of initiative, independent decision-making, and problem-solving skills, along with the ability to organize and prioritize many competing tasks from faculty, staff, and students within our community while working under pressure with frequent deadlines and changing priorities.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Academic Human Resources, Faculty Affairs, and Postdoctoral Management

•    Manage a high volume of academic, research, and teaching faculty appointment-related transactions including new hires and paid and courtesy appointments for ESS, ensuring compliance with up-to-date guidelines, and addressing the expectations related to appointments’ processes within ESS. Provide advice to academic staff regarding department, college, and university requirements, policies, and procedures in relation to Academic Human Resources.
•    Establish procedures and protocols pertaining to all facets of faculty affairs, including oversight of adjunct and affiliate faculty, professorships, postdoctoral scholars, and visiting researcher/scientist appointments.
•    Manage all activities associated with faculty searches, onboarding, appointments, reappointments, promotions, tenure, professorships, merit reviews, voting eligibility, faculty ballots, and Graduate School Faculty appointments, while always maintaining a high degree of confidentiality. Work closely with Chair, Dean, and Administrator in negotiating funding start-up for new faculty.
•    Manage department foreign national visa application process in conjunction with International Scholars Office, ESS, CoENV, and AHR, to ensure the accurate and timely reporting and processing of the various types of AHR appointments, by researching and resolving appointment issues, such as visas, salary funding options, and appointment letters.
•    Oversee the completion of all faculty reports including annual reports, professional leave requests, outside professional activities, annual reviews, faculty workload reporting, teaching evaluations, sabbaticals, retirements, and other faculty reporting documents.  Manage the maintenance of all faculty files and records.

Staff and Student Human Resource and Personnel Operations

•    Manage staff employment (hourly, classified, professional, project appointment) employment lifecycle.  Serve as hiring manager for ESS.  Work closely with supervisors/PIs on job creation, recruitment, interviews, hiring, onboarding, etc.  Assist with compensation, evaluations, position reviews, conflict resolution, and termination.  Manage record keeping and maintenance of confidential files.
•    Write and distribute new hire confirmation letters, ensuring all necessary elements are included in accordance with School, College, and University rules and procedures.
•    Manage student employment lifecycle. Coordinate with faculty concerning graduate students (Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Stipend positions) and undergraduate student hourly employees to determine the source of support and percentage of support.
•    Implement human resources policies and procedures.  Partner with Administrator to design and implement a new-hire orientation program.  Develop new employee onboarding and separation procedures.
•    Manage and provide content expertise on Leaves of Absence, specifically FMLA practices and best practices. Manage and monitor Workday reporting for FMLA tracking, record keeping, and required communications for staff and faculty taking leave.
•    Work closely with Campus HR employment to ensure positions and issues are resolved professionally and in a timely manner. Partner with department leadership in managing Workday activities to ensure actions and responses are in accordance with applicable rules and regulations.
•    Serve as consultant for any personnel action items (annual evaluation review, staff recognition, leave reporting to include leave requests, compensatory time, overtime, and over/underpayment requests.
•    Serve as the principal liaison between ESS and other UW Human Resource Offices including College of Environment Dean’s Office and UW HR.

Departmental Services

•    Partner with the Administrator on faculty and staff annual review and merit process.
•    Support and advise the department’s payroll team for Workday questions, and enter costing allocations into Workday.  Assist the team by troubleshooting issues and reaching out to the ISC as needed to resolve problems.
•    Responsible for payroll entry of new appointments. This position will be responsible for many levels of Human Resources and Payroll related actions for ESS and as such must be well-versed in Workday and how to process the many types of business processes.
•    Participate in office committees and special project teams for the department to support office administration, morale, and operational efficiency.
•    Other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

•    Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, business, public administration, English, scientific or related field, or combination of education and experience.
•    Three or more years of administrative and HR experience.

Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

•    Strong organizational skills highlighting the ability to develop, use, and maintain systems to track information and materials. Eagerness and ability to take initiative and work independently.
•    Strong project management and problem-solving skills.
•    Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and strong interpersonal skills; ability to maintain a professional demeanor at all times.
•    Strong attention to detail with an emphasis on accuracy and completeness of information.
•    Ability to maintain harmonious working relationships to address complex and/or sensitive issues effectively.
•    Ability to exercise discretion and to exercise sound judgment and solve problems independently.
•    Ability to work independently and as part of a team, manage priorities, multi-task, problem solve, and exercise sound judgment in a dynamic and deadline-driven environment.
•    Ability to navigate a complex, layered organization to achieve results.
•    Ability to interpret and communicate to others complex policies and procedures.
•    Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

DESIRED:

•    UW experience to include using UW administrative systems including Workday, and solid understanding of UW personnel policy.
•    Proven expertise in managing both academic and staff human resources at UW.  Knowledge of faculty affairs, postdoctoral procedures, and rules, including visa requirements.
•    Familiarity with UW’s administrative policies and procedures and software systems.
•    Experience in an academic setting.
•    Experience working with both Union and Non-Union employees.
•    Knowledge of Washington State employment law.
•    Knowledge of University of Washington human resource policies.

Application Process:
The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process.  These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others.  Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.