Information Technology | Job Family Group

These roles focus on designing, building, and maintaining software applications to meet the University’s functional and user experience needs. Application developers work across platforms and programming languages to create, enhance, and support digital tools that are efficient, reliable, and aligned with institutional goals. Their work supports both new solutions and ongoing improvements to existing systems.

These roles are responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the University’s data management systems. Database Administrators build and support databases, manage access and security, ensure data integrity, and oversee storage, backup, and recovery processes. Their work ensures that institutional data is reliable, accessible, and well-integrated with applications and systems.

These roles are responsible for managing and supporting the institution's integrated software systems (Enterprise Resource Planning, or "ERP") that handle core business functions such as finance and human resources.  Responsibilities typically involve system implementation and configuration, system maintenance and upgrades and user support and training.  Functional area knowledge and collaboration is utilized to optimize system utilization and efficiency.

These roles focus on educating faculty, staff, and students to effectively use the University’s technology systems. IT Training professionals design and deliver workshops, training programs, and instructional materials that support user adoption, build technical skills, and enhance day-to-day productivity across platforms and tools.

These roles provide front-line technical support to faculty, staff, and students across the University. IT User Support professionals troubleshoot hardware, software, and system issues, ensuring reliable access to technology and smooth day-to-day operations. They serve as the first point of contact for resolving IT challenges and improving the user experience.

These roles design, implement, and maintain the University’s network infrastructure to ensure secure, reliable, and high-performing connectivity. Network Engineering professionals support academic and administrative operations by managing systems that enable data, voice, and video communications across campuses.

These roles focus on designing, developing, and optimizing the University’s IT systems architecture to meet evolving institutional needs. Systems Engineering professionals lead long-term planning and create scalable, efficient solutions—from conceptual design through implementation and optimization—ensuring that complex systems operate reliably, securely, and effectively.

These roles are responsible for handling a diverse range of IT tasks, spanning multiple areas such as user support, system administration, and network troubleshooting. They require flexibility and cross-functional expertise to meet the university’s varying IT needs.

A career stream is a category in the Career Journeys Job Framework that describes the general type of responsibilities a position has. It reflects the nature of the work—such as professional, clinical, operational, managerial, or executive—and helps clarify the kind of contribution the role makes to the University. Career streams, combined with job families, help employees understand how their work fits into the organization and identify potential paths for growth, whether within the same stream or by moving to another.

Career Streams in Career Journeys Job Framework Include:

• Professional
• Management
• Operations and Service 
• Clinical Professional
• Clinical Technician 
• Senior Administrator
• Executive
• Athletics
   

Yes — you can move from one career stream to another if your job responsibilities change and align with the new stream.

For example, someone in the Operations and Service stream could move into the Professional stream by gaining the necessary education, training, or experience, or into the Management stream by taking on people-leadership responsibilities. Career streams aren’t fixed for life—they’re a way of describing your current role, not limiting your future opportunities

No — you don’t have to become a manager to reach the top of your career stream.

In Career Journeys, each stream has its own progression path. For example, in the Professional or Clinical Professional streams, you can advance in roles in a higher "level" that carry significant increases in influence, responsibility, and compensation without managing people.

Management is just one type of career stream, not the “top” of all streams. You can build a high-level career without shifting into people leadership—unless that’s the direction you want to go.

Levels reflect the typical knowledge, skills, and experience needed for roles at that stage. Within a career stream, several different jobs may share the same level, and not every level will always have an active position in every stream.

The differences between career levels are determined based on the scope/complexity of the position. Specifically, this means the jobs within a job family will differ in level based on duty and responsibility differences between profiles.  Factors include the nature and scope of influence, the level of autonomy the position has to make decisions at various levels of impact, the nature of communication and audience, supervisory responsibilities and number/type of teams, and the level of expertise needed to fulfill position responsibilities. 

Yes — you can move to a different job family group or job family if you apply for and are selected for a position in that area.

For example:

• You might move from the Information Technology job family group into Finance if you gain relevant skills or education and are hired into a finance role.

• Or you could shift from the Digital Media job family to Graphic Design within the Communications job family group if your work focus changes.

It’s not an automatic change — it happens when your role and responsibilities align with the requirements of the new job family group or job family, and you successfully secure that position through UVA’s traditional hiring process.

If most of a position’s responsibilities fall within one functional area, the position is assigned to the matching job family group or job family. If the work is more evenly spread across different areas, the job family group or job family is chosen based on which set of duties would be most important to highlight when recruiting for the role.

• Business Title is how you present your role day-to-day.
• Job Profile is how UVA classifies your role within the Job Framework for consistency and career planning.

Faculty and student positions are not included in the Career Journeys Job Framework. However, they still receive a unique job profile and can use Career Journeys to explore jobs that are part of the framework.

Other positions not included are: Classified Staff, Temporary Employees, Professional Research Staff, Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs), Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs), Student Workers, Residents and House Staff, UVA Physicians Group, and UVA Community Health.

To be classified in the management stream, a job’s main focus needs to be leading people. In most cases, this means supervising at least two team members and overseeing a distinct department as a core part of the role.

We welcome all employees to take some time to explore the Career Journeys Job Framework and get familiar with its key concepts before requesting more information or changes to their job profile. For example, it is good to know that your job profile title may not always match the business title you use every day, and supervising one employee does not automatically place a role in the management stream before reaching out.

You can learn more about your job profile and how it relates to other roles by reviewing the Job Framework resources on this page and on the training webpage. If, after doing so, you’d still like to know more about your classification, please email askhr@virginia.edu with a brief description of your questions and any relevant details. Our HR team will review your message and connect you with the right person to guide you through the next steps for understanding—or, if appropriate, reevaluating—your job profile.

If you have more questions, there are plenty of resources to help. Your manager is a great first stop, and you can also email HR for assistance. If your questions are about your personal career path, consider scheduling a meeting with Career Navigation.

Explore your Career Journeys details and jobs in your Job Family

Whether you want to learn how to use the Dashboard or navigate the Job Directory, create a new Job Requisition, or understand how Career Journeys affects specific operations in your area, this page serves as your go-to guide.

Ready to explore your path?