The Trades and Engineering job family group is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the University’s physical infrastructure. These roles focus on construction, maintenance, and the operation of complex engineering systems—ensuring that facilities remain safe, functional, and aligned with the evolving needs of the University community.
Learn About Career Advising Through Career Navigation How to Discover Your Job Profile Visit UVA Careers SitesA Job Family is a specialty area within a broader field of work. It groups together roles that require similar skill sets, knowledge, and abilities. While a Job Family Group covers a wide professional category—like Trades and Engineering—a Job Family narrows it down to a specific focus, such as Architecture or Carpentry. This structure helps clarify the types of work being done and supports clearer career development pathways.
These roles are responsible for designing and planning buildings and structures to meet the university's functional, aesthetic, and safety requirements. Architects collaborate on projects from conceptual design through construction, ensuring that new and renovated facilities align with the institution's vision and standards. Includes some historic and monument preservation oversight for historic buildings on grounds.
These roles are responsible for meeting building, maintenance, and infrastructure needs by performing skilled and/or trade-related tasks that may not require specific licensure. Staff may support construction and renovation projects, address installation and repair issues, and/or provide routine preventative maintenance in one or more trades, contributing to the functionality and overall condition of the university environment.
These roles are responsible for constructing, erecting, installing, and repairing structures of wood, plywood, wall boards, sheet metal, and other building materials. Carpenters are responsible for performing work on renovation, construction, and maintenance of buildings and other properties.
These roles are responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing electrical systems and equipment across grounds. Electricians ensure that electrical infrastructure is safe, functional, and compliant with codes and regulations, supporting the university’s operational needs.
These roles are responsible for managing and maintaining electronic systems and devices, including communications equipment, security systems, and other specialized technology. Electronics staff ensure that these systems function effectively and support the university’s technological infrastructure.
These roles are responsible for the installation, inspection, maintenance, repair, and modernization of elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and other vertical transportation systems in buildings and facilities. These positions ensure the safe, efficient, and reliable operation of lifting equipment in compliance with safety regulations, manufacturer guidelines, and industry standards.
These roles are responsible for applying engineering principles to design, develop, and maintain systems and infrastructure at the university. Engineers work on a variety of projects, including facility improvements, structural assessments, and system optimizations to support the institution’s operational and academic goals.
These roles are responsible for installing, inspecting, and maintaining fire protection systems, including alarms, sprinklers, and emergency systems. Fire systems staff ensure that these systems are functional and compliant with safety regulations, protecting the university community and property.
These roles are responsible for managing and analyzing geospatial data to support planning and decision-making. Geospatial services staff utilize geographic information systems (GIS) and other technologies to map, analyze, and visualize spatial information related to grounds development and operations.
These roles are responsible for operating and maintaining the university’s heating plant, which provides heating and hot water to UVA buildings. Heat plant staff ensure that heating systems are efficient, reliable, and capable of meeting the campus’s thermal needs.
These roles are responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. HVAC staff ensure that climate control systems operate efficiently, providing a comfortable environment for students, faculty, and staff while optimizing energy use.
These roles are responsible for the construction, repair, and maintenance of structures and surfaces using materials like brick, stone, concrete, plaster, and other related substances. These professionals play a key role in building and preserving the physical integrity and aesthetic appearance of buildings and other infrastructure.
These roles are responsible for overseeing the planning and execution of construction projects on grounds. Staff manage project development, coordinate with contractors, ensure adherence to plans and budgets, and supervise construction activities to meet the university’s growth and renovation goals.
These roles are responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing plumbing systems, including pipes, fixtures, and drainage systems. Plumbers ensure that water and waste systems function properly, addressing issues and performing upgrades as needed to support the university’s facilities.
These roles are responsible for implementing and promoting sustainable practices within the university’s operations. Sustainability staff work on projects and initiatives related to energy efficiency, waste reduction, and environmental stewardship, helping the institution achieve its sustainability goals.
These roles are responsible for managing and monitoring control systems that regulate various operations, such as building automation, energy management, and security systems. System control staff ensure that these systems operate effectively, optimizing performance and supporting the university’s operational needs.
These roles are responsible for performing a variety of tasks across trades and engineering disciplines. Staff and leaders in these positions may handle diverse responsibilities, such as maintenance, installation, and system management, to support the university’s infrastructure and operational 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:
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.
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.
Learn More about Career NavigationExplore your Career Journeys details and jobs in your Job Family
Access Your DashboardWhether 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.
Resources on How to UseReady to explore your path?
Book a Career Coaching session now.
UVA_HR