University Human Resources

Job Families

Job Families

A job family is a group of jobs involving similar types of work and requiring similar training, skills, knowledge, and expertise. Positions in a job family can range from entry level to senior and require different levels of skill and responsibility.

Most non-union staff positions are assigned a job grade from 1-15; these job grades cover approximately 3,200 positions across 19 job families. As positions in multiple job families may be evaluated at the same grade, the salary ranges for each job grade are broad to accommodate the differences in pay. Pay within each job grade may vary based on several factors:

  • External market for each job family
  • Internal equity
  • Individual performance differences

Three Important Characteristics

  1. Some job families have more jobs in them than others, and those with many jobs may have specialty areas within them. 
  2. In all cases, a job can only reside in one job family. However, jobs in a job family can reside in many different departments. For example, positions in the Research job family are found in various departments, including BioMed, School of Public Health, School of Engineering, etc.
  3. The job family should most closely align to the primary role of the position and the experience/qualifications required.   

How Job Families Are Used

Knowledge of job families may be used by managers, staff, and University Human Resources to:

  • Define career development opportunities for staff with a current or another job family 
  • Facilitate career planning discussions, clarify the need for specific training, and assist staff members considering course enrollment 
  • Comply with mandated affirmative action reporting and data analysis 
  • Ensure consistency in job evaluations by comparing similar jobs within the same job family 
  • Assist in ensuring internal equity and external competitiveness

Brown University Job Families

Job Profile
A broad category corresponding to the primary purpose of a job and its relationship to other jobs. All jobs in a given job profile require similar educational background, experience, competences, and market value
Business Title
A customized, descriptive title that provides greater understanding of the individual employee’s responsibilities and scope within the Job Profile