Harvard University

Job Functions and Families

Harvard Human Resources Center for Workplace Development
http://harvie.harvard.edu/Career_Professional_Development/Career_Management/Harvards_Career_Landscape/

Explore the career options available within the University by familiarizing yourself with Harvard’s job
structure. As you look at the title of this page, you might be wondering: “What is a ‘Job Function’ or
‘Job Family?’” These are terms used by the University to classify jobs by the type of work required of
that role. In particular, the following definitions will help to clarify the terms:

 Job Function: A broad category of jobs (e.g. Finance or General Administration or Faculty &
Student Services) which includes multiple job families. The job function may also be referred
to as a profession.
 Job Family: A group of jobs having the same nature of work (e.g. Accountant or HR
Generalist) but requiring different levels of skill, responsibility, or working conditions (e.g.
entry-level versus senior level). The job family may also be referred to as a specialty area.

My current Job Function is:

Other Job Functions I may wish to explore are:

Having an understanding of the career landscape at Harvard can be helpful as you manage your
career. There are many ways in which you might consider using this information. Here are some
suggestions to get you started:

 Develop a basic understanding of the professions (Job Functions) and related specialty areas
(Job Families) that exist at Harvard.
 Build a common language to describe Harvard’s career possibilities during development
conversations.
 Use these categories to focus a career conversation with a manager, employee, HR
professional, or a colleague.
 Begin a dialog with a manager, HR professional, or colleague to obtain a contact for a specialty
area or function, in order to facilitate the informational interviewing process.
 Identify key terms related to an area of interest, which can be used to fine tune an ASPIRE
search and other related career research.
 Use these categories to provide a starting point for researching information about the required
skills and abilities for a given role.

Next steps I plan to take are:

A Note from CWD:

This material is a first step in our commitment to provide employees with useful career development data and
information. CWD is working closely with HR groups across the University to improve the underlying career and
data systems, which will allow us to provide you with much more detailed information, such as employee counts by
job family and tub/unit. For more information on the status of these projects, visit:
http://careerdevelopment.harvie.harvard.edu
(Site Available: May 15, 2007)
(Over)

Harvard University, Harvard Human Resources January 7, 2014

Center for Workplace Development
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Third Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138, 617-495-4895
 Harvard University
Job Functions and Families
Harvard Human Resources Center for Workplace Development

Function Arts
Families - Arts Management - Photography Function Health
- Artist Professional - Stage Management Families - Athletic Training - Optometry
- Design - Behavioral Health
- Theater Production - Pharmaceutical
Services
Function Athletics - Health & Wellness - Physical Therapy
- Administration & - Nursing
Families - Coaching
Operations
Function Human Resources
Function Alumni Affairs & Development Families - Benefits - HR Payroll/Systems
Families - Alumni Affairs - Major Giving - Compensation - Labor Relations
- Annual Giving - Planned Giving - Org. Development
- Generalists
- Corporate & Consulting
- Research - HR Business Analysis - Recruitment
Foundation Relations
- Development - Stewardship - HR Data Analysis - Training

Function Information Technology

Function Communications
- Applications
- Communications
Families - Public Relations Families Development & - Network Engineering
Management
Integration
- Digital - Publications & Print
- Business Analysis & - Operations
Communications Production
Design Management
- Editing - Web Design - Cross Functional
- Project Management
- Marketing & Sales - Writing Management
- Database
- Quality Assurance
Function Dining & Hospitality Services Administration
Families - Catering - Dining/Hospitality - Release &
- Educational
Configuration
- Chef Technology
Management
- Server & Systems
Function Facilities
- Hosting Data Storage Engineering &
- Construction Administration
Families - Landscape Services
Management
- IT Security - User Experience
- Mail & Transportation
- Custodial Services - User Support &
Services
- Media Services Customer & Client
- Facilities
- Utility Services Services
Management
Function Library
Function Faculty and Student Services
- Functional
Families - Academic Affairs - Financial Aid Families - Cataloging/Metadata
Specialties
- Admissions - Registrar Services - Collection
- Library Management
- Career Services - Student Services Development
- Curatorial - Reference
- Executive Education
Function Museum
Function Finance
Families - Curatorial - Museum Education
Families - Accounting - Financial Analysis
- Conservation - Registrar Services
- Audit - Financial Operations
- Exhibitions
- Research
- Banking
Administration Function Research
- Financial Administration Families - Animal Research - Natural Sciences
- Bioinformatics - Statistics
Function General Administration
Families - Administration - Police - Humanities/Social Sciences
- Administrative - Program
Function Technical
Support Administration
- Project Families - Engineering - Health Physics
- Event Planning
Management - Environmental
- Technical Specialties
- Trademark & Technology Transfer Health & Safety

(Over)
Harvard University, Harvard Human Resources January 7, 2014
Center for Workplace Development
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Third Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138, 617-495-4895