About Washington University in St. Louis
What is Washington University in St. Louis?
"WashU was founded in 1853 by a group of St. Louisans to address the lack of higher education opportunities in the Midwest." Today it is a private research university organised around Arts & Sciences, the Brown School, the Bursky School of Public Health, the McKelvey School of Engineering, Olin Business School, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, the School of Continuing & Professional Studies, the School of Law and the School of Medicine — a portfolio spanning teaching, research and patient care.
Where will I work?
WashU staff work in and around St. Louis, Missouri, across campuses including the Danforth Campus, the Medical Campus and the Tyson Research Center. Off-campus work is handled through the university's Flexible Work Arrangement Policy rather than a blanket rule. Remote work is defined there as "a working arrangement that enables an employee to work off-site for all or part of the workweek on a regular basis", while under hybrid work "the employee has a defined schedule in which work is carried out some days of the week or month on campus in a designated space and some days in an official remote location". Individual postings state their own arrangement.
What is the Washington University in St. Louis team like?
Staff work alongside faculty, clinicians and researchers across academic departments, research centres, libraries, IT, finance, facilities, student services and administration. WashU frames its approach to scheduling as "finding the right balance to fit the varying needs of employees and teams while delivering on our missions of research, teaching and patient care", and its Workday board carries several hundred open staff, research and clinical roles at any one time.
Work-Life Balance
WashU runs a formal flexible-scheduling programme: "Flexible scheduling is about changing the hours you work, start and stop times, numbers of hours per day or per week," offered as flextime, a compressed workweek, a part-time work schedule or a modified workweek. It is worth being precise about the compressed option. The policy defines it as letting an employee "work a traditional 37.5-40 hour workweek in less than 5 workdays" — so it redistributes full-time hours rather than reducing them, and it is requested and agreed in writing case by case rather than applied university-wide. Paid time off is published in detail: staff hired on or after 1 July 2019 accrue 20 vacation days a year, rising to 22 "Beginning of year 4", alongside ten named university holidays and "up to 12 days per fiscal year" of paid sick time.
Perks and Benefits
- 403(b) Retirement Savings Plan with a university contribution of 7% of pay, rising to 10% after ten or more years of service
- 20 vacation days a year (22 from year four), ten paid university holidays and up to 12 sick days
- Health, dental and vision insurance
- Caregiver/Parental leave of "up to four weeks of leave paid at 100% of regular base salary"
- Adoption expenses "reimbursed up to $5,000 per child"
- Tax-free tuition assistance for employees, spouses/domestic partners and dependent children
- Life insurance and AD&D, long-term disability and long-term care coverage
- GuidanceResources Employee Assistance Program — "free, confidential, 24/7 support for WashU employees and their household members"