STS Director

Western Washington University with over 15000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school is nationally recognized for its educational programs students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham Washington a coastal community of 90000 overlooking Bellingham Bay the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes Bremerton Everett Port Angeles and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes such as being named one of the top public masters-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success increasing our Washington impact and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship research and creative activity. Westerns greatest strength is the outstanding students faculty staff and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can pursuit of this excellence individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff faculty administration student and external constituents. Further individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic societal environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

Scientific Technical Services (SciTech) supports research scholarship and teaching by providing access to advanced multi-user scientific instrumentation machine and electronics shops and equipment design fabrication and repair services. Through its core facilities SciTech is essential to Western researchers efforts to accelerate the discovery of new knowledge partners with instructors to teach graduate and undergraduate laboratory classes and provides regional industry access to specialized equipment.

Scientific Technical Services supports Westerns mission which states that together with our students staff and faculty we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women people of color people with disabilities veterans and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

Duties include the following:

Oversee and support the operations of all SciTech core facilities including the University Instrument Centers and University Shops.

Supervise SciTech staff.

Manage SciTech budgets and serve as budget authority.

Help strengthen Western research infrastructure overall including through the identification promotion and coordination of efforts to pursue relevant external funding opportunities for equipment and other resources.

Encourage and engage in campus-wide approaches to planning for major equipment acquisitions that are collaborative inclusive and strategic.

Meet regularly with the SciTech Advisory Council including at least once at the beginning of the academic year and each quarter during the academic year.

Keep the SciTech user community informed about developments affecting them.

Provide regular updates to the SciTech Advisory Council and Vice Provost for Research attend and participate in SciTech Advisory Council meetings and be responsive to SciTech Advisory Council requests and stakeholder concerns.

Working with the SciTech Advisory Council develop and implement operations policies covering instrument access user training and fee structures and other areas as needed.

Working with the SciTech Advisory Council maintain an up to date strategic plan addressing major equipment acquisition upgrade and replacement plans and regularly report on progress toward goals.

Collect and report annual data measuring impacts including instrument uptime and usage information and information SciTech users and the impacts of SciTech equipment and services on teaching and research.

Submit an annual report to the Vice Provost for Research during Spring quarter.

Maintain a supportive working environment promoting diversity equity access and inclusion.

• Hold a tenured or tenure-track position at WWU
• Possess the necessary technical expertise to oversee the range of equipment and services offered by SciTech
• Have a successful track record of securing external research or equipment funding.
• Have a demonstrated track record of advancing diversity equity and inclusion goals and be committed to furthering Westerns goals in the future. (For more information about Westerns commitment to and work on equity inclusion and diversity please see Western Presidents page on Advancing Inclusion and Diversity.)

• Prior experience leading a research program and managing a laboratory
• Prior experience with SciTech as a user for research or teaching or serving as Advisory Council Member.
• Prior experience supervising staff.
• Prior experience managing budgets.
• Prior experience overseeing facility operations.

Salary

This is an Academic Program Director position that comes with an academic-year teaching release equal to 2 courses (totaling 6-8 contact hours) 3 weeks of summer salary and a stipend. To ensure a fair and competitive compensation package the anticipated job compensation will be commensurate to current faculty salary rate with the stipend level determined by the WWU - United Faculty of Western Washington Collective Bargaining anticipated start date is September 15 2026.

Bargaining Unit

United Faculty of Western Washington

Application Instructions

A cover letter and resume or CV are required and should address your experience related to the position responsibilities and the required and preferred qualifications.

Please include the names and contact information of up to three professional references.

Application review begins February 9 2026; the position is open until filled. The position is open to current tenured or tenure-track faculty members.

Western Washington University (WWU) is an equal opportunity compliance with applicable laws WWU does not discriminate on the basis of race ethnicity color national origin age citizenship or immigration status pregnancy use of protective leave genetic status sex sexual orientation gender identity gender expression marital status creed religion veteran or military status disability or the use of a trained guide dog or service animal (including a service animal in training) by a person with a disability or any other characteristic protected by federal state or local law in its programs or activities including employment admissions and educational programs. See WWUs Policies onProhibiting Discrimination Based on A Protected Class and Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Sex. Inquiries may be directed to the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance Title IX and ADA Coordinator Western Washington University Old Main 126 (MS 9021) 516 High Street Bellingham WA 98225; 360.650.3307 (voice) or 711 (Washington Relay);

WWU is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities upon request. To request this document in an alternate format or to request an accommodation please contactHuman Resources Disability Services 360.650.3751 or 711 (Washington Relay).

Annual Security and Fire Safety Report: This report is provided pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (The Clery Act). It includes statistics for the previous three calendar years concerning reported crimes that occurred on Westerns campus; in certain off-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by Western; and on public property within or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus. The report also includes institutional policies concerning campus security such as policies concerning alcohol and drug use crime prevention the reporting of crimes sexual assault and other matters. You can obtain a copy of this report in printed or alternate formats by contacting the Office of Student Life at . The report can be found at: Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.

All new employees must comply with the immunization policy and show employment eligibility verification as required by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service before beginning work at WWU. A thorough background check will be conducted on all new hires and rehires which includes a sexual misconduct background check.