Most people assume working for Western Governors University means teaching on a campus. It doesn't.
WGU has no lecture halls. There is no tenure track. Most students do not follow a traditional semester. What the university does have is a fully online, nonprofit, competency-based model that has been running since 1997, when a group of 19 U.S. governors founded it to serve working adults. That founding idea shapes every job at WGU, especially faculty jobs.
If you're reading WGU job ads and trying to decide whether they're worth your time, stop comparing them to a state university posting. The work is different, and so are the expectations and the hiring process. Here is what actually matters.
Why work at WGU: the actual reasons
WGU's employee pitch is simple: most roles are remote. The mission is easy to understand. The work ties to measurable student progress. You are not filling a seat. You are helping an adult learner move through a degree on their own timeline.
The university is regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, and its online model is built for people who already have jobs, families, and rent to pay. The university enrolls working adults in bachelor's and master's programs across business, education, information technology, and health, which means the student body is older, busier, and more focused than a traditional residential campus. That same logic carries into employment. Many staff and faculty work from home offices across the United States, and the careers page lists remote eligibility up front.
The other reason candidates stay is less romantic: WGU is a nonprofit. There are no shareholders pushing for short-term enrollment targets. That does not make it a perfect workplace, but it does mean decisions tend to follow the mission rather than a quarterly earnings calendar.
What WGU faculty roles actually are
At WGU, 'faculty' does not mean professor, lecturer, and assistant professor on a single track. It means a set of specialized jobs that split the traditional faculty workload into separate functions. Knowing the difference before you apply will save you hours.
- Program Mentor: The closest thing to a primary academic advisor. Each student is assigned a mentor who stays with them from enrollment through graduation. Program mentors work full-time, are usually remote, and typically need a master's degree. They are the person who calls when a student is stuck, falling behind, or about to drop. WGU's competency-based structure means a mentor's job is not to deliver content; it's to help students plan and persist.
- Course Instructor: The subject-matter expert who works inside specific courses. When a student needs help with a concept, the course instructor explains it. These roles are often full-time and remote, and they require deep knowledge of the course content.
- Evaluator: This is often a part-time role. Evaluators review student assessments against detailed rubrics and judge whether the work demonstrates competency. They do not assign letter grades. They decide whether evidence meets the standard, and they give feedback for resubmission when it does not.
- Clinical and field supervisors: In nursing and teaching programs, and in other licensure fields where placements are required, clinical supervisors and field supervisors observe students in real-world placements and report back on performance. These roles are frequently part-time and regionally based.
You won't find a classic publish-or-perish research load in these jobs. WGU faculty are evaluated on student progress and support, not on grants or journal articles. That is either a relief or a dealbreaker, depending on why you entered higher education.
Pay, benefits, and the remote reality
WGU does not publish one salary schedule for every faculty job, so you need to read each posting. The good news is that remote work is explicit in many roles, and the university has spent years normalizing remote hiring. You'll see 'remote' in the location field far more often than you'll see Salt Lake City.
Benefits vary by role, but WGU posts full-time benefits that include health coverage, paid time off, retirement savings, and education assistance. Part-time evaluator roles typically do not carry the same package, which matters if you're comparing a part-time WGU gig to a full-time teaching job elsewhere. Check the specific posting before you assume.
The WGU careers portal is a good place to see current openings. The filters let you search by faculty type, location, remote status, and keyword, and each posting spells out qualifications clearly. That is more than a lot of universities do.
One habit WGU candidates should drop: writing a cover letter aimed at a research university search committee. WGU does not care about your publication list the way a research institution would. It cares whether you can coach an adult student through a competency assessment without turning every email into a lecture. Read the posting, and answer what the posting actually asks.
What WGU looks for when it hires
For most faculty roles, WGU wants a few specific things: a relevant master's degree or doctorate, direct experience in the subject area, the ability to work with adult learners online, and a tolerance for structured reporting. That last one weeds out a lot of candidates. You can know chemistry inside and out and still be a bad fit if you can't communicate clearly in writing and on short phone or video calls.
WGU also looks for people who can handle structured data. Program mentors, course instructors, evaluators, and clinical supervisors all work inside systems that track student progress. You don't need to be a data analyst, but you do need to be comfortable using dashboards, following rubrics, documenting interactions, and writing clear notes. If you hate logging your work, this is not the place for you.
The hiring process can feel fast compared to a traditional university. WGU often screens for mission fit and communication skills before going deep on subject knowledge. Some roles include a practical exercise or sample evaluation. If you're asked to complete one, treat it as the real interview, because it is.
This is where WGU's approach to hiring overlaps with a bigger point about university recruiting. A job posting is a piece of employer branding, not just a vacancy notice. If an institution cannot tell you in the first paragraph what the role actually does, it is wasting your time. That is a problem across higher education, and WGU mostly avoids it by being specific about job type, remote status, and qualifications. For a closer look at why that matters, see this guide to employer branding in higher education.
Before you apply, do this
- Read the full job description, including the part about remote status. WGU changes postings more often than a typical university.
- Match one strength from your background to one requirement in the posting, and write that sentence at the top of your cover letter.
- Look up the program or college the role sits in. A nursing evaluator and a business course instructor are not the same job.
- Set a calendar reminder to follow up if the posting gives a contact or timeline. Many WGU roles move quickly, and timeliness matters.
Where to find WGU jobs
WGU lists openings on its own careers page, but if you are comparing roles across multiple online universities, a broader job board saves you from opening eight tabs. AcademicJobs maintains a dedicated WGU jobs page that pulls current openings into one place. Use it the same way you'd use any search tool: filter by faculty type, scan the qualification list, check the remote status, and apply only when the job actually matches your experience.
Do not spray applications. WGU's roles are specific, and a Program Mentor application cannot be reused for an Evaluator job without looking lazy. The fastest way to get rejected is to apply to every WGU job you see with the same resume.
If you're not sure which faculty role fits, start with the Evaluator listing. It's the lowest-risk way to see how competency-based assessment works, it's often part-time, and it gives you a sample of WGU's work before you commit to a full-time Program Mentor or Course Instructor role.
This week, set aside twenty minutes, pull up the WGU jobs page, and mark every posting that names a remote faculty role with a master's-level qualification you already hold. That single pass will give you a realistic list faster than reading another general article about online universities.
