How to Apply to UCSF Health

12 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 10 open positions

Key Takeaways

  • Apply through careers.ucsf.edu for staff and clinical positions and through aprecruit.ucsf.edu for academic faculty appointments. Confirm which portal matches your role before investing time in the application.
  • UCSF uses Oracle PeopleSoft for its career portal and applicant tracking system. Format your resume or CV with standard section headings, reverse chronological order, no graphics, and PDF or Word format to ensure clean parsing.
  • Many UCSF positions are union-represented (CNA, UPTE, AFSCME, Teamsters) with publicly posted step-and-grade salary scales. Internal candidates often have priority for posted requisitions, which can extend the external candidate timeline.
  • Behavioral interviews are mapped explicitly to the PRIDE values — Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Excellence. Prepare concrete STAR-format examples for each value before your panel.
  • UCSF is consistently ranked the best hospital in California and a top-ten national hospital across multiple specialties by U.S. News & World Report, with a Magnet-designated nursing organization, NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, and Level I pediatric trauma designation.
  • Epic (branded internally as APeX) is UCSF's enterprise EHR. Prior Epic certification or strong end-user experience is a meaningful advantage for clinical, informatics, and revenue cycle roles.
  • Pre-employment requirements are extensive and non-negotiable: background check, occupational health clearance, immunization verification (including annual flu shot), TB screening, primary-source license verification, and N95 fit testing for direct patient care roles.
  • UCSF's stated commitment to equity and anti-racism is taken seriously throughout hiring. Faculty applications require a separate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement that is independently evaluated.
  • San Francisco cost of living is among the highest in the United States. UCSF offers limited housing programs (Mission Bay and Aldea on Mount Sutro), commuter benefits, and shuttle service between campuses — clarifying these logistics early in the process is appropriate and expected.

About UCSF Health

UCSF Health is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, San Francisco — one of the world's preeminent academic medical centers and the only University of California campus dedicated exclusively to the health sciences. Headquartered in San Francisco, UCSF Health employs approximately 28,000 people across a network that includes UCSF Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals (San Francisco and Oakland), UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital, UCSF Health Saint Francis Hospital, and an expanding system of primary care, specialty, and ambulatory clinics throughout the Bay Area. UCSF Health is consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, with its flagship medical center recognized as the best hospital in California and routinely placed in the national top ten across multiple specialties including neurology and neurosurgery, cancer, diabetes and endocrinology, pulmonology, geriatrics, and gynecology. Founded in 1864 as Toland Medical College and integrated into the University of California in 1873, UCSF has grown into a unique tripartite institution that fuses world-class clinical care, biomedical research, and graduate health professions education. UCSF School of Medicine is consistently ranked among the top five medical schools in the country for both research and primary care by U.S. News & World Report, and the broader university is among the largest recipients of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in the nation, attracting more than $800 million in NIH grants annually. UCSF investigators have produced six Nobel laureates and a remarkable list of breakthroughs spanning the discovery of prions (Stanley Prusiner), foundational work on recombinant DNA, telomere biology (Elizabeth Blackburn), CAR-T cellular immunotherapy, CRISPR-based therapeutics, and the genetic basis of cancer. Clinically, UCSF Health operates the flagship UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, the LEED Gold Mission Bay campus that houses Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco, the Bakar Precision Cancer Medicine Building, and a growing network of community hospitals and clinics across the Bay Area. The system handles more than one million ambulatory visits, tens of thousands of inpatient admissions, and roughly 4,000 births each year, while serving as the quaternary referral center for the most complex pediatric and adult cases in Northern California. UCSF Health is a Magnet-designated nursing organization (a recognition of excellence in nursing practice held by fewer than 10 percent of U.S. hospitals), a verified Level I trauma center for children, and a leading site for pioneering programs in fetal surgery, organ transplantation, neuro-oncology, HIV/AIDS care, gender-affirming care, and precision medicine. The institution's stated mission — advancing health worldwide — is paired with an explicit commitment to equity, anti-racism, and serving the diverse populations of San Francisco and beyond, including its long-standing partnership with Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the city's public safety-net hospital staffed largely by UCSF physicians.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Search and apply on the official UCSF careers portal at careers

    Search and apply on the official UCSF careers portal at careers.ucsf.edu, which is powered by Oracle PeopleSoft. Filter roles by job family (Nursing, Physicians, Allied Health, Research, Administrative, IT), location (Parnassus, Mission Bay, Mount Zion, Oakland, St. Mary's, Saint Francis, ambulatory sites), employment type (career, contract, per diem, limited), and union representation. Faculty and academic appointments are posted separately on the UCSF Academic Recruit system at aprecruit.ucsf.edu, while volunteer and student positions follow their own portals.

  2. 2
    Create a UCSF candidate profile and submit your application with a tailored resu

    Create a UCSF candidate profile and submit your application with a tailored resume or CV plus any required cover letter, references, license numbers, and certifications. The PeopleSoft system asks structured questions about education, prior UC employment, and equal opportunity demographics — answer every required field, since incomplete applications are automatically screened out. Save your profile so you can apply to multiple requisitions and receive job alerts.

  3. 3
    Complete a recruiter screen, typically a 20 to 30 minute phone or Zoom conversat

    Complete a recruiter screen, typically a 20 to 30 minute phone or Zoom conversation with a UCSF talent acquisition specialist or, for nursing roles, a nurse recruiter. Expect questions about your motivation for joining an academic medical center, salary expectations, schedule flexibility, licensure status, and high-level fit with the role. For union-represented positions (CNA-RN, AFSCME, UPTE, Teamsters), the recruiter will explain how seniority, internal transfer rights, and contract provisions affect the timeline.

  4. 4
    Interview with the hiring manager and unit team

    Interview with the hiring manager and unit team. Clinical roles usually involve a panel interview with the nurse manager or medical director, a charge nurse or senior staff member, and sometimes an HR partner — frequently held on the unit so you can see the work environment. Research and administrative roles tend to schedule sequential one-on-ones with the principal investigator or department leader, peer staff, and stakeholders. Behavioral interview questions mapped to UCSF's PRIDE values (Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, Excellence) are standard across all functions.

  5. 5
    Complete role-specific assessments

    Complete role-specific assessments. Nursing candidates may be asked to discuss clinical scenarios, demonstrate familiarity with Epic (UCSF's EHR), or sit for a written clinical reasoning exercise. Research and laboratory roles often include a technical interview, a journal club discussion, or a chalk talk. IT and data roles typically include a technical screen with coding, system design, or analytics components. Faculty searches add a job talk, chalk talk, and meetings with department leadership.

  6. 6
    Receive a contingent offer, then complete pre-employment requirements before you

    Receive a contingent offer, then complete pre-employment requirements before your start date. UCSF requires a background check, occupational health clearance (including TB screening and verification of measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, Tdap, and annual influenza immunizations), drug screening for certain roles, license and certification primary-source verification, and confirmation of right to work in the United States. Clinical staff complete fit testing for N95 respirators and Epic EHR onboarding training before going live on the floor.

  7. 7
    Attend UCSF New Employee Orientation and unit-specific onboarding

    Attend UCSF New Employee Orientation and unit-specific onboarding. New hires complete a formal NEO covering UCSF history, PRIDE values, compliance, HIPAA, and benefits enrollment, followed by department orientation, preceptorship for clinical roles (often 6 to 12 weeks for new graduate RNs in the New Graduate Residency Program), and assignment of an Oracle/PeopleSoft self-service account, UCSF email, and badge access.


Resume Tips for UCSF Health

recommended

Lead with credentials and licenses prominently displayed at the top of your resu

Lead with credentials and licenses prominently displayed at the top of your resume or CV. UCSF Health is a clinical and academic environment where degrees, board certifications, state licensure (RN, MD, NP, PA, LCSW, RPh, RT, etc.), DEA registration where applicable, ACLS/BLS/PALS/NRP certifications, and specialty certifications (CCRN, CNOR, OCN, CEN, CPHQ) carry decisive weight. List the issuing body, certification number where appropriate, and expiration date so recruiters and credentialing staff can verify quickly.

recommended

Use a CV format for faculty, postdoctoral, physician, and research positions and

Use a CV format for faculty, postdoctoral, physician, and research positions and a traditional resume for administrative, IT, and most allied health roles. Academic CVs at UCSF should include peer-reviewed publications (with PubMed IDs or DOIs), grant funding history with role and dollar amounts, invited talks, teaching appointments, mentees, committee service, and clinical privileges. Administrative resumes should stay concise (1 to 2 pages) and quantify operational impact.

recommended

Quantify clinical and operational outcomes wherever possible

Quantify clinical and operational outcomes wherever possible. UCSF cares about evidence — patient volumes managed, length-of-stay reductions, readmission rate improvements, HCAHPS or patient satisfaction gains, throughput increases, cost avoidance, grant dollars secured, publication counts, mentees graduated, or process improvement results delivered. Numbers convert generic responsibilities into demonstrated competence.

recommended

Highlight academic medical center, safety-net, or quaternary-care experience

Highlight academic medical center, safety-net, or quaternary-care experience. UCSF treats the most complex patients in Northern California and partners with Zuckerberg San Francisco General to serve underserved populations. Experience at other AMCs (Stanford, UCLA, Mayo, Cleveland Clinic, Mass General Brigham, Johns Hopkins, Penn Medicine), large teaching hospitals, NCI-designated cancer centers, Magnet-recognized organizations, or Federally Qualified Health Centers signals readiness for UCSF's complexity, teaching environment, and equity mission.

recommended

Showcase Epic EHR proficiency and other UCSF technology stack experience

Showcase Epic EHR proficiency and other UCSF technology stack experience. Epic is UCSF's enterprise electronic health record (branded internally as APeX), and prior Epic certification or strong end-user experience is highly prized for clinical, informatics, and revenue cycle roles. For IT, research computing, and data roles, list specific systems and skills — Oracle PeopleSoft, Workday, OnCore, REDCap, AWS or GCP, Snowflake, Tableau, Power BI, Python, R, SAS, FHIR, HL7, and HIPAA-compliant data handling.

recommended

Demonstrate alignment with UCSF's PRIDE values and equity commitments

Demonstrate alignment with UCSF's PRIDE values and equity commitments. Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Excellence are not slogans — they appear in performance reviews and interview rubrics. Provide concrete examples of culturally responsive care, anti-racism practice, work with vulnerable populations, interdisciplinary collaboration, and inclusive leadership. Faculty applications also require a separate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement evaluated as part of the academic review.

recommended

Keep formatting clean and ATS-compatible for Oracle PeopleSoft Talent Acquisitio

Keep formatting clean and ATS-compatible for Oracle PeopleSoft Talent Acquisition. Use standard section headings (Education, Licensure and Certification, Clinical Experience, Research Experience, Publications, Teaching, Service), reverse chronological order, single-column layout, no graphics or text boxes, standard fonts at 10 to 12 point, and PDF or Word upload format. PeopleSoft parses uploaded resumes into structured profile fields, so any formatting that confuses the parser can drop you out of recruiter searches.

recommended

Tailor each application to the specific requisition number, unit, and patient po

Tailor each application to the specific requisition number, unit, and patient population. UCSF posts hundreds of requisitions across dozens of specialty units (cardiothoracic ICU, pediatric oncology, fetal surgery, neuro-IR, transplant, gender-affirming care, primary care, etc.), and a generic resume that does not reference the unit's patient population, technology, or program signature underperforms. Mention specific UCSF programs you would contribute to — your familiarity with the institution shows preparation.



Interview Culture

Interviewing at UCSF Health feels distinctly academic, mission-driven, and deliberate.

Across Glassdoor, Indeed, and Vault, UCSF earns roughly a 4.0 out of 5 employer rating, with candidates frequently describing the experience as professional, thorough, and noticeably warmer than other large health systems. The interview difficulty is typically rated as moderate — the bar is high, but interviewers are collaborative rather than adversarial, and the process tends to prioritize judgment, values alignment, and clinical or scientific reasoning over trick questions or stress tests. The recruiter screen is conversational and focuses on motivation and fit. UCSF talent acquisition specialists want to understand why you are choosing an academic medical center over a community hospital, biotech employer, or private practice. Strong answers connect personal mission to UCSF's tripartite identity — care, research, and education — and show awareness that you will be working alongside trainees, learners, and investigators every day. Be ready to discuss salary expectations honestly; many UCSF positions are union-represented with publicly posted step-and-grade pay scales, so there is less room for negotiation than at private employers, but also far more transparency. Hiring manager and panel interviews lean heavily on behavioral questions structured around UCSF's PRIDE values (Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, Excellence). Expect questions like "Tell me about a time you advocated for a patient when you disagreed with a colleague," "Describe a situation where you delivered care to a patient whose values differed significantly from your own," "How have you contributed to a more equitable workplace," and "Walk me through a complex case you managed and what you would do differently." Use the STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and weave in concrete examples — interviewers probe for specificity and self-awareness rather than rehearsed answers. For clinical roles, expect to be interviewed by a panel that includes the unit nurse manager or medical director, a frontline clinician, and sometimes an interprofessional partner (case management, social work, pharmacy). Panels often spend time describing the unit's patient population — for example, the cardiothoracic ICU, the bone marrow transplant unit, fetal treatment center, or pediatric hematology-oncology — and gauge whether you understand the acuity and complexity. Charge experience, preceptorship, evidence-based practice projects, and Magnet-aligned activities (shared governance, EBP councils, certification) are explicit positives. New graduate nurses go through the competitive UCSF New Graduate RN Residency Program and should be prepared to discuss clinical rotations, scholarly projects, and fit with a specific cohort. Research and faculty interviews follow academic conventions. Expect a job talk presenting your research program (typically 45 to 60 minutes), a chalk talk on future directions, and back-to-back one-on-one meetings with department faculty across one to two days. Search committees evaluate scientific rigor, funding trajectory, mentoring philosophy, and contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a separate, weighted criterion under the University of California's faculty review process. Postdoctoral and staff scientist interviews include a technical talk, a meeting with the principal investigator, and conversations with current lab members. A few practical realities shape the interview experience. UCSF is unionized in many job families (CNA represents RNs, UPTE represents technical and research staff, AFSCME represents service and patient care workers, Teamsters represents skilled trades, and there is a separate collective bargaining structure for residents and postdoctoral scholars). For union roles, internal candidates often have priority through transfer and bumping rights, which can extend timelines. San Francisco cost of living and commuting logistics come up frequently — interviewers appreciate candor about how you will manage them. Finally, UCSF expects clinical staff to comply with strict immunization, masking, and respiratory protection protocols (annual flu vaccination is required, and N95 fit testing is part of onboarding), and these expectations are commonly discussed in the offer stage.

What UCSF Health Looks For

  • Genuine alignment with UCSF's tripartite mission of patient care, research, and education. Candidates who articulate why an academic medical center matters to them — and who show comfort working alongside medical students, residents, fellows, and trainees — perform substantially better than those who treat UCSF as just another hospital job.
  • Demonstrable commitment to equity, anti-racism, and serving diverse and underserved patient populations. UCSF is explicit about its anti-racism initiative and its long-standing partnership with Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the city's public safety-net hospital. Concrete examples of culturally responsive care, work with marginalized communities, language access, or DEI leadership are evaluated rigorously.
  • Clinical or scientific excellence backed by evidence. UCSF expects candidates to handle complexity — quaternary care patients, NIH-funded laboratories, multidisciplinary teams. Specialty certifications, peer-reviewed publications, funded grants, awards, and demonstrable mastery of evidence-based practice signal that you can operate at the institution's standard.
  • PRIDE values in action — Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Excellence. These five values appear in interview rubrics and performance evaluations. Examples drawn from real situations carry more weight than declarations.
  • Interprofessional collaboration and humility. UCSF teams are multidisciplinary by design — physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, social workers, case managers, therapists, technologists, researchers, and administrators all contribute. Candidates who operate ego-free, respect every role on the team, and credit colleagues openly stand out.
  • Comfort with ambiguity, change, and continuous learning. Academic medicine evolves rapidly, and UCSF is at the frontier — adopting new therapies, integrating genomics into clinical care, deploying AI in clinical and operational workflows, and continuously redesigning models of care. The institution favors candidates who learn fast, ask good questions, and contribute to improvement work.
  • Safety, quality, and high-reliability orientation. UCSF Health is a Magnet-designated organization with a strong patient safety culture. Familiarity with high-reliability principles, just culture, root cause analysis, lean methodologies, and quality improvement tools (PDSA cycles, Six Sigma, IHI frameworks) is highly valued, especially for nursing leadership, quality, and operations roles.
  • Resilience and self-care in a demanding environment. UCSF cares for the most complex, often the sickest patients in Northern California, and the work is emotionally and physically intense. Interviewers look for candidates who recognize the toll of clinical work, articulate their own coping strategies, and contribute to team well-being rather than burning out silently.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the UCSF Health hiring process?
UCSF's typical hiring process includes: online application via careers.ucsf.edu (Oracle PeopleSoft), recruiter screen (20 to 30 minutes by phone or Zoom), one or more panel interviews with the hiring manager and unit team (often on-site for clinical roles), role-specific assessments (clinical scenarios, technical screens, job talks for faculty), contingent offer, and pre-employment clearances including background check, occupational health, immunization verification, and license primary-source verification. Total time-to-hire ranges from about three weeks for some staff roles to several months for faculty searches and union-represented positions where internal transfer rights apply.
What ATS does UCSF Health use?
UCSF Health uses Oracle PeopleSoft (PeopleSoft Talent Acquisition) for staff, clinical, and administrative positions through careers.ucsf.edu. Faculty and academic appointments are posted on a separate platform called UCSF Academic Recruit at aprecruit.ucsf.edu. To optimize your application for PeopleSoft, use standard section headings, reverse chronological order, single-column formatting, and upload as PDF or Word — and complete every structured field in the online application form, since the system filters on structured data, not just the uploaded document.
Does UCSF Health hire new graduate nurses?
Yes. UCSF runs a competitive UCSF Health New Graduate RN Residency Program, accredited by the ANCC Practice Transition Accreditation Program. The residency offers cohort-based onboarding, structured preceptorship (typically 12 to 16 weeks depending on specialty), evidence-based practice projects, and placement across UCSF Medical Center, Benioff Children's Hospitals, St. Mary's, and Saint Francis. Cohorts are recruited two to three times per year. New graduate applicants need an active or imminent California RN license, BLS certification, and BSN or completion of an accredited nursing program.
What are UCSF's PRIDE values?
PRIDE stands for Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Excellence. These five values are UCSF's standards of professional conduct and appear explicitly in interview rubrics, performance evaluations, and onboarding materials. Candidates should prepare concrete behavioral examples for each value using the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Demonstrating PRIDE values in real situations — not just citing them — separates strong candidates from average ones.
Are UCSF Health positions unionized?
Many UCSF positions are union-represented under several collective bargaining agreements. CNA (California Nurses Association) represents staff RNs, UPTE-CWA represents technical, research, and patient care technical staff, AFSCME represents service and patient care employees, Teamsters represents skilled trades, and there are separate units for residents, fellows, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate student researchers. Union roles have publicly posted step-and-grade pay scales, defined benefits, seniority-based transfer and bumping rights, and contractual grievance procedures. Internal candidates often have priority for posted requisitions through contractual transfer rights.
What benefits does UCSF Health offer?
As a University of California employer, UCSF Health offers a comprehensive benefits package including UC-sponsored medical, dental, and vision plans (Kaiser, Health Net Blue & Gold, UC Care, and others), the UC Retirement Plan (a defined-benefit pension) plus the UC Retirement Savings Program (403(b), 457(b), and DC Plan), generous accrued vacation and sick leave (with PTO scaling by years of service), holiday pay, parental leave, life and disability insurance, employee assistance programs, on-site wellness and lactation rooms, commuter and pre-tax transit benefits, and tuition reduction for employees and their dependents at UC campuses. Many roles are also eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) since UC is a qualifying public employer.
What is the difference between UCSF Health staff jobs and UCSF faculty appointments?
UCSF Health staff positions (nurses, allied health, administrative, IT, technical, research staff) are recruited through careers.ucsf.edu and follow a standard staff hiring process. UCSF faculty appointments — assistant, associate, and full professor in the Ladder Rank, In-Residence, Clinical X, and Health Sciences Clinical series — are recruited through UCSF Academic Recruit at aprecruit.ucsf.edu and follow a structured academic search process that includes a search committee, job talk, chalk talk, multi-day interview, departmental vote, dean's review, and Academic Senate review. Faculty applications require a CV, research statement, teaching statement, separate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement, and letters of reference.
Does UCSF Health offer remote or hybrid positions?
Direct patient care, clinical, and laboratory roles are on-site by necessity. Many administrative, IT, finance, research administration, informatics, and corporate functions are eligible for hybrid schedules (typically two to three days on-site per week) and a smaller subset are fully remote within California. Each position posting specifies its remote eligibility and any required on-site cadence. Positions performed outside California are uncommon due to UC tax, employment, and licensure constraints.
What pre-employment requirements should I expect?
UCSF Health pre-employment requirements include a criminal background check and, for many roles, fingerprint Live Scan; primary-source verification of degrees, licenses, and certifications; an occupational health screening that verifies immunity (or vaccination) for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, Tdap, and a current annual influenza vaccination; tuberculosis screening; drug screening for safety-sensitive positions; N95 respirator fit testing for direct patient care roles; right-to-work verification; and HIPAA, compliance, and EHR onboarding training. Allow two to four weeks between offer acceptance and start date to complete clearances.
How competitive is UCSF Health compensation?
UCSF Health compensation is generally competitive within the San Francisco Bay Area academic medical market, with substantial transparency for union-represented and faculty positions because pay scales are publicly posted on UC's compensation websites. Total compensation includes base pay, eligible differentials (shift, weekend, charge, on-call, certification), the UC Retirement Plan defined-benefit pension, retirement savings plans, comprehensive medical and dental, generous PTO, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility. Cash compensation alone may trail private practice and biotech employers in the Bay Area, but the combination of pension, benefits, mission, and academic affiliation is highly competitive when total compensation is evaluated holistically.

Open Positions

UCSF Health currently has 10 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 10 open positions at UCSF Health

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