PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a context-specific scale to assess faculty job satisfaction for Ecuadorian higher education institutions.Design/methodology/approachA draft questionnaire was developed after reviewing the literature. Then, following a pilot study the questionnaire was administered to a stratified random sample of 261 faculty members of an Ecuadorian University. An exploratory factor analysis based on a pairwise polychoric correlation matrix was carried out to validate the scale.FindingsA 24-item faculty satisfaction questionnaire was developed. The scale showed high reliability and validity. Following an exploratory factor analysis five dimensions emerged: 1) rewards and benefits, 2) IT and facilities services, 3) administrative and other campus services, 4) teaching support and development and 5) working relationships.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough our sample size is considered good, the ratio subjects to items of 6:1 was just above the recommended minimum. Due to the split questionnaire design for the research support and community services support sections and the fact that more than a half of the participants did not fill them we had to exclude the items from those sections from the analysis.Practical implicationsThe scale can be used by higher education institutions to assess faculty satisfaction periodically.Originality/valueTo our knowledge this is the first study to develop a context-specific instrument to measure job satisfaction in Ecuadorian higher education institutions using exploratory factor analysis.