Purpose: The 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/approach: A 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. Findings: A 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/implications: Although 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 implications: The scale can be used by higher education institutions to assess faculty satisfaction periodically. Originality/value: To 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.