Purpose: This study examines the management practices and alignment features needed to develop academic staff's careers, mainly focusing on teaching competencies in the evolving landscape of Cambodian public universities. Design/methodology/approach: A multiple-case research design was adopted to collect data from interviews with 11 academic leaders and focus-group discussions (FGDs) with 13 academic teachers at two public universities in provincial Cambodia. A thematic approach was performed to code and analyse data to address the research questions. Findings: This study found that the management of academic careers in the selected universities was hybrid, deregulating state control to relative institutional autonomy for contracted employees but rather centralised management for civil servants. However, weak institutional leadership and negligence in formulating comprehensive institutional guidelines for strategic human resource management (HRM) have caused misalignments of management practices to develop academic careers in the studied contexts. Research limitations/implications: This case study limits its findings to two universities in provincial Cambodia. Nevertheless, this study adds to the scarce literature on the research topic in Cambodian public universities and opens a path for cross-institutional and national comparative studies on similar foci. Originality/value: This is a ground-breaking study set in the evolving space of Cambodian public higher education, where attention to the research area remains limited.