Job Description Template: Free, One Page, With Example

The examples were made with MakeOnepagers. The company and figures are samples, and each one opens as a template you can edit for free.

What is a job description?

A job description is a short document that explains a role to people who might apply for it. It is used in job ads, on careers pages, by recruiters and inside the company when a role is approved.

Most job descriptions are long lists of duties and requirements. Candidates skim them. The ones that work describe the job the way the person in it will experience it: the team, the first projects, the tools and what success looks like.

The 6 parts of a job description

1. The title, company and location. "Senior Product Designer. Lumen. Remote, US time zones."
2. The role in four facts: team and manager, salary range, type of contract and start date.
3. Your first year: what the person will learn and ship, quarter by quarter.
4. What you'll need: four requirements at most, each one real.
5. Skills and tools we use: so candidates can picture the day.
6. How to apply: what to send, where, and when you reply.

A free job description template

Copy this into a document, or open the example below and edit it.

Job description example

Edit this template

A design role on one page: the facts, the first year, the requirements and one clear way to apply.

What to copy:

• The salary range in the first section. It is the first thing candidates look for, and in a growing number of US states it is required by law in job ads.
• The first year as a grid: what the person learns and what they ship each quarter, from "Meet 20 customers" and "Fix onboarding" to "Design system 2". It replaces a paragraph of duties.
• Four requirements, not fourteen. Long lists put off strong candidates who meet most of them.
• How to apply in one line, with a promise: "Send a portfolio link and 3 lines about you. We reply to every application within a week."

Edit for free: job description template.

Before the job description: the hiring plan

Before a role is advertised, it usually has to be approved. A one-page hiring plan makes that case.

Edit this template

An engineering team's headcount case: where hiring stands, why it slipped and exactly what to approve.

• Four numbers with last year beside them: 34 engineers, 11 open roles, 94 days to hire against a 72-day target.
• Why time to hire slipped, in three plain lines. Finance approves what it understands.
• The ask, with the cost of saying no: "Without the recruiter the same eleven take until Q3 FY27."

Edit for free: hiring plan template.

Once the person is hired, the 30 60 90 day plan template sets out their first three months.

How to write a job description in 6 steps

1. Ask the manager what the person must achieve in year one. Write four outcomes.
2. Write the role facts: team, manager, salary range, contract and start date.
3. Cut requirements to four that you would really reject someone for missing.
4. List the skills and tools the team uses every week.
5. Say how to apply and when you will reply.
6. Read it as the candidate you want. Would they apply? Fix whatever would stop them.

Have an old job ad or notes from the hiring manager? Drop them into the free AI One-Pager generator and get them back as a designed job description.

Job description mistakes

• No salary. Fewer and weaker applications, and in some states a legal problem.
• Duties instead of outcomes. "Collaborate with stakeholders" tells a candidate nothing. "Ship a new reports screen by Q2" does.
• A wish list of requirements. Every extra one removes good candidates.
• "Competitive" and "fast-paced". Every job ad says it. Use the space for a fact.

Make your job description

Open the free job description template and put in your role, or drop your notes into the free AI One-Pager generator and get a finished job description back.