Job Description

A job description (JD) is a written specification of a role's responsibilities, required qualifications and experience, expected outcomes, compensation range, and reporting structure. It is used for recruiting (the JD is the primary external-facing communication of what the role is), performance management (it anchors expectations for what the employee should be doing), and legal compliance (employment law requires some level of role documentation). Most JDs are generic, vague, and unhelpful (every JD says "passionate about X, team player, results-oriented"), while the rare good JDs are specific enough that candidates can accurately self-select and employees can clearly evaluate their own performance. It is one of the most-used and least-thought-through documents in startup operations.

The components of a useful JD:

Specific responsibilities (what will the person actually do):

• Bad version: "Drive engineering excellence and deliver high-quality software."
• Good version: "Own the data-pipeline platform that processes 10M events per day, lead a team of 4 engineers, ship 6+ quarterly initiatives that improve pipeline latency, reliability, or cost-per-event."

Required qualifications (what skills/experience are non-negotiable):

• Bad version: "5+ years experience, strong technical skills, passionate."
• Good version: "5+ years of distributed-systems experience including 2+ years at scale (1M+ daily users), strong Python or Go skills, experience operating production data pipelines with 24/7 reliability requirements."

Expected outcomes (what success looks like):

• Bad version: not specified.
• Good version: "In 90 days: complete onboarding, propose Q2 platform roadmap. In 6 months: ship 2 quarterly initiatives, hire 2 additional engineers. In 12 months: platform metrics (latency, reliability, cost) improving against documented baselines."

Compensation range (transparent salary + equity bands):

• Bad version: omitted entirely or "competitive."
• Good version: "$180-220K base + 0.15-0.30% equity + standard benefits. We post these ranges transparently because we believe in pay equity."

Other useful elements:

• Why this role exists now: what business need is this role solving?
• Team and reporting structure: who does this person report to? Who does this person manage?
• Hiring process: what interview steps to expect, what timeline.
• Culture/values context: what's distinctive about how this company operates.

The legal requirements: at minimum, JDs should accurately reflect the role's responsibilities to avoid disputes later (employee can claim they were hired to do X but assigned Y). Some jurisdictions require specific elements (NYC, California require posting salary ranges; some require accommodations language; etc.). Consult employment counsel for the specific jurisdiction.

Why most JDs are bad:

• Copy-pasted from templates: every startup uses similar generic language ("passionate, results-oriented, team player").
• Aspirational rather than realistic: lists every skill the team wants in a perfect candidate; produces an unattainable unicorn JD that nobody can fill.
• Vague responsibilities: "drive growth," "build the team," "scale operations." Candidates can't tell what they'd actually do.
• Missing compensation: candidates can't tell if the role is in their range; wastes their and the company's time.
• No expected outcomes: candidates can't tell what success looks like; performance management starts on weak footing.

What founders get wrong: Treating JDs as administrative documents to grab from a template and post quickly, rather than as strategic recruiting tools that significantly affect pipeline quality. The right discipline: invest meaningful time in each JD, write specific responsibilities and real qualifications (not aspirational ones), include expected outcomes by timeframe, and post transparent compensation ranges. Better JDs save significant time downstream by attracting better-fit candidates and filtering out the wrong ones early.

Related: Hiring Plan · Recruiting Strategy · Offer Letter · Employee Handbook · First Hire

FAQ

What is a job description?
A written specification of a role's responsibilities, required qualifications and experience, expected outcomes and success metrics, compensation range, and reporting structure. Used for recruiting, performance management, and legal compliance.

What makes a good job description?
Specific responsibilities (what the person will actually do), real qualifications (not aspirational), expected outcomes by timeframe (what success looks like in 90 days, 6 months, 12 months), transparent compensation range, and clear context on why the role exists and what's distinctive about the company. Better JDs help good candidates self-select in and bad candidates self-select out.

Should I post salary ranges in job descriptions?
Increasingly, yes. Some jurisdictions (NYC, California, Colorado, Washington) legally require it. Even where not required, transparent ranges reduce wasted time (candidates can self-screen), improve candidate experience, and align with pay-equity expectations. The arguments against transparency (competitive intelligence, negotiating leverage) are increasingly outweighed by the recruiting benefits.