If you were thinking of copy-pasting someone else’s JD then congratulations, you will have just built a sourcing pipeline for them, not you.
A job descriptions’ primary job is to filter out candidates that don’t fit, not just attract candidates who actually fit, so what goes into it?
So what goes into it?
5 things to put in your job description
1. The problem they will solve
You are hiring for a reason. Write that reason down.
- Filling capacity: Say so.
- Launching a feature or product: Name it.
- Entering a new market or working directly with clients: Say that too.
How you write this depends on who you are.
Non-technical founders: Describe the problem in plain words. “Our app is slow and crashes” is enough. A good engineer can work out the stack from the problem.
Technical founders: Do not turn the JD into a tool list. Split your stack into must-haves and nice-to-haves. Why? A long must-have list scares off strong people and pulls in keyword matchers.
2. Your stage and how you work
Every startup stage needs a different mindset, so tell candidates where you are.
- Stage and size: “Pre-seed, 3 people” attracts a different person than “Series A, 15 people.”
- Industry and how you operate: Do you guys connect all the time, do you always have to come with a meeting agenda prepared, how fast you ship, and who they report to? Give them some insights on the culture.
- Soft skills: Ownership, comfort with ambiguity, and adaptability. Whatever is a non-negotiable for you, add it here.
Do not skip the soft skills. You can coach technical skills to an extent. A culture mis-hire costs you a lot longer.
3. What they will own in the first 90 days
We do not mean the daily task list. Write what they will own and the outcome you expect.
It does not need to be day by day. For example, even one line works:
“In your first 90 days, you will rebuild our payments service to handle 3x current transaction volume, working directly with our 2-person platform team.”
That one sentence tells candidates what they will do and whether they can deliver it. That is a lot of filtering for one line.
4. Real compensation numbers
A range, even a wide one works since it filters out mismatches before they cost you a screening call.
| Your situation | What to write |
|---|---|
| Budget is fixed | “$70,000 to $95,000 USD per year” |
| Budget is still being finalized | “Budget is being finalized; expect $60,000 to $80,000 USD” |
Always state the currency and the basis, like per year. “Competitive salary” tells a candidate nothing.
5. Who this role is not for
Add 2-3 honest lines on who will not fit. For example, “This role is not for you if you need a detailed spec before you start.”
So that you hire from the right pool. A lot of candidates tend to get intimidated by this section and filter out themselves. You need that.
Are there any tools that can help me with all this?
Uplers’ AI Job Description Generator pulls your company context from your work email and asks 2-3 questions about the role.
In about 2 minutes, you get a JD written for your stage. It comes with salary ranges benchmarked for India-based engineering talent, 30/60/90 milestones, stage-specific soft skills, and a fit section.
You can edit it, download it, and post it right away.
So how does it get your context right?
- Built on 5 years of hiring intelligence: It already has the industry context, so you do not have to explain your market to it.
- Built on real matches: Its context includes real stories of candidates we matched with startups. So in a way, every JD it writes draws on our own success stories.
