The job description template
Copy the block below, fill in every bracket, delete every line that doesn't apply. Keep your output under ~400 words. Roles that take longer to describe usually take longer to fill — that's not coincidence.
[ROLE TITLE — gender-inclusive form]
[Company name] · [city], [country] · [on-site / hybrid / remote]
[Salary range, gross, with currency and time unit]
[ONE LINE on what this person owns at month 6 — concrete, quotable, no fluff.]
WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS
[Two sentences on the business problem. Candidates self-select much faster when they see the why.]
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- [Action verb] [outcome] [scale or business context]
- [Action verb] [outcome] [scale or business context]
- [Action verb] [outcome] [scale or business context]
- [Action verb] [outcome] [scale or business context]
- [Action verb] [outcome] [scale or business context]
WHAT YOU NEED
- [N+] years of [specific skill] in [specific stack or context]
- [Demonstrable thing — shipped projects, owned outcomes, not "knowledge of"]
- [Concrete tooling experience — name the tool]
- [Required language(s)]
WHAT WE OFFER
- [Salary range, explicit gross/net]
- [Equity / bonus / commission if applicable]
- [Health, PTO, learning budget, equipment — only what's real]
- [Work mode + flexibility]
ABOUT [COMPANY]
[2-3 sentences. Stage, customer, traction. Keep specific.]
[COUNTRY-SPECIFIC COMPLIANCE LINE — see below.]
HOW TO APPLY
[Penroll-hosted application URL or your own ATS link]
The 12 questions to answer first
Don't write the post until you can answer these:
- What outcome does this person own at month 6?
- Who do they report to? Who reports to them (if anyone)?
- What's the team's size and shape today?
- What does the day-1, day-30, day-90 look like?
- What's the salary range, gross, in local currency?
- What's the work mode — office, hybrid, remote, time-zone constraint?
- What language(s) is the work conducted in?
- What are the 3 must-have skills? The 3 nice-to-haves?
- What's the bar — what would make a great hire vs a fine hire?
- Why hasn't this been solved already?
- What's the company's stage — funding, customers, growth rate?
- What's the country-specific compliance line? (See the next section.)
If you can answer these, the post writes itself in 20 minutes.
Country-specific compliance one-liners
Pick the one that matches your hire's country and paste it near the bottom of the post:
- United States: "[Company] is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status."
- United Kingdom: "[Company] is committed to equal opportunities under the Equality Act 2010. We welcome applications regardless of background."
- EU general: "[Company] is an equal opportunity employer. Applicant data is processed in accordance with GDPR (Regulation EU 2016/679)."
- Germany: "Wir sind ein Arbeitgeber, der Chancengleichheit fördert. Bewerbungen werden gemäß DSGVO bearbeitet."
- Lithuania: "Laikomės lygių galimybių principo. Asmens duomenys tvarkomi pagal BDAR (Reglamentas ES 2016/679)."
- Australia: "Subject to the Fair Work Act 2009 and the National Employment Standards."
Phrases to delete before you publish
A find-and-replace before posting saves you from being filtered out by serious candidates:
rockstar, ninja, guru, wizard, passionate about, synergy, leverage (verb), robust, best-in-class, world-class, fast-paced environment, dynamic team, wear many hats, self-starter, go-getter, hit the ground running, results-driven, team player.
These phrases signal lazy writing. They add zero information; they only signal vibe.
Where Penroll fits
If the template-based approach feels slow, Penroll generates a country-specific, gender-inclusive, salary-formatted post from a 10-field form in 30 seconds. The output is roughly what you'd get from filling in this template by hand — it just takes 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.