Job profile: how to define it before you advertise the vacancy
By Deibson Silva · Reviewed on
A job profile is the one-page document that says why the role exists, which results are expected in the first year and what it takes to get them. It is written before the vacancy is advertised, with whoever will manage the person, and the advert, the questions and the criteria for deciding all come out of it.
What is a job profile, and what is it not?
It is the written answer to one question: what does whoever fills this role have to achieve, and what do they need in order to achieve it? It fits on one page and someone outside the company can understand it.
It gets confused with two similar documents. A job description lists tasks and helps to organise the work, but it does not say which ones matter or how you know they are done well. The job advert is written to attract candidates, and it comes out of the profile once the profile is settled.
It is not a portrait of the person who held the role either. It describes the work and leaves open the way of doing it.
Why is it written before the vacancy is advertised?
Because afterwards it can no longer be written freely. As soon as a candidate you like appears, the profile starts to resemble them, and those who follow are compared with a person and not with a role.
There is a more practical reason. An advert with no profile behind it attracts many people who do not fit, and interviews are spent discovering what a well-written page would have filtered out. In a small company, every interview comes out of a manager's time.
And it prevents arguments at the end. If whoever runs the selection and whoever will manage the person did not agree beforehand what they were looking for, they find out when they have to choose between two finalists.
What are its parts?
Seven, each in a few lines. The table says what each part answers, with an example from a warehouse manager role.
| Part | What it answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Why the role exists | The result that justifies having it | Orders leave complete and on the promised date |
| First-year results | What will have changed in twelve months | Stock reconciled every month; a second shift up and running |
| Responsibilities | What they do each week, in five to seven lines | Plans the shifts; reviews incidents with the carrier |
| Must-haves | The three to five things without which the role does not work | Has managed a shift team; decides using stock data |
| Nice-to-haves | What adds but does not decide | Knows the stock system the company uses |
| Context | Who they work with, with how much autonomy and at what pace | Answers to operations; peaks in the Christmas campaign |
| Terms | Place, hours and pay band | On site; morning shift with rotation during the campaign |
How do you tell must-haves from nice-to-haves?
With an uncomfortable question: if someone turned up who was excellent at everything else and lacked this, would you hire them? If the answer is yes, it is a nice-to-have.
Must-haves stop at five. A list of twelve requirements describes a person who does not exist, and in practice each interviewer ends up picking the three that matter most to them.
Each must-have is written as something the person has done or can do, so that it can be checked. 'Leadership ability' cannot be checked. 'Has managed a team of more than five people and has had to correct someone's work' can.
Be wary of shortcuts. Years of experience tell you how much time went by and stay silent on what the person learned in it. A particular qualification is only a must-have when the profession requires it. It is more useful to write what someone must have done than how long they have been doing it.
Who do you write it with?
With three people, in under an hour. Whoever will manage the role knows which results they need. Someone who does similar work today knows what is hard in practice. And whoever runs the selection turns what they hear into sentences that can be checked.
Five questions help. What would have to have happened a year from now for us to say we got it right? What did the last person who worked out in this role do well? Where did the one who did not work out fall short? Which part of the work cannot be seen from outside? Who will they have to get on with every week?
The draft goes back to whoever manages the role, who has the last word. If they do not sign it off, criteria nobody wrote down will appear at the final interview.
What should not appear in it?
No requirement that excludes someone on a ground the law protects. In Spain, Article 9 of Act 15/2022 forbids limitations or exclusions on those grounds in access to employment, selection criteria included, and treats as discriminatory any criteria that produce indirect discrimination.
In practice, go through each line and ask whether the work needs it. An age, a marital status or a place of birth describe no job. With requirements that look neutral the question is the same: if the role does not need it, out it goes.
The profile also decides which data you ask the candidate for. Article 5 of the GDPR limits data to what the purpose needs, and the Spanish data protection authority's guide on employment recalls that asking for personal data in a selection process in a way that leads to discrimination can be a very serious infringement.
A well-written profile helps with another obligation as well. Article 28.1 of the Spanish Workers' Statute compares the value of two jobs by four things: the nature of the duties, the training conditions required, the factors related to performance and the working conditions. They are the same ones the profile sets out. Other jurisdictions have their own rules on equal pay and selection.
How does it become the advert, the questions and the criteria?
The advert takes four parts of the profile: why the role exists, the first-year results, the must-haves and the terms. Whoever reads it should be able to decide alone whether to apply.
The interview questions come from the must-haves, one for each, and ask for a real case in which the person did that. The scoring criteria are written at the same time.
If you use artificial intelligence to target job adverts at particular people, or to filter applications, it is worth knowing that Annex III to the EU AI Act classifies those systems as high-risk and that its obligations apply from 2 December 2027. Ask your provider what the tool does and who checks what it proposes.
When is it reviewed?
Every time the role opens again. The profile from two years ago describes the company of two years ago.
And six months after each hire. Compare what the profile asked for with what turned out to be needed. What was not used leaves the must-haves, and what was missing goes in.
Sources
- Spanish Workers' Statute, Article 28.1 (BOE-A-2015-11430, in Spanish)
- Spanish Act 15/2022 on equal treatment and non-discrimination, Article 9 (BOE-A-2022-11589, in Spanish)
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), Article 5 (EUR-Lex)
- AEPD: data protection in employment relationships, section on selection and hiring (in Spanish)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Annex III, point 4 (EUR-Lex)
- Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI): dates in Article 113 (EUR-Lex)
Frequently asked questions
- How long should a job profile be?
- One page. If it runs longer, the list of must-haves has usually grown and is worth cutting back.
- Is it the same as a job description?
- No. A job description lists tasks. The profile says which results are expected and what it takes to get them, which is why it works for selection.
- Can I reuse the profile from the last time the role was filled?
- As a starting point. Go through it with whoever manages the role today, because the results expected will have changed.
- Who has the last word on the profile?
- Whoever will manage the person. The selection lead helps to write it in a way that can be checked, but the judgement belongs to whoever answers for the result.
- Should pay be included?
- It is worth giving at least the band. It spares interviews with candidates whose expectations do not fit and sends a clear signal about how the company works.