Job Brief : a guide with template

Struggling to choose the right candidates for your job openings? The problem might start from your job brief.

It should not only outlines responsibilities and qualifications but also helps align expectations between managers and recruiters.

In this article, you'll learn what a job brief is with a detailled template.

What is a Job Brief?

A job brief is a recruitment document that provides comprehensive overview of a new job role, going beyond a simple list of duties. Unlike a job description, which focuses on daily tasks, a job brief includes the role's purpose, its goals, and the qualifications needed.

It ensures recruiter and hiring manager are on the same page and that candidates understand the job clearly.

A quality job brief typically covers information such as:

• The business context and team the role sits within — helping recruiters understand where this job fits and why it matters.
• The purpose of the position — explaining its impact on operations or growth objectives.
• The desired outcomes and goals for the hire, often framed around measurable results for their first year.
• The type of candidate needed — not only in terms of skills and experience but also mindset and cultural fit.

Creating the job brief is typically the first step in the recruitment process, and it often begins with a deep conversation between the recruiter and the hiring manager to collect core details about the position. That conversation ensures both parties share a 360° understanding of the role and the real business context driving the hire.

Template of a Job Brief

1) Role snapshot

• Job title: Senior Product Marketing Manager
• Department / team: Marketing — Product Marketing
• Location & work model: Paris or Remote (EU)
• Level: Senior individual contributor
• Employment type & start date: Full-time — ASAP
• Reports to: Head of Marketing
• Direct reports: No
• Salary range: €65k–€75k base + bonus

2) Business context (Why this hire?)

• This role is open due to strong product adoption and new feature launches planned this year.
• The business needs clearer positioning and stronger messaging to convert demand into revenue.
• Without this hire, sales cycles will stay long and messaging inconsistent across teams.
• The role works closely with Product, Sales, and Customer Success.
• Top priorities this quarter:
  1. Clarify product positioning
  2. Improve sales enablement
  3. Support upcoming feature launches

3) Role mission

This role exists to turn product value into clear, compelling messaging that helps sales close deals faster and helps prospects understand why this product matters.

4) Success criteria

First 90 days

• Own product messaging and value propositions
• Deliver updated sales decks and one-pagers

By 6 months

• Launch at least 2 major features with clear positioning
• Improve sales feedback on content usefulness

By 12 months

• Reduce average sales cycle length
• Establish repeatable product launch framework

KPIs

• Sales cycle duration
• Content adoption by sales team

5) Core responsibilities

• Define and maintain product positioning and messaging
• Create sales enablement content (decks, FAQs, battlecards)
• Partner with Product on launches and roadmap communication
• Conduct customer and prospect interviews
• Align marketing, sales, and product on go-to-market strategy

6) Must-haves vs nice-to-haves

Must-haves

• 5+ years in B2B product marketing
• Experience working closely with sales teams

Nice-to-haves

• SaaS experience
• Background in fast-growing startups

Deal-breakers

• No experience translating product into business value

7) Competencies & behaviors

• Strong written and verbal communication
• Strategic thinking with execution mindset
• Ability to influence without authority

8) Ideal candidate profile

• Background in B2B SaaS or tech companies
• Typical titles: Product Marketing Manager, GTM Manager
• 5–8 years of experience
• Tools: Notion, HubSpot, Figma (basic), Google Slides
• Motivated by ownership, impact, and clarity
• Red flags: purely tactical mindset, lack of customer exposure

9) Compensation & offer positioning

• Competitive salary aligned with market seniority
• Benefits: remote flexibility, learning budget, strong product culture
• Top selling points:
  1. High impact role
  2. Direct access to leadership
  3. Product-driven company
• Likely objection: “Is this role strategic enough?”
  → Answer: strong ownership of positioning and launches

10) Hiring process

• Target time-to-hire: 4 weeks
• Recruiter screen (30 min): motivation & fit
• Hiring manager interview (60 min): role depth
• Case study: messaging exercise
• Final interview with leadership
• Final decision-maker: Head of Marketing

11) Interview questions

• “How do you define strong product positioning?”
• “Tell me about a launch that didn’t go as planned.”
• “How do you work with sales teams in practice?”
• “What motivates you in a PMM role?”

12) Sourcing plan

• LinkedIn sourcing + referrals
• Target companies: B2B SaaS scale-ups
• Titles: Product Marketing Manager, GTM Manager
• Outreach angle: ownership, visibility, product impact

13) Logistics & compliance

• Interviews recorded with candidate consent
• Notes stored for 12 months
• Access limited to hiring team
• EU work authorization required

14) Final alignment

• Hiring manager aligned: ✅
• Recruiter aligned: ✅
• Budget approved: ✅
• Timeline approved: ✅
• Open question: internal growth path after 18 months

How to Align Manager and Recruiter on the Job Brief

Aligning with the hiring manager on the job brief is crucial for a successful hiring process. Here’s how you can ensure both parties are on the same page:

1. Organize a Manager-Recruiter Meeting:

‍You should organize a meeting between the recruiter and hiring manager to create the job brief. During the meeting, cover the job’s purpose, key responsibilities, required qualifications, and preferred skills. This step ensures that you both have a clear understanding of what’s needed and to draft and revise the job brief accordingly.

2. Use a Standardized Template:

‍Use a standardized template to capture all necessary information. This template should include sections for the job title, company overview, role purpose, key responsibilities, required qualifications, preferred skills, salary and benefits, reporting structure, start date, location, and application instructions. This structure helps ensure nothing is missed and that all relevant details are included​​.

3. Add Key Objectives of the Role

‍Clearly define the key objectives and expected outcomes for the role in the job brief. Discuss what success looks like in the first 6-12 months. This helps set clear performance expectations and provides a benchmark for evaluating candidates​​.

4. Distinguish Required and Preferred Qualifications:

‍Clarify the mandatory qualifications and distinguish them from preferred skills and experiences in the job brief. This helps you filter out candidates who do not meet the essential criteria and focus on those who possess desirable additional skills​.

5. Maintain Regular Check-ins:

‍Keep in touch with regular check-ins throughout the recruitment process. This helps address any emerging issues or changes in the role’s requirements. Continuous communication ensures that any adjustments needed are made promptly and that both parties remain aligned​.

Generate a Job Brief in One Click: Noota

Creating a job brief can be time-consuming, but with Noota, you can simplify this process significantly. Noota's AI meeting assistant enables you to record, transcribe, and summarize your manager-recruiter meetings, helping you generate a personalized job brief efficiently. Here's how:

• ‍Record and Transcribe your Manager-Recruiter meeting : Noota records and captures every detail of your meetings effortlessly. It saves you the hassle of manually noting down every point. You get a complete text version of your conversation, which is easily accessible and searchable. ‍
• Generate a Structured Job Brief : Noota's AI  automatically structure the key points based on a pre-made job brief template. You get in one click a clear overview of the job role, responsibilities, qualifications, and any other specifics discussed.
• Collaboration and Sharing: You can share the transcriptions and job brief with your team members, ensuring everyone involved in the hiring process has access to the ame information. This maintains alignment between managers and recruiters, as everyone can review and provide input on the job brief.

You want to generate accurate job brief automatically ? Try Noota for free.

FAQ

🔹 What’s the difference between a job brief and a job description?

A job brief is an internal document that explains why a role exists, what it should achieve, and what success looks like — including business context and immediate goals. A job description, by contrast, tends to be the external version that candidates see when they’re deciding whether to apply. It focuses more on duties, requirements, and daily responsibilities.

In simple terms:

• Job brief: Strategy, purpose, outcomes, stakeholder alignment.
• Job description: What the role does and what the candidate needs to qualify.

Having both helps you recruit with clarity and attract the right talent.

🔹 Who should write the job brief?

The best briefs are collaborative. Recruiters should draft it with the hiring manager — and ideally loop in anyone else who will regularly work with the new hire (product leads, team leaders, or cross-functional partners). Bringing multiple voices into the conversation helps surface real expectations and prevents misalignment later in the process.

🔹 Is a job brief always necessary?

Yes — even if you’ve hired for a similar role before. A job brief forces you to clarify expectations on paper instead of running on assumptions, which reduces wasted effort later. It also helps you catch nuance like priorities over the first 6–12 months — something a generic job description might overlook.

Skipping this step often leads to longer hiring cycles and misaligned candidate evaluations because teams start with different mental models of what they’re hiring for.

🔹 How detailed should a job brief be?

The short answer: as detailed as needed to align your team and design your hiring process. A good job brief should go beyond simple duties and include context, success metrics, competencies, and priorities. You don’t need paragraphs of prose — clear bullet points tied to measurable outcomes are even better.

Think of your job brief as a recruitment roadmap: if a missing detail would make sourcing or interviewing harder, that’s a clue it belongs in the brief.

🔹 Can a job brief change once hiring begins?

Absolutely — and it should evolve if your early sourcing insights show misalignment. For example, if your candidate pool lacks essential experience because your brief was too narrow, revisit and refine it before proceeding. A dynamic brief reflects market realities as much as internal expectations.

🔹 Are there questions you should always ask when creating a brief?

Yes — and many recruiters use structured conversation prompts to make their briefs stronger. These include:

• Why is the role being created now? — Helps establish urgency and context.
• What outcomes matter in the first 6–12 months? — Sets objective success criteria.
• Which competencies are critical vs optional? — Improves filtering and evaluation.

Asking these structured questions during your intake meeting helps you avoid miscommunication and build more effective briefs.

🔹 How do you use a job brief during hiring?

A great job brief doesn’t sit in a drawer — it informs your sourcing strategy, interview guides, candidate scorecards, and decision rubrics. Referring back to it throughout the process ensures consistency in how you assess candidates, which improves fairness and hiring quality

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