How to Write Job Descriptions for Managers Using a Template

Gem Siocon
Latest posts by Gem Siocon (see all)

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall employment in management occupations is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations from 2023 to 2033. So, that means, on average, about 1.2 million leadership roles are predicted to increase yearly. The increase is due to employment growth and the need to replace workers who leave their positions permanently. And for this reason, you will need to pay close attention to your job descriptions for managers.

When hiring managers, clarifying job descriptions is essential to ensure your target candidates understand them. Managers play a pivotal role in keeping the whole team motivated and productive. They are also responsible for boosting the morale of their team members during challenging periods. Finally, they help the company achieve its goals through strategic planning and collaboration with different departments. 

Crafting job descriptions for managers can be complex because these roles are critical to organizational success. Some of the most common challenges are: 

  1. Descriptions that are too broad or generic can be problematic. It’s hard to attract the best talent if you can’t differentiate your managerial roles from those of other organizations. 
  2. Extremely detailed job descriptions can overwhelm managers. 
  3. Managers are expected to be both strategic thinkers and operational leaders. So, balancing both functions can be difficult. 
  4. Managerial roles often involve intangible qualities such as leadership, decision-making, and mentorship. Therefore, it can be tricky to describe these traits in measurable terms. 

Check out this blog for examples of an “Executive” Job Description. 

Benefits of Using a Template

Using a template to craft job descriptions for managerial positions helps streamline the process and improve the quality of hire:

  1. A template provides a standardized format for all job descriptions to remain consistent across your organization. This helps maintain professionalism and cohesion and also boosts your employer branding. 
  2.  A template simplifies the job description writing process. So, you can quickly fill in specific details without missing essential sections. 
  3. You also avoid errors. Templates also reduce the risk of omitting important details or including inconsistent information.
  4. A template promotes collaboration between HR and hiring managers so everyone agrees on the role’s scope and expectations. 
  5. A job description template focuses on objective criteria such as skills, qualifications, and performance expectations. This also aligns with a fair hiring process and promotes diversity.

Read this blog for more examples of manager job description templates. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Manager Job Description Using a Template

A well-structured job description for manager roles should clearly outline the role’s purpose, responsibilities, and qualifications while aligning with organizational goals and values. 

Here’s a template to guide you in writing your job description for manager roles: 

  1. Job Title – choose a specific job title that accurately describes the position. Include seniority levels if relevant, such as “Senior Project Manager” or “Assistant Manager.”

If the role is industry-specific, use terminology that resonates with professionals in that field (e.g., “Logistics Manager—Supply Chain”).

Example: 

Manager vs Senior Marketing Manager – Email Campaigns 

  1. Summary/About the Role: This section gives candidates a high-level view of the role and its importance within the organization.

Example: 

Product Marketing, Sr Lead for Partners – Salesforce

At Heroku, our Product Marketers craft inspirational stories and product demos to people around the world. We develop product messaging and positioning, campaigns, go-to-market programs, sales plays, events, and sales enablement. Our success is defined by our ability to deliver relevant content that creates interest, sales pipeline, and ultimately, new customers.

  1. Responsibilities: clarifies strategic and operational responsibilities of a manager. Strategic focuses on high-level planning, while operational deals with day-to-day managerial tasks.

Differences between strategic and operational: 

  • Strategic: Long Term (years ahead)

Operational: Short Term (daily, weekly, monthly)

  • Strategic: Affects the entire organization or major divisions.

Operational: Impacts specific teams or departments.

  • Strategic: Planning, vision-setting, and policy-making.

Operational: Execution, management, and administration.

  • Strategic: High-level decisions with significant consequences.

Operational: Day-to-day decisions that keep operations running smoothly.

  • Strategic: Requires visionary leadership, innovation, and big-picture thinking.

Operational: Needs strong management skills, efficiency, and attention to detail.

Many leadership positions, especially middle management, combine strategic and operational job responsibilities. Leaders must be able to develop and implement strategies while also ensuring that day-to-day operations align with those strategies.

Example: 

Sales HR Lead – Mondelez 

Strategic Responsibilities: 

  • Collaborate with sales leadership to understand business goals and align people strategies to support these objectives.
  • Develop People strategies and initiatives that drive performance, employee engagement, and company culture.
  • Work with sales managers to identify high-potential employees and develop career progression plans.
  • Analyze People data and metrics to provide insights and recommendations to sales leadership.
  • Support the implementation of organizational changes within the sales team.

Operational Responsibilities

  • Oversee talent acquisition processes for the sales team, ensuring the recruitment of high-caliber candidates.
  • Implement and manage onboarding processes to integrate new sales employees effectively.
  • Develop and execute training programs to enhance the skills and capabilities of the sales workforce.
  • Support the sales team in setting performance goals, providing feedback, and conducting performance evaluations.
  • Address performance issues in a timely and constructive manner.
  1. Qualifications – sets clear expectations for skills, experience, and education.

Example: 

Internal Audit – Compliance and Legal, Vice President – Goldman and Sachs  

  • Approximately 7+ years of experience as an internal auditor, consultant, and/or regulatory agency examiner within the financial services industry
  • Strong knowledge and expertise in auditing Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML), financial crime risks and corporate legal functions
  • 4-year degree in a finance, accounting, or quantitative discipline, and ideally a graduate degree in a related subject; advanced degree (e.g. JD) is a plus
  • Relevant certification or industry accreditation (e.g., CAMS, CIA) is a plus
  1. Leadership Expectations: highlights the role’s strategic and team-building aspects so candidates understand their leadership role’s scope and expected impact on the organization. Here are some essential leadership qualities that you must indicate in your job description: 
  • Strategic vision – Leaders must guide their teams with a clear understanding of the company’s objectives and its long-term vision
  • Decision-making – Leaders must make timely, informed decisions that address challenges and seize opportunities.
  • Team Management – Strong leadership fosters cooperation among team members. He must nurture their professional growth and high performance.
  • Change Management – Leaders often drive organizational change and must ensure smooth transitions.
  • Stakeholder engagement – Leaders must work with internal and external stakeholders to drive organizational goals.

Linda Moore, Slipintosoft’s Head of HR, learned that an effective job description for executive roles should go beyond basic duties. She said,

“I focus mostly on conveying the strategic importance of the role, its impact on business objectives, and its growth potential within the organization. For example, our recent search for a CMO at Slipintosoft highlighted not just marketing responsibilities but the role’s impact on our commitment to sustainability and craftsmanship.”

The leadership expectation can be included in the job description’s About the Role, Company Overview, or Company Values sections. 

Example: 

Senior Manager, Field Operations, APAC, Experiences – Airbnb

As the Senior Manager of Field Operations for the APAC, you will lead a team of Market Leaders across multiple regions, overseeing the end-to-end strategy for supply acquisition, host quality, account management, and listing optimization. You will ensure alignment with Airbnb’s overarching business goals, driving results across diverse markets while fostering a collaborative and high-performance environment. Your leadership will be pivotal in navigating regional complexities, setting priorities, and guiding your team in adapting to market trends and shifts.

  1. Company Values: attract candidates who align with your culture and mission.

Lucas Botzen, CEO of HR Software Rivermate, stressed the importance of providing some sense of company values and its leadership philosophy because it will ensure that the potential candidates can imagine themselves being successful within the role while helping to enable the company’s mission. He said,

“In my experience, leadership positions, year after year, require not only technical competencies in a candidate but also a great cultural fit. Therefore, I try to emphasize the company’s innovation, employee development, and cross-functional collaboration in a manner that is attractive to top talent who would like to make an impact.” 

Example: 

Medical Director – New Jersey Market – CVS Health

Our Heart At Work Behaviors™ support this purpose. We want everyone who works at CVS Health to feel empowered by their role in transforming our culture and accelerating our ability to innovate and deliver solutions that make health care more personal, convenient, and affordable.

  1. Compensation and Benefits: This section provides information on the salary and perks of the role, which can increase application rates.

In a ZipRecruiter survey, 72% of employers said they post salary information in all job postings. Additionally, 75% of employers agree that pay transparency helps them attract quality candidates. 61% agree that pay transparency makes recruitment more efficient by discouraging poorly matched candidates from applying and preventing post-offer disappointment. 

  1. About Us: provide basic information about the company, its products and services, achievements, and core values. 
  1. Diversity Statement: show your company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Tips for Tailoring Templates to Managerial Roles

  1. Focus on strategic impact – managers are responsible for the company’s success. Emphasizing their strategic role ensures candidates understand how their contributions will align with the company vision. 

Highlight their role in setting goals and aligning efforts:

Ex: VP of Product – AIHR 

Develop and implement the overall strategy for the Product & Engineering department in alignment with the company’s vision and objectives.

Emphasize decision-making responsibilities: 

Ex: Content & Product Marketing Manager – Appcast

Assess the effectiveness of the product marketing programs, tools, and technology that support Appcast’s GTM efforts on an ongoing basis.

  1. Adapt to department needs – each department has unique goals, challenges, and operational needs. Collaborate with department heads to understand each role so you can tailor job descriptions to reflect these specifics. 

Example

Content Marketing Manager – Autozone

Oversee the creation, curation, and assessment of all marketing assets for products, promotions, and other marketing initiatives.

Commercial Sales Manager – Autozone

Manage the acquisition and delivery of products, provide ongoing customer service, and maintain expert knowledge of parts and inventory.

  1. Customize for seniority. Different managerial roles, such as entry-level, mid-level managers, and senior executives, have distinct responsibilities, scopes, and expectations. 
  • Entry to mid-level managers: Focus on operational responsibilities, such as supervising teams, implementing processes, and ensuring daily objectives are met.

Example: 

Store Manager – Louis Vuitton

Lead and develop the store team through inspiring hands-on management and coaching.

  • Senior-level managers/executives: Highlight strategic responsibilities, such as long-term planning, decision-making, and cross-departmental leadership.

Example: 

Senior Manager – Influencer Marketing – Louis Vuitton

Craft and execute cutting-edge influencer marketing strategies that amplify our brand presence, drive impactful sales results, and foster deep community ties across digital landscapes

Tools for Creating Job Description Templates for Managers

1. Ongig

Ongig can help you easily create compelling job descriptions for managers with customizable templates. 

Here’s how: 

  1. In Text Analyzer, click “New Job.”
Using Ongig's Text Analyzer to create a Job Description Template - Job Descriptions for Managers
  1. Next, click ‘Write Sample.”
Text analyzer tool (Job Descriptions for Managers Template blog)
  1. Then, click the “Enter Job Title” field. 
  1. Type any job title to generate a job description.
  2. Click “Generate Now”
  1. The job description will be created with a few sentences about the job and a list of responsibilities.
  1. It will also generate a bulleted list of Required Skills.
  2. …and Benefits. NOTE: You can customize to generate the content you need and make edits to match your company guidelines.
  1. Click the “Reduce Masculine Bias” button to remove masculine language with a click of a button and give you “gender-neutral” terms as alternatives. 
  1. You can also improve the “readability” of the job description with a click of a button by removing long sentences and complex words. 
  1. Just click “Improve Writing”
  1. View the changes and then click “Accept Rewrite Changes” to have a better job description that is concise and inclusive of neurodiverse candidates.

Ongig also offers a centralized repository to keep job description templates. The templates can be easily shared so hiring managers and recruiters can edit the same templates, allowing for real-time collaboration.

ongig job description templates

2. Google Docs

There are over 3 billion active users of Google Workspace per month, so it makes sense to use it to build templates for your job descriptions for managers. Since it is cloud-based, writing job descriptions are more organized, automated, and shareable with other recruiters and hiring managers. 

You can check out these free job description templates on Google if you have a limited budget. 

3. Excel

Many recruiters still use Excel, which has a whopping 1.5 billion users worldwide. Excel’s structured layout allows for easy customization and updating of job descriptions. 

If you want to use Excel spreadsheets for your manager JD templates, read this blog. 

Writing Job Descriptions for Managers: Streamlining Approvals with Templates

When it comes to writing job descriptions for managers, getting approvals from HR or senior management can often feel like the most difficult part. That’s another area where templates can help. They make the process faster, simpler, and also more organized.

Why Templates Work for Streamlining Approvals with Job Descriptions for Managers

Using a well-structured job description template ensures that all essential functions of the manager’s role are clearly outlined. For example, key responsibilities such as financial performance, conflict resolution, and training employees are already included in the template. This makes it easier for HR professionals and upper management to review and approve the content of your job descriptions for managers.

So, by covering the minimum requirements for the position of manager, such as a bachelor’s degree in business administration or a related field and previous experience in a management role, templates eliminate guesswork. Therefore, HR professionals and decision-makers can focus on refining details instead of starting from scratch.

Save Time with Pre-Built Sections in Your Job Descriptions for Managers Templates

Templates for job descriptions for managers often include core responsibilities like strategic thinking, quality control, and managing direct reports across various departments. So, these pre-built sections save time by ensuring nothing critical is missed. For instance, a template for an operations manager might highlight strategic mindset and continuous improvement. While one for an office manager could emphasize strong interpersonal skills and effective communication.

Including detailed duties in bullet points also makes it easier for HR and leadership to quickly scan and approve the job description. This approach improves recruitment effectiveness by helping organizations attract good candidates sooner.

Job Descriptions for Managers Templates: Foster Collaboration with HR and Leadership

Job description templates help facilitate better collaboration between HR professionals and senior management. Regular updates can be made to templates to reflect the evolving needs of the organization, such as adding specific details about employee performance reviews, reasonable accommodations, or business strategies.

Using a job description manager tool can further simplify the process. So, these tools enable HR and leadership to review and revise templates on a regular basis, ensuring alignment with the company’s goals and ethical standards. Whether you’re hiring a general manager, team leader, or operations manager, these tools keep everyone on the same page.

Boost Recruitment and Organization’s Success with Templates for Your Job Descriptions for Managers

Streamlining approvals with templates means job descriptions for managers get published faster. Thus, helping you attract the best candidates more efficiently. Templates also provide consistency, which reinforces the organization’s commitment to clear expectations and continuous improvement.

Ultimately, creating templates that highlight essential skills, leadership skills, and detailed duties ensures that hiring managers can focus on finding problem solvers and effective leaders who will drive the organization’s success. So, by using direct language and emphasizing employee satisfaction, you’re taking the first step toward hiring a great manager who will thrive in their role.

Why I wrote this: 

At Ongig, we can help you attract the best talent for your leadership and managerial job openings by crafting inclusive and effective job descriptions. Using our template builder feature, you can create and store your job descriptions and share them with your team. Request a demo to learn more. 

Shout-outs:

by in Job Descriptions