By Brigitta Warren · Updated September 2026
Before you write anything
The most common problem with job descriptions is not the writing. It is that the role has not been thought through. Three questions to answer first, ideally with whoever the person will report to:
- What outcomes does this role own? Not tasks. Outcomes. "On-time delivery above 96%" is an outcome. "Manage the production schedule" is a task.
- What does the person need to be able to do on day one, and what can they learn? Separating the two widens the candidate pool considerably.
- Is this one job? If the description combines production management, supply chain planning and a continuous improvement programme, it is probably two roles at one salary, and the market will tell you so by not applying. We wrote about exactly this in why taking a brief is the shortcut to a mis-hire.
Check the salary against the market before you finalise the level. The NZ salary guide is a reasonable starting point.
The template
Use these sections in this order. Keep the whole thing to two pages. Notes in each section explain what belongs there.
| Section | What goes here |
|---|---|
| Job title | The title the market uses, not an internal one. "Operations Manager", not "Head of Making Things Happen". |
| Reports to / direct reports | Reporting line up and down, and any dotted lines. |
| Location and hours | Site, any travel, hours, and what flexibility exists. |
| Purpose of the role | Two or three sentences on why the role exists and what it is there to achieve. |
| Key outcomes | Four to six measurable results the role owns. This is the heart of the document. |
| Key responsibilities | The main areas of work, grouped, with a sentence each. Not an exhaustive task list. |
| Essential requirements | What the person must bring on day one. Keep it short and honest. |
| Desirable | What would be a bonus. Be clear it is not required. |
| How we work | The team, the culture, the leadership style, plainly stated. |
| Remuneration and benefits | A salary range, vehicle, KiwiSaver, bonus structure, development. |
| Success at 6 and 12 months | What "going well" looks like at each point. Optional but powerful. |
Worked example: Operations Manager, Waikato manufacturer
The example below is for a mid-sized food manufacturing business. Adapt the specifics; keep the structure and the tone.
Operations Manager
Reports to: General Manager. Direct reports: Production Manager, Maintenance Manager, Quality Manager, Warehouse Supervisor (team of approximately 60).
Location and hours: Te Rapa, Hamilton. Full-time, site-based, with flexibility around start and finish times. Occasional travel to customers and suppliers in the North Island.
Purpose of the role: You will lead the day-to-day operation of our Hamilton site, from raw material intake to dispatch, and build the systems and team that let us grow volume by 30% over the next three years without adding a second shift. This is the senior operational role in the business and a member of the leadership team.
Key outcomes you will own:
- Delivery in full and on time above 96%, measured monthly
- Site safety: zero serious harm incidents, and a visible improvement in near-miss reporting
- Cost per unit reduced by 8% over 24 months through waste, labour and downtime improvements
- Maintenance of our food safety certification with no major non-conformances at audit
- A stable, capable leadership team beneath you, with a named successor for each key role
Key responsibilities:
- Production leadership. Set and manage the production plan with the Production Manager; balance customer demand, labour and plant capacity; resolve the daily issues that stop product moving.
- Safety and compliance. Own the site health and safety system and food safety programme. Lead by example on the floor.
- Continuous improvement. Establish a practical improvement programme. We do not need a full lean deployment; we need measured, sustained gains in the areas that matter.
- People. Lead, develop and hold to account a team of four managers and supervisors. Build the site's capability so it does not depend on you.
- Budget and reporting. Manage the operations budget, report monthly to the leadership team, contribute to capital planning.
- Customers and suppliers. Be the operational face of the business to key customers and critical suppliers.
What you will need to bring:
- At least five years leading a manufacturing operation, including managing managers
- Experience in a food, dairy or other regulated processing environment
- A track record of measurable improvement in safety, cost or delivery
- The ability to lead from the floor, not only from the office
- Comfort with numbers: budgets, KPIs, and telling the leadership team what they mean
Nice to have, not essential: a tertiary qualification in engineering, food technology or operations; formal lean or six sigma training; experience with a major ERP implementation.
How we work: We are family-owned, 20 years old and growing. Decisions are made quickly and you will have direct access to the owners. The site is busy, informal and hands-on. We expect senior people to be on the floor every day and we do not have layers of process between you and getting things done.
Remuneration: Base salary of $140,000 to $160,000 depending on experience, plus vehicle, KiwiSaver at 3%, and a performance bonus of up to 15% tied to the outcomes above. We will support relevant professional development.
What success looks like: At six months you know the site, the people and the numbers, have stabilised delivery performance and have a credible improvement plan. At twelve months the plan is delivering measurable results, the leadership team beneath you is stronger, and the General Manager is spending less time in operations.
How to write one that attracts senior people
Senior candidates read job descriptions differently from junior ones. They are usually employed, not desperate, and they are assessing you as much as you are assessing them. What works:
- Lead with the outcomes and the challenge. Senior people want to know what problem they are being hired to solve and what authority they will have to solve it.
- State the salary range. Withholding it does not create negotiating room; it filters out the people who are not desperate enough to guess. In New Zealand, senior candidates increasingly skip adverts without a range.
- Be honest about the business. If it is informal and fast, say so. If a system implementation is half-finished, say so. Surprises after the start date are how placements fail.
- Cut the requirement list. Every "must have" removes candidates. Keep the genuine ones and move the rest to desirable.
- Write for a person, not a filing system. "You will" rather than "The incumbent shall". Second person, plain English, short paragraphs.
- Describe the manager. The relationship with the person they report to is the biggest predictor of whether a senior hire lasts. A sentence about their style is worth including.
- Skip the clichés. "Dynamic", "fast-paced", "self-starter" and "passionate" tell a candidate nothing and signal that nobody thought hard about the role.
Job description versus job advert
They are different documents. The job description is the internal definition of the role and the basis for the employment agreement, performance reviews and, eventually, any dispute about what the job was. The advert is a marketing piece: shorter, warmer, focused on why someone would want the job, and pointed at a specific audience on a specific channel.
Write the description first, then cut it down and warm it up for the advert. If you write the advert first and reverse-engineer the description, the role tends to end up defined by what sounded good rather than what the business needs.
For roles where the description is doing heavy lifting, such as a new position, a restructure or a first-time hire into a function, we often work with clients on the design of the role before a word is written. That is what our recruitment strategy and design service is for, and it usually saves weeks on the search that follows. See also how long recruitment takes and what shortens it.