30 AI Prompts for Writing Job Descriptions

TL;DR: A job description that actually attracts qualified candidates needs three things a rushed draft usually skips: a requirements list split into must-have and nice-to-have, language checked for gendered and age-coded phrasing, and a role summary written around real day-to-day outcomes instead of a generic title template. Below are 30 copy-paste prompts covering drafting, inclusive-language checks, and posting-ready polish — plus what AI genuinely can't do here, which is give you legal sign-off.

The master job description prompt

Fill in the brackets and run this first; the sections below refine individual pieces of the output.

Write a job description for the following role:

Role title: {{title}}
Team / department: {{team}}
Reports to: {{manager title}}
What this person will actually do in their first 90 days: {{2-3 concrete outcomes}}
Day-to-day responsibilities (rough list, doesn't need to be polished): {{bullet list}}
Requirements I believe are truly must-have: {{list}}
Requirements that would be nice but aren't dealbreakers: {{list}}
Company tone: {{e.g. "direct and a little informal" / "formal and precise"}}

Structure the output as:
1. A 2-3 sentence role summary focused on impact, not a restatement of the title.
2. A responsibilities section, 5-8 bullets, action-verb-led.
3. A requirements section split clearly into "Required" and "Nice to have."
4. Flag any item I listed as required that reads more like a nice-to-have based on how
   specific and non-negotiable it actually sounds.

Do not invent requirements, benefits, or company details I haven't given you.

That fourth instruction is the one most templates skip, and it's the single biggest lever on application volume — a bloated "required" list filters out people who would have been strong hires.

Role summary and responsibilities prompts (7)

1. Outcome-first summary. "Write a 2-sentence role summary for {{title}} that describes the problem this person solves for the team, not their reporting line or a list of tools they'll use."
2. From a messy internal brief. "Here's an unstructured note about what we need: {{paste notes}}. Turn this into a clean role summary and 5 responsibility bullets."
3. Responsibilities from a 90-day outcome. "In 90 days, this person needs to have accomplished: {{outcome}}. Reverse-engineer a responsibilities list that would realistically lead there."
4. Trim a bloated responsibilities list. "Here are 14 responsibility bullets for {{title}}: {{list}}. Consolidate to 6-8 by merging overlapping items and cutting anything that's really a one-off project, not an ongoing responsibility."
5. Responsibilities for a newly created role. "This role, {{title}}, doesn't exist yet at our company. Based on how this function is typically structured elsewhere, draft a first-draft responsibilities list I can edit against our specific needs."
6. Distinguish this role from a similar one. "We already have a {{similar title}} role. This new {{title}} role is different because {{distinction}}. Write the responsibilities section so it's clearly distinct, not a near-duplicate."
7. Seniority-calibrated responsibilities. "Here's a responsibilities list written for a mid-level {{title}}: {{list}}. Rewrite it for a senior-level version of the same role, raising the bar on ownership and scope without just adding the word 'senior' to each bullet."

Requirements-section prompts (7)

8. Must-have vs nice-to-have split. "Here's a rough requirements list: {{list}}. Split it into 'Required' and 'Nice to have,' and flag anything you think shouldn't be on either list because it's not actually predictive of success in this role."
9. Years-of-experience sanity check. "This requirement says '{{X}} years of experience with {{skill}}.' Is a specific year count the right way to express this requirement, or would a description of the actual skill level needed be more accurate and less exclusionary?"
10. Requirements from a skills gap. "Our last hire in this role struggled with {{specific gap}}. Without over-indexing on one bad hire, suggest one requirement or screening question that would help catch this earlier next time."
11. Degree requirement check. "This job description currently requires a bachelor's degree. Based on the actual responsibilities listed here — {{paste responsibilities}} — is a degree requirement doing real work, or could it be replaced with a requirement about demonstrated skill or experience instead?"
12. Technical requirements for a non-technical reviewer. "Rewrite these technical requirements — {{list}} — so a non-technical hiring manager reading the job description can understand roughly what each one means, without dumbing down the requirement itself."
13. Requirements for a role with no direct precedent. "We're hiring for {{title}}, and no one on our team has done this exact role before. List the requirements you'd expect to see for this kind of role at a company our size ({{size/stage}}), so I have a starting point to edit."
14. Cut the "wish list" creep. "Here are requirements pulled from three different people's input on this role: {{combined list}}. Some of these read like each person added their personal wish list rather than a shared view of what's required. Identify anything that looks like it came from only one stakeholder's preference."

Inclusive-language check prompts (6)

15. Full language scan. "Review this job description for language that might unintentionally discourage qualified candidates from applying: gendered pronouns or phrasing, age-coded terms (digital native, recent graduate, energetic), ableist defaults (must be able to stand for long periods, unless genuinely required), and culturally narrow references. List each instance found and suggest a neutral replacement. This is a language review, not legal advice."
16. Gendered-language pass. "Check this text for wording that research on job postings has linked to skewed application rates by gender — words like 'ninja,' 'rockstar,' 'competitive,' 'dominant,' or masculine-coded pronoun usage. Suggest neutral alternatives for each."
17. Age-coded phrasing check. "Flag any phrase in this job description that could read as an age preference even if unintended — for example 'digital native,' 'recent graduate,' 'youthful energy,' or an upper cap phrased as years of experience that functions as an age filter."
18. Physical-requirement review. "This description includes the requirement: '{{requirement}}.' Is this genuinely required to perform the job's core functions, or could it be phrased around the actual task instead of a physical capability, unless the physical capability is truly essential?"
19. Tone check for a specific audience. "We want this role description to read as welcoming to career-changers, not just people with a traditional background in {{field}}. Review this draft and flag anything that implicitly assumes a traditional path."
20. Readability and jargon check. "Rewrite this job description at a reading level appropriate for a general professional audience, keeping technical terms that are genuinely necessary but explaining or cutting jargon that isn't."

Posting and screening-adjacent prompts (5)

21. Job title options. "Suggest 5 alternative job titles for this role that are searchable (what candidates would actually type into a job board) rather than internal-only naming."
22. Perks and benefits section. "Write a 3-4 bullet benefits section using only these facts: {{list of actual benefits}}. Don't add generic phrases like 'competitive salary' or 'great culture' unless I've given you specifics to back them."
23. Screening questions from requirements. "Based on the 'Required' section of this job description, draft 3 screening questions an application form could ask that would help distinguish candidates who meet the requirement from those who don't."
24. Job board vs careers page versions. "Here's a full job description: {{paste}}. Write a condensed version, under 150 words, suitable for a job board listing with a character limit, that still includes the role summary and top 3 requirements."
25. Internal vs external framing. "This job description is currently written for external candidates. Adapt it for an internal job posting, adjusting references to onboarding, culture explanation, and anything assuming no prior context about the company."

Reuse and library prompts (5)

26. Extract a reusable template from a good JD. "Here's a job description we wrote that got strong applicant quality: {{paste}}. Extract the underlying structure as a reusable template with placeholders, so future roles in this department can start from the same shape."
27. Build a variable set for a hiring season. "We're hiring for 4 roles this quarter: {{list titles}}. What variables (role title, team, seniority, must-have skill category) would let one base job-description prompt handle all 4 with minimal per-role rewriting?"
28. Batch-consistency check across open roles. "Here are job descriptions for 3 open roles on the same team: {{paste all 3}}. Check for inconsistent tone, overlapping responsibilities that suggest role confusion, or requirements that contradict each other."
29. Update a stale template. "This job description template hasn't been updated in over a year: {{paste}}. Flag anything that references outdated tools, outdated team structure, or requirements that no longer reflect how the role is actually performed."
30. Post-hire retro prompt. "We hired for this role 6 months ago using this job description: {{paste}}. Based on how the role has actually played out, what would you change in the requirements or responsibilities section for the next time we hire for it?"

Requirements inflation, in numbers

A frequently cited internal HP finding (via Lean In and other secondary sources) put the pattern this way: men tend to apply when they meet roughly 60% of listed qualifications, women more often wait until they're close to 100%. The exact figure has been repeated widely enough that it's worth treating as illustrative of a real, broadly-documented pattern rather than a precise statistic to cite as primary research. Either way, the practical fix is the same: separate what's truly required from what's a preference, using prompt 8 above. The same principle applies regardless of how the gap breaks down demographically at your specific company; a padded requirements list filters out qualified people, full stop, and that's reason enough to fix it.

Turning this into a repeatable hiring-season task

If you hire more than once or twice a year, the actual time sink isn't writing one job description — it's rebuilding the same structure, the same inclusive-language pass, and the same must-have/nice-to-have split from scratch every time a new role opens. Save the master prompt and the language-check prompt with variables for title, team, and requirements, and a new job description becomes a fill-in-the-blanks task instead of a fresh draft.

Prompt Architects stores prompts with reusable variables specifically for this kind of recurring, structured writing — the master JD prompt above, the language check, and your screening-question prompt can all live in one library instead of scattered across old documents. The Free plan covers 5 prompt enhancements a day; Pro removes the daily cap for a team running a real hiring season.

What AI can't do here

AI can draft, restructure, and flag wording patterns worth a second look. It cannot tell you whether a specific requirement creates legal exposure in your jurisdiction, whether a physical requirement is genuinely essential to the job under applicable disability law, or whether your pay-transparency disclosure obligations are met. None of the guidance in this post is legal advice — for anything with real compliance stakes, route it to whoever owns employment law at your company before the posting goes live.