Talent SummonerJob Requisition: What It Is, With a Free Template
A job requisition is the internal request to open a role. Get a copyable template, see how it differs from a job description, and turn it into search criteria.
A job requisition is the internal request to open and fill a role. It says what the job is, why you need it now, what it pays, and who approved the spend, before anyone writes a job ad or contacts a candidate.
We build Talent Summoner, which turns a role description into a ranked shortlist of candidates from public profiles. One approved requisition maps to one Role in our product, and as of 3 October 2026 your first Role is free with no card, then US$29 per Role or US$59 a month for 10 Roles (pricing).
If your company already runs requisitions through an HR system with its own approval flow, use that form. If you open roles by message or in a spreadsheet, copy the template below.
Job requisition template
Fill in one requisition per role. The example is made up.
| Field | What to write | Made-up example |
|---|---|---|
| Requisition number | A unique ID you will use in every tracker and report | REQ-2026-014 |
| Job title | The title the person will hold | Senior backend engineer |
| Team and manager | Who the hire reports to | Platform team, reports to the CTO |
| Reason for the hire | New role or a replacement, and the business reason | New role: second engineer on payments |
| Location and work model | City, country, and office, hybrid or remote | Singapore, hybrid, 3 days in office |
| Employment type | Full-time, part-time or contract, and the start date | Full-time, start by 1 January 2027 |
| Level | The seniority you are paying for | Senior, 5+ years |
| Must-haves | 3 to 5 skills the person cannot do the job without | Go, payment systems, on-call experience |
| Nice-to-haves | Skills that help but are not required | Kubernetes, fintech licence work |
| Salary band | The approved range for base pay | SGD 120,000 to 150,000 a year |
| Budget owner and approval | Who signed off on the spend, and when | CEO, approved 1 October 2026 |
| Hiring team | Who interviews and who makes the final call | CTO decides; two engineers interview |
The same fields as plain text, ready to paste into a doc or a ticket:
JOB REQUISITION
Requisition number:
Job title:
Team and manager:
Reason for the hire (new role or replacement, and why now):
Location and work model:
Employment type and target start date:
Level:
Must-haves (3 to 5):
Nice-to-haves:
Salary band:
Budget owner and date approved:
Hiring team and final decision-maker:Job requisition vs job description vs job posting
These three documents are often mixed up. Each one has a different reader.
| Document | Who reads it | What it is for | When it is written |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job requisition | Your budget owner and hiring team | Approves the role, the budget and the reason | First |
| Job description | Your team and the new hire | Lists the duties and skills of the job | With the requisition (often attached), then reused |
| Job posting | Candidates | Sells the job and invites people to apply | Last, from the job description |
A requisition can stay internal for the life of the role. Never paste the budget owner or the reason for the hire into a public posting.
How to open a job requisition on a small team
A small team does not need an approval system. It needs the same few steps every time:
- The hiring manager fills in the template.
- The budget owner approves the salary band in writing, and the approval date goes on the requisition.
- Someone gives the requisition a number and adds it to your hiring tracker.
- The requisition becomes the brief for sourcing and the job posting.
- When the role is filled, paused or cancelled, record the date and the reason on the requisition.
Step 5 matters for your numbers later. Time-to-fill starts from a date, and our guide to defining time-to-fill consistently explains which one to pick.
How to turn a job requisition into search criteria
Most of a requisition can be searched. Some of it should never be a filter.
| Requisition field | Search criterion | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Job title | The title plus 2 or 3 nearby titles | One exact title misses people who do the same work |
| Location and work model | City or region, or a time zone for remote roles | A remote role searched by city shrinks the pool |
| Level | Years of experience, or scope such as "led a team of 5" | Years alone can hide strong people with fewer years |
| Must-haves | Required skills | Each extra must-have shrinks the pool further |
| Nice-to-haves | Ranking signals, not filters | Filtering on them cuts good candidates |
| Salary band | Not a search filter | Use it to check seniority after the search |
| Reason for the hire | Not a search filter | It belongs in the brief, not the search |
For a deeper brief, our hiring brief template for founders adds the questions a requisition leaves out.
Common job requisition mistakes
- No written approval. A role opened on a verbal yes can be frozen halfway through interviews, with candidates already waiting.
- Too many must-haves. Ten required skills describe a person who may not exist.
- No requisition number. Two people tracking the "Backend engineer" role will count different candidates.
- Editing the requisition mid-search. If the level or band changes, record the new version and date, and re-check your shortlist.
When a formal job requisition is wrong for you
A written requisition adds a step. Skip the full template when:
- You are a founder hiring your first employee with your own money, so the approver and the requester are the same person.
- You are filling a short contract with a fixed fee, where the purchase order already does the job.
- Your HR system already has a requisition form; a second document in parallel causes the version mistakes above.
Even then, write down the must-haves and the salary band before you start searching.
Where Talent Summoner fits
Talent Summoner asks for a brief with location, job title, experience, industry and skills, and most of that comes straight from the requisition. You can upload a job description and review the search criteria before it runs.
It searches LinkedIn, GitHub and other public sources, over 200 million profiles, and ranks each person with must-haves, nice-to-haves and plain-English reasoning. Your first Role is free and your second is US$4.
Trade-offs, stated plainly: no paid InMail, no always-on pipeline and no ATS integration today. It does not create, store or approve requisitions; that stays with you.
We checked these facts on 3 October 2026 and re-check them every quarter.
What is a job requisition?
A job requisition is an internal request to open and fill a role, approved by whoever owns the budget. It records the job title, the reason for the hire, the salary band and who signed off.
What is a job requisition number?
A job requisition number is a unique ID given to one approved role, such as REQ-2026-014. Teams use it to track candidates, costs and time-to-fill for that role.
Is a job requisition the same as a job posting?
No. A job requisition is an internal approval document, while a job posting is the public ad that candidates read after the requisition is approved.
Who writes a job requisition?
The hiring manager usually writes the job requisition, and the budget owner, such as a founder, finance lead or department head, approves it. On a very small team, one person may do both.
Write the requisition first, get the salary band approved in writing, then use it as the brief for every search.
