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.
By Derek Chau · Published · Updated · in Hiring Process
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 and your second is US$4 at checkout; after that it is US$29 per Role, US$79 for 3, US$59 a month for 10 Roles or US$299 a month for Unlimited (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 at checkout; after that it is US$29 per Role, US$79 for 3, US$59 a month for 10 Roles or US$299 a month for Unlimited.
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.