Recruiter Job Description: Template & Salary
Key takeaway
Free recruiter job description template with duties, requirements, BLS pay data (May 2025), recruiter types and interview questions you can use.
A recruiter finds, screens and hires candidates for an employer's open roles. In-house recruiters usually report to a talent acquisition manager or the head of HR. Core duties are writing and posting job ads, sourcing candidates, running phone screens, coordinating interviews with hiring managers, and negotiating and closing offers. Below is a template you can edit, the main recruiter types, pay data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and interview questions for the role.
Recruiter job description template
This template is written for a full-cycle corporate (in-house) recruiter. Replace the bracketed text. If you are hiring for an agency or a sourcing-only role, use the comparison tables further down to adjust the scope.
About the role
We are hiring a full-cycle Recruiter to fill [engineering / sales / G&A] roles for our [location or remote] teams. You will carry [8-15] open requisitions at a time and own each one from the intake meeting to the signed offer. You will report to the [Talent Acquisition Manager / Head of People] and work day to day with [number] hiring managers. We use [Greenhouse / Lever / Ashby / iCIMS] as our applicant tracking system and LinkedIn Recruiter for sourcing. The pay range for this role is [$X-$Y] plus [bonus / equity].
Responsibilities
- Run an intake meeting with the hiring manager for each new requisition to agree on must-have skills, level, pay range and interview steps
- Write and post job ads, and keep the posting accurate as the role changes
- Source candidates who have not applied, using LinkedIn Recruiter, Boolean search, employee referrals and past applicants in the ATS
- Review applications and run 20-30 minute phone screens on experience, motivation, pay expectations and work authorization
- Schedule interview loops, brief interviewers on what each round should assess, and collect written feedback within 24 hours
- Keep every candidate informed of their status, including a clear decision for those not moving forward
- Prepare offers within the approved range, present them, negotiate, and close
- Keep candidate records in the ATS complete so pipeline reports are accurate
- Report weekly on pipeline by stage, time to fill and offer acceptance for your requisitions
- Hand accepted candidates to HR for background checks and onboarding
Requirements
- [2-4] years of full-cycle recruiting, in-house or agency
- Experience hiring for [function] roles at [level]
- Daily use of an ATS and LinkedIn Recruiter
- Can write a Boolean search string and build a shortlist of candidates who have not applied
- Has negotiated offers, including counteroffers and competing offers
- Clear, prompt written communication with candidates and managers
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience
Types of recruiters
The title "recruiter" covers several jobs with different pay structures and daily work. State which one you are hiring for.
| Type | Employer | How they are paid | Where the time goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate / in-house recruiter | One company | Salary, sometimes a bonus | Hiring manager partnership, candidate experience, long-term pipelines |
| Agency (contingency) recruiter | Staffing or recruiting firm | Base salary plus commission; the firm earns a fee only when a candidate is hired | Business development, speed, working several client companies at once |
| Retained search consultant | Executive search firm | Salary plus bonus; the firm is paid a retainer in stages | Senior and executive searches, market mapping, confidentiality |
| RPO recruiter | Recruitment process outsourcing provider | Salary from the RPO firm | Following a client's process, high volume, reporting to the client |
| Technical recruiter | Any of the above | Varies by employer | Engineering, data and product roles; enough technical knowledge to screen for relevant skills |
Recruiter vs. sourcer vs. recruiting coordinator
Larger talent acquisition teams split the hiring process across three roles. Smaller teams combine them into one full-cycle recruiter.
| Role | Owns | Hands off to |
|---|---|---|
| Sourcer | Finding and contacting candidates who have not applied; building shortlists | Recruiter, once the candidate agrees to talk |
| Recruiter | Screening, managing the interview process, hiring manager relationship, offers | HR, once the offer is signed |
| Recruiting coordinator | Interview scheduling, travel, ATS updates, candidate logistics | Recruiter, for any decision about a candidate |
If you only need scheduling and ATS support, you are hiring a coordinator, not a recruiter. Our HR coordinator job description covers that role.
Recruiter salary
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate occupation for recruiters. It counts them under Human Resources Specialists (SOC 13-1071), a group that also includes HR generalists and some benefits and employee relations staff. The figures below are for that whole group, so treat them as a reference point rather than a recruiter-only number.
| Human Resources Specialists (13-1071), May 2025 | Annual wage |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $47,180 |
| Median | $75,940 |
| 90th percentile | $128,720 |
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 data. Where recruiters work affects pay. BLS reports a median of $82,800 for HR specialists in professional, scientific and technical services and $60,550 in employment services, the industry that includes staffing agencies. Agency recruiters often earn commission on top of base pay, and BLS wage figures do not capture all of it.
Pay also varies by city. BLS publishes the same occupation's wages for each metropolitan area in its OEWS tables; use the local figure when you set a range for a specific market.
How recruiters are measured
Include the metrics you will review in the job description. Candidates want to know what good performance looks like.
- Time to fill: days from requisition approval to accepted offer
- Time to hire: days from a candidate entering the pipeline to accepting the offer
- Offer acceptance rate: accepted offers divided by offers extended
- Pipeline conversion: the share of candidates who move from each stage to the next, which shows where a process loses people
- Source of hire: which channels (referrals, job boards, outbound sourcing) the people you hired came from, counted by hires rather than applications
- Hiring manager satisfaction: a short survey after each hire
- Quality of hire: new-hire performance ratings or first-year retention, tracked with HR
Interview questions for recruiter candidates
- 1Walk me through a requisition you filled recently, from the intake meeting to the signed offer. Where did it slow down, and what did you do about it?
- 2A hiring manager has rejected the last eight candidates you sent. What do you do next?
- 3Write a Boolean search string for [a role you are hiring for] and explain your choices.
- 4Tell me about an offer you nearly lost to a competing offer or a counteroffer. How did it end?
- 5How many open requisitions have you carried at once, and how did you decide which ones got your time each week?
- 6Which recruiting metrics did your last team track, and which number did you personally improve?
Ask for specific examples and follow up on the details.
Frequently asked questions
What does a recruiter do?
A recruiter fills open jobs. The work includes agreeing on requirements with the hiring manager, posting the job, sourcing and screening candidates, coordinating interviews, and negotiating offers. A full-cycle recruiter does all of these steps; on larger teams some are split out to sourcers and coordinators.
Who does a recruiter report to?
An in-house recruiter usually reports to a talent acquisition manager or director. At companies without a separate talent team, the recruiter reports to the HR manager or head of people. Agency recruiters report to a team lead or branch manager at the recruiting firm.
What qualifications does a recruiter need?
Most corporate recruiter postings ask for two to four years of recruiting experience, daily use of an applicant tracking system, and sourcing skills such as Boolean search on LinkedIn. BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for HR specialists, the occupation that includes recruiters. Certification is optional.
How much does a recruiter make?
BLS counts recruiters as Human Resources Specialists (SOC 13-1071). In May 2025 that occupation had a median annual wage of $75,940, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $47,180 and the highest 10 percent more than $128,720. Agency recruiters may also earn commission.
What is the difference between a corporate recruiter and an agency recruiter?
A corporate recruiter works for one employer on salary and hires only for that company. An agency recruiter works for a recruiting or staffing firm, fills roles for several client companies, and is usually paid a base plus commission on placements.
What is the difference between a recruiter and an HR generalist?
A recruiter works only on hiring. An HR generalist covers a wider range: employee relations, benefits questions, policies, HR records and compliance. At small companies one person often does both. See our HR generalist job description for that role.
What software do recruiters use?
Recruiters work in an applicant tracking system such as Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, iCIMS or Workday Recruiting, plus LinkedIn Recruiter for sourcing. Many teams add scheduling and email outreach tools. You can compare options in our applicant tracking systems category.
About the author
Editorial Lead, Software Evaluation
Rajat leads software evaluation at PeopleOpsClub and does the primary hands-on review work behind its software profiles, pricing breakdowns and head-to-head comparisons. He previously built and ran SpotSaaS (spotsaas.com) and Revoyant (revoyant.com), two software research and review platforms, and has spent that time working through HR and people operations products directly — signing up for trials, configuring admin settings, mapping how pricing actually scales and testing how support behaves — rather than relying on vendor collateral or aggregated review scores.
Fact-checked by Chandrasmita, Fact Checker.
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