Job Architecture and Job Descriptions
By Redaktion techport.ai, HR-Beratung · Last updated on
In a company with 400 employees, we regularly find over 250 different job titles. The 'Project Manager' in Sales does something different from the 'Project Manager' in IT, earns differently, and has different advancement opportunities. This is not a problem as long as no one compares. The Pay Transparency Directive, skills management, and any serious succession planning do exactly that.
A job architecture organises all positions into job families and levels. It describes what a position contributes to the company, what competencies it requires, and how it differs from the next higher level. It is the framework upon which remuneration, development, and planning are based.
Signs you need it
- Two people doing comparable work have different titles, different salaries, and no explanation for it.
- Job descriptions are older than the incumbents and are only dug out for job advertisements.
- Promotions mean new titles, but no one can say what has changed regarding responsibility.
- Preparation for pay transparency fails because of the question of what 'equivalent work' actually means within the company.
Why this happens
Titles arise from negotiations, not from systems. They are currency during recruitment and consolation when salary increases are not forthcoming. Job descriptions are written once and never maintained because they are not needed in any process. As long as nothing relies on them, the uncontrolled growth goes unnoticed.
Our approach
- Inventory. We export all positions from your HR system, remove duplicates, and provisionally assign them to fields of activity.
- Define job families and levels. Together with the business units, we determine which families exist and how many levels each requires. The levels are described using criteria: knowledge, problem-solving, responsibility, influence. This creates the basis for a job evaluation that is gender-neutral and verifiable.
- Assign and describe positions. Each position receives a family, a level, and a description according to a uniform template. The template is concise: purpose, main tasks, requirements, interfaces.
- Anchor in the system. Family and level become master data in the HR system. This allows every job advertisement, every salary decision, and every development plan to access them, and the architecture remains current because it is used.
What you gain
- A robust answer to the question of equivalent work, before a court asks it.
- Career paths based on genuine differences rather than titles.
- Salary bands can be linked to levels, not to individual negotiations.
From our projects
In job architecture projects, we initially count the job titles. In mid-sized companies with a few hundred employees, this regularly exceeds half of the headcount. Assigning positions to families and levels with the business units usually takes three to four months, the largest part of which involves alignment on borderline cases. The discussions are demanding, but they provide precisely the justifications needed later before the Works Council (Betriebsrat) and in case of disputes.
Good to know
The Entgelttransparenz-Richtlinie (Pay Transparency Directive) requires pay structures to be based on gender-neutral criteria and to enable the comparison of equivalent work. The Bundesarbeitsgericht (Federal Labour Court) clarified with its judgment of 23 October 2025 (8 AZR 300/24) that even a single better-paid comparator of the opposite sex establishes a presumption of discrimination. The employer must then explain the difference using objective criteria. A job architecture provides precisely these criteria.
Frequently asked questions
How many levels does a job family need?
Usually four to seven. Fewer does not reflect development, and more cannot be described with sufficient distinction. The number should not necessarily be the same across all families.
What happens to existing titles?
The title on the business card can remain. It is crucial that internally each position is clearly assigned to a family and a level. Many companies maintain separate internal job designations and external titles.
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Further reading
Back to the field Strategy and Planning
Sources
- Richtlinie (EU) 2023/970 zur Staerkung der Entgelttransparenz, EUR-Lex
- Bundesarbeitsgericht, Urteil vom 23. Oktober 2025, 8 AZR 300/24 (Entgeltgleichheit, Paarvergleich)