Employer Guide: Creating a Job proposal for IT Job Titles

Employer Guide: Creating a Job Proposal for IT Job Titles

If you need additional IT expertise, creating a new position is a great way to address current challenges and prepare your organization for the future. Before you create a new role, however, you often must get approval from upper management.

A job proposal is a document used to justify the creation of a new position. Find out what you should include in a proposal for IT job titles.

Things to consider when building an IT job proposal template

Before you create a new position, think carefully about your organization’s team strategy and job title hierarchy.

Team strategy

Every position in your IT department should match your team strategy, which is a plan used to help a team achieve its goals. Before you pitch a new role, consider the following:

Does the position match the current structure of your team?
If upper management approves the new position, will current IT employees have to take on new responsibilities or shift their focus to new projects?
How will this position help your organization reach its goals?
What is the potential ROI of creating this new position?

Job title hierarchy

Many organizations use a hierarchical structure, which organizes job titles according to their level of authority or responsibility. For example, you may have an IT director who oversees an IT security manager, an information systems manager and an IT project manager. Those employees would oversee IT analysts, engineers and IT administrators.

When you create a new position, you need to determine how it fits into your current hierarchy. You can do this by reviewing the duties of the job and assessing whether the incumbent will have any supervisory responsibilities.

Once you establish a job title hierarchy, it’s not set in stone. In fact, you may need to change your hierarchy as your organization’s needs evolve. For example, as your IT department gets bigger, you may need to add another layer of supervision to ensure everyone is reaching their goals.

Business case

You also need to demonstrate the potential benefits of creating a new position. Here’s what you need to provide to each decision-maker to get your new job approved.

Directors and senior directors

These executives focus on operational efficiency and team performance. Get them excited about your business case by showcasing the benefits, and include the following in your job proposal:

Job description
Justification for its creation
Impacts on performance
Budget and resources required
Timeline for recruiting and hiring

VPs and senior VPs

These executives align departmental goals with your company’s overall strategy and financial considerations. Boost chances of approval by demonstrating how the new role supports broader business objectives, and include the following:

Strategic alignment with specific goals
Financial justification for a new hire
Risk assessment for missed opportunities
Comparative analysis against competitors

Chief HR officer

Chief HR officers (CHROs) focus on your organization’s health, talent management and HR strategy alignment with company goals. Get them interested in your job proposal by adding the following elements:

How the role fills skill gaps
Impacts on succession planning
Company culture improvements
Improvement in HR KPIs and metrics

Board of directors

Members of the board of directors are responsible for the long-term vision of companies, focusing on governance and maintaining overall financial health. Convince them with a job proposal that includes the following:

Executive summary of the role
Strategic and stakeholder impacts
Financial projections with ROI
Risk management assessments
Governance and compliance considerations

Example IT job proposal template

Use the template below to convince key decision makers that creating a new IT role makes sense for your organization.

Proposed job title: SAP consultant

Current challenges: Fathom Group has been using separate systems to manage HR, finance, accounting and procurement functions. Using multiple systems is inefficient, as employees have to search through duplicate records to find what they need. It also takes time to open each program, search for information and create custom reports.

Fathom Group has decided to replace its legacy systems with an all-in-one ERP solution. However, the IT department doesn’t have any employees with experience implementing ERP systems or translating business requirements into ERP processes.

Proposed solution: Hiring an SAP consultant would help Fathom Group translate its existing requirements into ERP processes, enabling a smooth transition from its legacy systems to the new ERP software. I estimate that hiring an SAP consultant would save Fathom Group $165,000 per year in lost productivity, errors and employee training costs.

An SAP consultant would fit seamlessly into the team’s current structure, as we already have a software manager to oversee their work. Our help desk analysts could also support the SAP consultant by routing ERP-related tickets directly to their inbox.

Overall, hiring an SAP consultant has the potential to reduce overtime costs, improve Fathom Group’s turnover rate and increase morale.

In-demand IT job titles

These are the top 50 most common IT jobs posted on Indeed in 2023.¹

1. Systems administrator

Systems administrator makes up 12.55% of all IT jobs posted on Indeed.

A system administrator sets up, troubleshoots and maintains network components, including servers, routers and network switches.