Before you post the job, run this. Nine times out of ten, the role you're about to hire is the wrong role. Or right role, wrong scope. Or right scope, wrong seniority. The diagnostic below usually surfaces which one inside a week.
It's four questions. Answer them honestly and you'll either post a much sharper JD, or realise you don't need to post one yet.
1. What problem is this hire supposed to solve?
Write one sentence. Not a job description. A sentence. "This person exists in the org so that [specific outcome] can happen."
If you can't write that sentence clearly, that's the problem. You don't know what you're hiring for. The person you hire won't know either, and six months in you'll both agree the fit was off.
Fix: define the sentence before the search starts. Everything else follows.
2. What are the three specific outcomes you'd measure in 90 days?
Not "improve marketing." Specific. Testable. "Qualified pipeline from X to Y." "Pricing test that answers X." "New revenue channel producing €X per month by day 90."
If you can't name three, the role isn't well-defined enough to hire against. You'll be evaluating the person on vibes at month three, which is when good hires start doubting themselves and bad hires start hiding.
3. What was the last senior hire in this range and what happened?
Did they succeed? Fail? Leave inside a year? What was the actual cause?
If your last two €150K+ hires didn't work out, the problem isn't finding better candidates. It's your operating structure not being able to absorb senior hires. That's a different problem, and hiring a third one won't fix it. The pattern will repeat until you fix what's breaking senior people.
Common causes: no clear scope, competing accountability with the owner, no team under them to actually execute, unrealistic first-90-days expectations.
4. Could a fractional operator prove this role is even needed?
Sometimes the answer is: "No. I know exactly what I need. It's a full-time role." That's a fine answer. Post the JD.
Often the answer is: "Actually, I'm not sure this role makes sense yet. I want to see the play work before I commit a full-time seat to it." That's when fractional wins. Run someone in the seat part-time for 6 to 9 months. Learn what the role actually is. Then hire against a JD that reflects reality instead of ambition.
The cost of a bad senior hire is 2 to 3 times the salary in lost time and momentum. The cost of running this diagnostic is a Saturday morning.
The honest test
If you can answer all four questions cleanly, post the job. You know what you need.
If two or more answers are fuzzy, don't post yet. Something in the setup isn't ready, and a hire won't fix it. Fix the setup first, or bring in a fractional to define what the role should be, then hire against a clear picture.
If you're weeks away from posting a senior role and want a second pair of eyes on the JD before you do, let's talk. Thirty minutes usually saves a bad hire.