What is job architecture and why is it important?

What is a job architecture?

A job architecture forms the building blocks of an organisation. It provides a framework for defining and aligning jobs based on the type of work performed. In its simplest form, a job architecture provides you with a mechanism to consolidate all your job titles into a consistent format that provides clarity and transparency on career levels and pay.

The practice of managing job data has, until recently, taken a bit of a back seat in many organisations, acting primarily as a tool for compensation teams to manage and govern pay and grading.  

However, a combination of significant shifts towards skills-based organisations, the move towards employee-centric self-serve models, the digitisation of HR, and increased pay equality legislation, has catapulted the need for a job architecture – within which job data is organised and managed - into the epicentre of workforce management. 

Components of job architecture

There are several components that make up a job architecture such as:

• Job Functions – the highest level of job roles (for example, “Operations”)


• Job Families – lower-level groupings of jobs that have common features (for example, “Project Management”)


• Job Grades – Salary ranges or steps in salary that help to categorise and equalise pay across similar positions

The challenge with current job structures

In many organisations, the job data is in a chaotic state – often due to rapid growth and/or a lack of governance. The result is a proliferation of job titles, many slight variations of one another, alongside inconsistent job levels and salary ranges. This shaky foundation can leave organisations open to pay equity claims and can also mean that they are missing out on the benefits that a solid, dynamic, future-proofed architecture can bring.