Free Vice President Job Description Templates
Free vice president job description templates: generic, first VP hire, VP of sales, operations, finance, and SVP/EVP, with FLSA and equity guidance.
Vice President Job Description Templates
6 corporate VP templates, including a first-VP-hire version, with FLSA and equity guidance. Download as DOCX.
The vice president job description is one of the highest-stakes documents a growing company writes, and most templates online give you a generic duties list that ignores what actually matters: that this is usually a company's first executive hire, that it brings equity, IP-assignment, and classification questions a frontline hire never raises, and that the title is half the time confused with the US political office. Before anything else, to be clear: this page is about the corporate vice president a company hires, not the US Vice President.
At FirstHR, we build templates for the VP you actually hire, with the first-VP-hire angle and the compliance fields competitors skip. The six below cover the generic corporate VP, the first VP hire at a growth-stage company, VP of Sales, VP of Operations, VP of Finance, and the SVP/EVP/AVP seniority tiers. Pick the one that fits, fill in the brackets, and post, and the guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
What Is a Corporate Vice President?
A corporate vice president owns the strategy and results of a function or division, leads its team, and represents it to leadership and the board. The VP sits below the C-suite and above the director level: strategic, accountable for a whole function, and authorized to make high-impact decisions. In federal data, top, enterprise-wide VPs map to chief executives (SOC 11-1011), while divisional and operations VPs map to general and operations managers (SOC 11-1021).
One disambiguation first, because it splits the search results for this term: this is the business and corporate VP role, not the US Vice President, which is a constitutional political office and an entirely different topic. Everything on this page is about the corporate role. The function defines the specifics: a VP of Sales owns revenue, a VP of Finance owns financial planning, and the six templates split by function and stage so the document matches the real job.
Vice President Duties and Responsibilities
Vice president duties cluster into strategy and results, leadership and team, cross-functional and board work, and scaling and execution. The function shifts the emphasis, but these areas hold across the VP level.
A strong posting grounds these in your specifics: the function the VP owns, who they lead, who they report to, and the results they are accountable for. For a structured way to scope any role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by function and stage. Each carries the duties and framing for that setting, and the first-VP-hire version is written specifically for a growing company. Use this guide to choose.
6 Free Vice President Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: company summary, position summary, key responsibilities, qualifications, FLSA status, and pay with equity, plus an EEO statement. Fill in the brackets and post.
Template 1: Generic Corporate Vice President
The universal corporate VP base: own strategy and results for a function or division, lead its directors, and represent it to leadership. The starting point if your function is not listed.
Template 2: First VP Hire (Growth-Stage / Small Company)
The owned version no competitor offers: making your first VP hire at a growing company. A build role, player-coach, with equity and a founder reporting line, written for the small-company reality.
Template 3: VP of Sales
For owning revenue: building the sales team, setting quota and comp, and delivering predictable growth, with a candid note on when to make this hire versus a Head of Sales.
Template 4: VP of Operations
For running the operation: processes, systems, metrics, and efficiency, leading the ops team and scaling delivery as the company grows.
Template 5: VP of Finance
For financial strategy, planning, and reporting: FP&A, budgeting, board-ready financials, and the finance team, sitting between the controller and the CFO.
Template 6: SVP / EVP / Associate VP (Seniority Variant)
For getting the seniority tier right: EVP, SVP, VP, and Associate VP or AVP, with a built-in guide to what each title should mean before you post.
VP vs Director vs Head Of: Which Do You Need?
The most common VP mistake is hiring the title before the role. A VP owns strategy across a function; a director executes within a department; a Head of role is the growth-stage middle ground. Match the title to the actual scope and stage.
| Role | Scope | Reports to | When to hire |
|---|---|---|---|
| VP | Owns a function or division, sets strategy | CEO / President / board-facing | You need functional ownership and board representation |
| Director | Runs a department, executes strategy | VP | You need execution within a department |
| Head of | Functional leadership, growth-stage | CEO / Founder | Growing company not yet ready for a full VP layer |
Real VP layers generally emerge as a company passes around 50 employees; below that, flatter Head of and Lead titles preserve room to scale. Beware title inflation, since surveys show most workers believe employers hand out senior titles in place of raises, and a VP at a 15-person company is often the first hire in a function with an impressive title. If you need a senior operations leader, the COO templates cover the C-suite step above VP, and the VP of Operations templates cover that function in depth.
SVP, EVP, and AVP Explained
The vice president level has its own seniority tiers, which trip up small companies writing their first executive posting. From most to least senior: EVP, SVP, VP, then Associate VP or AVP.
An Executive VP (EVP) is the most senior tier, often running a business unit near the C-suite. A Senior VP (SVP) ranks above a standard VP with broader scope. A VP owns a function. An Associate VP or AVP sits below a full VP, usually an emerging-leader title, though in banking AVP and VP are mid-level titles that carry less weight than elsewhere. The exact meaning varies by company, so define the tier before you post and match scope, authority, and pay to the title. The seniority-variant template includes a built-in titling guide.
FLSA, Equity, and Non-Competes
Three compliance points matter at the VP level, and they are exactly what generic templates skip. They are easy to get right once you know them.
Because a VP almost always meets the executive exemption, the role is salaried-exempt, not hourly; the exempt vs non-exempt guide and the FLSA overview cover the duties tests. A title-only VP who does not actually manage a function may not meet the test, so classify by real duties. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm classification and any restrictive covenant with an employment attorney.
Vice President Pay and Classification
VP compensation varies enormously by function, industry, company size, and equity, so the federal data serves as a broad anchor rather than a precise figure.
VP pay typically combines a base salary, a bonus tied to results, and equity, especially at startups where options offset cash. Because a real VP is exempt under the executive exemption, the role is salaried, not hourly, with no overtime. For your posting, anchor base, bonus, and any equity to your market, function, and stage, and state the classification clearly.
Making Your First VP Hire at a Growing Company
The first VP hire is a milestone, and it is the most document- and workflow-intensive onboarding a small company runs. Here are the three realities to get right before and after you post.
After You Hire: Onboarding a Vice President
A VP hire needs a structured onboarding that goes well beyond the usual paperwork. Send the offer with the base, bonus, and any equity, collect the signed offer, and complete Form I-9 and tax forms as part of the new hire paperwork, alongside the equity grant, IP-assignment, and NDA documents the role requires.
Then run the executive onboarding: a structured thirty-sixty-ninety-day plan, an introduction to the team and the board, and the org-chart update the new reporting layer creates. Keep the signed onboarding documents and executive agreements in one place, and the offer letter template covers the base terms while a 30-60-90 day plan template structures the first quarter. If this is among your first senior hires, the guide to hiring your first employee covers the broader playbook.
FirstHR fits this hire directly: e-signature for the offer and the equity, IP-assignment, and NDA documents without printing, document management to store every signed executive agreement, task workflows and an AI onboarding wizard for the structured thirty-sixty-ninety-day onboarding, and the HRIS org-chart builder to redraw the reporting lines a VP hire creates. Because a senior hire reshapes a small company and pricing is flat rather than per seat, you pay one rate regardless of how the org grows, where per-seat tools charge you more as you add the team the VP builds. FirstHR does not run payroll, administer benefits, or give legal advice, so pair it with your payroll and legal resources. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a corporate vice president do?
A corporate vice president owns the strategy and results of a function or division, leads its team, and represents it to leadership and the board. The VP sits below the C-suite and above the director level: strategic rather than purely tactical, accountable for outcomes across a whole function rather than a single department. The core work is consistent across functions: setting strategy and goals, owning a budget and key metrics, building and leading a team of directors and managers, partnering with the CEO on company direction, making high-impact decisions within authority, and driving cross-functional execution. The function defines the rest. A VP of Sales owns revenue, a VP of Operations runs daily operations, a VP of Finance owns financial planning and reporting, and so on. Note the disambiguation that trips up searchers: this describes the business and corporate VP role, not the US Vice President, which is a constitutional political office and a completely different topic. The templates on this page are all for the corporate role.
Is a vice president the same as the US Vice President?
No, and this is the most common confusion with the term. A corporate or business vice president is a senior executive a company hires to lead a function or division, reporting to the CEO or president and owning the strategy and results for that part of the business. The US Vice President is a constitutional political office, elected on a national ticket, who serves as second in line to the presidency and president of the Senate. They share only the word vice president; the roles, the path to them, and everything about them are entirely different. This page, and all of its templates, are about the corporate role that an employer hires for and writes a job description for. If you are researching the political office, this is not the right resource. If you are a company writing a posting for an executive who will own a function and report to your CEO, you are in the right place, and the templates below cover the generic corporate VP plus the common function-specific and seniority variants.
What is the difference between a VP and a director?
A VP is strategic and owns a function; a director is tactical and runs a department within it. A vice president owns the strategy, budget, and results for an entire function or division, builds and leads a team that often includes directors and managers, represents the function to the board, and makes high-authority decisions. A director runs a specific department, executes within the strategy the VP sets, leads managers and individual contributors, and reports up to a VP. The practical hiring rule follows from that: hire a director when you need someone to execute and manage within a department under existing leadership, and hire a VP when you need someone to own strategy across a function and represent it to leadership and the board. At a small or growing company, a third option often fits best: a Head of role, which provides real functional leadership without committing to a full VP layer before the organization is large enough to support it. Match the title to the actual scope and stage, since premature VP hires before the company is ready are a documented and expensive mistake.
When should a small company make its first VP hire?
Make the first VP hire when you need someone to own a function's strategy and build its team, not before, and tie the decision to stage rather than ambition. Organizational-design guidance generally puts the emergence of genuine VP layers around the point a company passes fifty employees; below that, flatter structures with Head of and Lead titles are usually recommended to preserve room to scale. The classic first VP hire is tied to fundraising and traction: a growth-stage startup often makes its first VP of Sales hire after it has repeatable revenue, with VP of Engineering or Product following as the team scales. Timing matters because first VP hires are high-risk: a large share of first-time VP of Sales hires fail or turn over within the first year, which makes both the timing and the job-description and onboarding quality consequential. The honest test is scope: if the role genuinely owns a function, builds a team, and reports to the founder or board, a VP title fits; if it is really the first hire in a function with a fancy title, a Head of title is more accurate and leaves room to promote later. The first-VP-hire template on this page is written for exactly this growth-stage moment.
Is a vice president exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
A genuine vice president is almost always exempt, typically under the FLSA executive exemption. That exemption applies when the primary duty is managing the enterprise or a recognized department or division, the role regularly directs the work of at least two or more full-time employees, and the VP has authority to hire and fire or significant influence over those decisions. Most real VP roles meet all three. High-earning VPs can also qualify under the highly-compensated-employee shortcut test, which has a lower duties bar but a much higher total-compensation requirement. Either way, the role must meet the federal salary threshold of $684 per week, or $35,568 per year; the Department of Labor's 2024 rule that would have raised that figure was vacated in court, so the 2019 level remains in effect. One caution: a VP in title only, someone given the title for prestige but who does not actually manage a function or direct staff, may not meet the duties test, so classification should be based on the real duties of the role rather than the title alone. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with an employment attorney.
What is the difference between SVP, EVP, and VP?
These are seniority tiers within the vice president level, from most to least senior: EVP, then SVP, then VP, with Associate VP or AVP below. An Executive Vice President (EVP) is the most senior VP tier, often running a major business unit or several functions and sitting just below or within the C-suite. A Senior Vice President (SVP) ranks above a standard VP, usually with broader scope, a larger team, or more strategic weight. A Vice President (VP) owns a single function or division. An Associate VP or Assistant VP (AVP) sits below a full VP, often an emerging-leader title, though in banking AVP and VP are mid-level titles that do not carry the same executive weight they do in other industries. The exact meaning varies by company, especially with title inflation, so the practical step is to define what the tier means at your organization before you post, matching the scope, authority, and pay to the title. The seniority-variant template on this page includes a built-in guide to titling the role correctly.
Can I require a non-compete for a VP?
It depends entirely on your state, and the federal picture changed recently. The Federal Trade Commission issued a rule in 2024 that would have banned most non-competes nationwide, but a federal court struck it down in Ryan, LLC v. FTC, and in September 2025 the FTC voted to dismiss its appeal and accept that the rule is vacated. As a result, there is no federal non-compete ban, and enforceability falls back entirely to state law. That law varies widely: several states, including California, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma, ban or void most employment non-competes outright, while others permit them only if they are reasonable in scope, duration, and geography and protect a legitimate business interest. For a VP hire, where the executive will have access to strategy, customers, and confidential information, employers often rely instead on confidential-information-and-inventions-assignment agreements and NDAs, which are enforceable in far more states than non-competes. Before including any non-compete in a VP offer, confirm what your state allows, since an unenforceable clause is worse than none. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with an employment attorney.
What documents does a VP hire need beyond the offer letter?
A VP hire needs a full layer of executive documentation that a frontline hire does not. Beyond the offer letter, plan for an equity or stock-option grant with a written vesting schedule and exercise terms if you are offering equity, a confidential-information-and-inventions-assignment agreement so the company clearly owns the work and intellectual property the VP creates, an NDA, a non-compete only where state law permits one, a background check, and a structured thirty-sixty-ninety-day onboarding plan for the executive's first quarter. The standard new-hire paperwork still applies on top of all that: the signed offer, Form I-9, the W-4 and state tax forms, and state new-hire reporting. The hire also reshapes the organization, since a VP creates a new reporting layer, so updating the org chart is part of the process. This is the most document- and workflow-intensive onboarding a small company runs, which is why doing it on paper or in scattered email threads tends to break down. FirstHR handles the whole sequence with e-signature for the offer and equity, IP, and NDA documents, document management to store every signed agreement, task workflows for the structured onboarding, and an org-chart builder to redraw the reporting lines. FirstHR does not run payroll, administer benefits, or give legal advice, so pair it with your payroll and legal resources.