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A job family groups positions by discipline, such as Engineering, Sales, Finance, or Operations. Each job family has an ordered set of levels that represent seniority within that discipline. A position is assigned to one job family and one level in it, which places the position in your career structure. Job families describe what kind of work a position is and how senior it is. To group positions by the value of the work instead, see Job categories. The two are independent, so a position’s family and category don’t have to move together.
Job Families are turned on in Account → Settings → Configuration → Jobs. The setting is off by default, and only Owners and Co-Owners can change it. Turning it off hides Job Families but keeps all your families, levels, and position assignments, which reappear when you turn it back on.

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Where to find job families

Go to Organization → Job Families. The list shows each family with its code, status, number of levels, and number of positions. By default it shows Draft and Active families. Use the filter to include Retired families or show Archived ones, and search by name or code.

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Levels

Levels are the rungs of a family’s career ladder. Each family has its own levels, with names that suit its discipline, and can have as many as it needs. Each level has:
  • Name (required): a label such as Engineer I or Senior Engineer. Names must be unique within a family. Two different families can use the same level name.
  • Descriptor (optional): a one-line summary of the level.
Levels are numbered 1 to N with no gaps. Level 1 is the bottom of the ladder, and a new level is added on top. The number reflects position only. It isn’t read from the level’s name. The list shows the highest level first, and levels appear as number · name, for example 3 · Senior Engineer.
A good descriptor covers scope of impact, complexity, autonomy, expertise required, and people or budget responsibility. Writing every family’s levels against the same criteria makes levels comparable across families.

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Add, edit, reorder, and delete levels

  • Add: click + Add Level on the family’s Levels tab, enter a name and an optional descriptor, and save. The level goes on top of the ladder.
  • Edit: open a level’s row menu (⋯) and select Edit to change its name or descriptor.
  • Reorder: drag a level to a new place. All levels in the family renumber automatically.
  • Delete: open the row menu and select Delete. If positions are on that level, you must choose another level in the same family to move them to before you can delete. You can’t delete a family’s only level. Add another level first.
Levels have no status of their own. They also have no code. A level is identified by its family and its place in the ladder.

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Suggest levels with IQ

On a family’s Levels tab, click Suggest to have IQ propose levels and descriptors. IQ uses the family’s name, its Context tab (if filled in), your existing levels, and your account’s IQ context. It extends your ladder and never deletes or replaces a level you’ve written. New levels are marked New and revised ones Updated. Closing the banner ends the review, and Undo Suggestions is no longer available after that, or if you leave the page.

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Create a job family

Adding job families helps keep your organization’s roles structured and easy to manage. Here’s how to quickly create a new job family from the Organization page.
  1. On the Organization page, click Add Job Family to open the creation dialog.
  2. Type your desired job family name into the Name field. For example, enter “Accountant”.
  3. Click Save to add the new job family and close the dialog.
  4. Confirm your new job family appears in the list. It’ll be highlighted in green to show it was added successfully.
That’s it! Your new job family is now set up and ready to use. This keeps your organization list organized and makes assigning roles a breeze. Names must be unique in your account. A new family starts as a Draft. When you create a family, exIQtive automatically creates its first level, named No career ladder. If the family has only one level, rename it and add a descriptor. If it has a ladder, rename it to the bottom rung and add more levels above it.

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Job family status

Use the family’s row menu (⋯) to change status:
  • Activate: Draft to Active.
  • Rename: available in any status.
  • Retire: Active to Retired.
  • Reactivate: Retired to Active.
  • Archive: Retired to Archived. A family must be retired first.
  • Unarchive: Archived to Retired.
  • Delete: Draft only. Deleting a Draft family also deletes its levels. Once a family is Active, retire and archive it instead.
If you unarchive a family and another live family now has the same name, rename one of them first.

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Assign a job family to a position

A position can have one job family and one level. Only Active families can be assigned. You pick the family first, then the level. If the family has only one level, it’s selected for you. If the family you need doesn’t exist, you can create it from the picker: type its name and select + Add Job Family. It’s created as Active with one level, so you can assign it right away. To move a position to a different family, remove its current family first, then assign the new one. A position can’t be moved directly from one family to another. For the steps, see Assign a job family to a position.

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Common questions

No. Job families have one tier: family, then level. If you need finer detail, create narrower families, such as separate Backend Engineering and Frontend Engineering families.
Positions already assigned keep their family and level. A family that is archived is flagged on those positions, and no new positions can be assigned to a family that isn’t Active.
No. Responsibilities still come from the position’s roles. A job family classifies the position for career structure and filtering.
Yes. Filter by job family on the Positions and Employees lists. To filter by level, choose the family first, because level numbers repeat across families.

Job categories

Group positions by the value of the work.

Assign a job family

Step-by-step assignment.

Positions

The positions you classify.

Organizational concepts

Definitions and shared object codes.
Last modified on October 14, 2026