Whether you need expert help to complete a project or want to grow your business with ongoing collaboration, posting a job is the first step toward connecting with the right talent.
You’ll give us details, then we’ll give you a list of top freelancers who may be a good fit and ways to search for more talent.
Then you choose who to interview and hire. We’re here to walk you through it.
How job posts work
Posting a job can help you start connecting with helpful, skilled people from around the world on our online marketplace. As an Enterprise client, you have access to a dedicated team who makes sure you’re set up for success. Your Enterprise team can review your job post before you publish it to help you communicate what you need and make the right connections.
After you post your job, your Upwork Professionals will send you a list of top freelancers who might be a good fit. You can review their profiles and invite the ones you like. You can search our talent pool, freelancers your company previously worked with, or saved lists for more choices. You can also make your post public so that freelancers and agencies can see your post and submit proposals.
Once you've found talent, you can talk timing, availability, and prices before moving forward.
When you work through Upwork, we’re with you through:
- A platform dedicated to helping you build your business
- Technology for communication, including messaging and video calls
- Payment Protection for hourly and fixed-price jobs
- 24/7 customer service options
- Compliance services, for Enterprise Compliance accounts
How to post a job
To post your job, go to Jobs > Post a Job or select the Post a job button on your Enterprise Dashboard.
We’ll ask you a series of questions to help make sure the right freelancers see your job post. If your company has an Enterprise Compliance account, we’ll ask some additional questions about how you’ll work with talent.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to have all the answers to start. Your draft will be saved and you can come back to it later to finish or edit your job post.
Posting a job is simple and quick. Here’s some of the information you’ll need:
- An idea around what work you need done
- A description of the work, or a few questions you could ask a freelancer
- A general idea of what your budget should be (we will provide suggestions of what people typically charge)
- For compliance contracts, an idea of how you’ll work with talent
Learn more about the information you’ll provide for specific sections of the job post in the dropdowns that follow:
The job title is the overview of what you need. It’s the first thing that freelancers see on your post, so it’s important to make it count. It’s a good idea to put a job title or industry (if it’s important) here and to be specific. We’ll select the keywords in your title to match you with the right professionals.
Good examples include:
- Content writer needed for fitness blogs
- Programmer needed for Children's Game App
- German-English translator needed for technical documents
- Need legal assistance to file patent in EU
- AR experience needed for virtual product demos
The category you choose helps our algorithms match you with the right type of freelancers.
Adding skills helps refine your search results. Select options from the skills suggested or type your own. You can add up to ten skills, but aim for three to five for best results.
Depending on the category you select, you can choose more details, such as specific types of deliverables and services. We’ll show you selections that relate to your category.
You’ll answer questions about the scope of your project, how you want to manage the contract and payment, and set budgets for fixed-price jobs.
You can choose whether you want to work with a freelancer or an agency and whether your project is a one-time project or ongoing, or say that you’re not sure.
You’ll choose between an hourly or fixed-price contract:
Hourly: Setting an hourly rate means that you will pay an hourly rate for the hours that talent works. work. Setting a range here will help freelancers know if the project is right for them, and they will submit competitive bids that you’ll be able to review after the job is posted.
Fixed-price: With a fixed-price contract, you’ll set a project budget that is a rough estimate of the total project cost for the work. You’ll later be able to set up different steps of the project, called milestones. Milestones let you break down that total cost into steps, and you add them after the job post when you send an offer. You’ll pay your freelancer by each milestone after they submit work.
Choosing your budget can sometimes be difficult. Don’t worry, you can edit this before you make an offer, but a general idea of how much you’d like to spend helps match you with the right freelancers. If you choose to make your budget visible in your job post, it can also help freelancers decide if the project is right for them.
Plus, freelancers will submit competitive bids that you’ll be able to review after the job is posted, letting you know how much they would charge for your project. So, the budget you choose now is not necessarily final. You get to choose later exactly how much you’ll pay.
Need help choosing between an hourly and project budget? See more details about hourly and fixed-price jobs.
You’ll also choose how many hours you need and how long you expect the work to take. It’s okay if you don’t know all the answers to these questions yet.
You’ll choose the level of expertise you need from entry, intermediate, and expert level freelancers. Some people are just getting started on the platform while others have been freelancing for years. This question helps us match you with freelancers within your budget.
Sometimes, depending on how much collaboration is needed, you may choose to work with someone in the same country as you. Choose if you’d like U.S. based freelancers or are open to freelancers from around the world. If you choose the U.S., you can even specify the state or time zone.
You’ll also describe where the work needs to be done and whether it requires any travel, such as traveling to an office to meet with you or your team.
If you have an Enterprise Compliance account, we’ll ask questions about how you want to work with talent.
You’ll choose whether they need to work during certain times or can complete work anytime. Consider whether you need talent to be available during working hours of a certain time zone or if it’s okay to work whenever they want as long as they meet deadlines.
You’ll also let us know how much guidance you think talent will need from you on how to complete the work, whether the work requires any travel, such as traveling to an office to meet with your team, and whether the freelancer will use their own tools or tools you provide, such as a company laptop.
It’s okay if you don’t know all the specifics of the work you need done. Here, you’ll add any details you do know. Tell us what you want, and don’t worry about getting it perfect.
Freelancers can send you questions in their proposals and you can connect later to interview them and discuss the details. This is just a starting point.
However, the more detail you can include here, the better! Freelancers will see this description section second, after the title, and it helps them decide if the job fits their expertise.
Good details to include:
- Scope of the work
- How fast you need it delivered
- Whether they’ll work with your team closely or work independently
- If there’s potential for more work
- What you don’t understand about the job and how they can help
- Required experience
- Helpful links and references to explain the desired style
Putting the effort into creating a good description of the work may help you connect with the right freelancers for your project.
Choose whether you want your job to be visible to everyone or only those you invite. For best results, we recommend selecting only freelancers you invite. If you need more proposals, you can always make your post public on our marketplace later.
You can add up to five screening questions for freelancers. Choose from a list of suggestions or add your own questions.
This is also the section where you identify which team from your company will work on this project. When you’re ready to fill your job, you’ll be able to see freelancers your team has worked with before and their saved lists of freelancers.
Your company may have additional requirements for posting a job including purchase orders, cost centers, and more. It’s important to check your internal guidelines to figure out what details you will need to post this job.
After you have completed all of the required information, you're able to review the sections of the post and edit as needed. Once you’re satisfied, select Post your job and your job posting will become live on Upwork.
What happens next
Start getting excited. Soon, you’ll get your shortlist of top freelancers and see just how easy it is to find someone who gets you and your goals.
We’ll show you a list of freelancers who might be a good fit. You can invite the ones you like to submit proposals or search for more freelancers. If your post is public, you’ll get proposals from freelancers and agencies who see your post on our platform.
For now, you can relax, knowing that you’ll soon have a list of interested professionals ready to work.
Millions of companies, big and small, use Upwork to get great work done. Join them today by posting your first job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start with a strong job title that accurately describes what you need. This is the first thing freelancers will see. Then carefully select the required skills and give a clear description of the work. Consider reviewing your budget to make sure it’s comparable to what others are paying for the skills and experience you want.
If you need help, our Upwork Professionals can review your post before you publish it. If you would like help, reach out to your account manager or contact us by completing this form.
Freelancers on Upwork range from entry-level to expert but in general, if you require more experience or need a specialized skill set, you should expect to pay more for your project. You may also need to pay more for work that requires a quick turnaround.
Hourly contracts are billed weekly, automatically, based on the verifiable hours your freelancer or agency works. You can set a limit on the number of hours per week.
For fixed-price contracts, you pay as you go when you receive the work. You control the frequency and size of payments. You’re able to review the work before the payment is released.
Yes, if you’re a U.S. client looking for exclusively U.S.-based freelancers. Choose “U.S. only ” on the job post form.
Alternatively, you can use the location drop-down to specify a country. These alternatives help talent and agencies know if they’re right for you, but your job post will still technically be accessible to freelancers and agencies everywhere. But who you choose to hire is up to you.
You can add or remove any location preferences or U.S.-only restrictions even after the job post is live if you change your mind.
If you’re getting an error message when you try to post, please try using a different browser or clearing your browser cache/cookies. If that doesn’t work, please contact your Enterprise Support team. We’re here to help.
It can take up to a few hours for your job post to appear. This gives our team time to review more job posts and hold ones that are incomplete, duplicate, etc.
No, posting duplicate versions of the same job isn't permitted. You can, however, repost a job you previously posted or hire multiple people from the same job post. Learn more here.
