What does backfill mean in hiring?
Backfill in hiring has two meanings. In human resources, a backfill is a hire made to replace an employee who left or moved roles, as opposed to a new position that grows headcount. In the job-board business, backfill means filling a board with third-party postings from an aggregator or API so the site never looks empty.
The human-resources meaning is the older one. When someone resigns, retires, is promoted or goes on extended leave, the manager opens a backfill requisition for the same role, usually at the same level and budget. Backfills are approved more easily than new headcount because the cost is already in the plan, and they are often posted quickly, which makes them a large share of what appears on job boards at any moment. A backfill posting looks like any other in the data; what distinguishes it is that the company's headcount does not change when it is filled.
The job-board meaning grew out of the economics of running a board. Employers pay to post where searchers already are, and searchers only come where there are listings, so a new or niche board fills the gap with backfill: third-party postings pulled from an aggregator, a partner feed or an API, shown alongside the board's own paid listings and usually linking out to the original. Good backfill is relevant to the board's niche, fresh, deduplicated against the board's own postings, and taken down when the source role closes. Bad backfill is stale copies that turn a young board into a museum of ghost jobs.
JobsPipe is built to serve the second meaning. A board pulls postings from the jobs search endpoint, filtered to its niche with job_title_or, job_country_code_or, skills_or or occupation_code_or, keeps only fresh, live roles with posted_at_max_age_days, status set to active and max_ghost_score, and re-queries with status set to closed to take roles down once closed_at is set. Each record names its origin board and carries the original URL, so attribution is straightforward. The free tier of 1,000 jobs a month is enough to prototype a backfilled board before paying.
The full treatment is on Building job boards.
Related questions
What is a backfill position?
A backfill position is a role opened to replace a departing or transferring employee rather than to add headcount. It usually inherits the title, level and budget of the person leaving. Recruiters treat backfills as urgent because the work is already unstaffed, which is one reason they are posted and filled faster than new roles.
What is backfill on a job board?
Third-party job postings that a board displays to supplement its own paid listings, sourced from an aggregator, partner feed or API. Backfill keeps a board full while it builds its own employer base. It is typically shown with a source label and links out to the original posting rather than hosting an apply flow.
Is backfill the same as job aggregation?
They overlap. Aggregation is collecting postings from many sources into one index. Backfill is using such an index to fill a specific board. An aggregator like Indeed is the source; a niche board that displays Indeed or API listings next to its own is doing backfill.
How do I keep backfilled jobs from going stale?
Re-query on a schedule and remove anything whose status has turned to closed or whose closed_at is set, filter new pulls with posted_at_max_age_days and max_ghost_score, and prefer sources with continuous closure detection such as Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby feeds over boards where closures only register at a listing expiry.
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