A domestic couple job description should make clear that you’re hiring a partnership rather than two people separately. And that the work is split, often between the inside and outside of the property.
This page gives you a full example job description to use as a template when you’re hiring. For more information, see our guide to hiring a domestic couple. It goes through what couples do day to day, salaries by country, the different setups (housekeeper-houseman, cook-caretaker, butler-housekeeper), accommodation requirements, and how to hire one.
Example of a domestic couple job description
Here’s an example brief for a full-time, live-in domestic couple for a family’s second home in the Hamptons. The family lives in Manhattan most of the year and uses the property on weekends and through the summer. The couple keeps the property running year-round, with more to do when the family is at the house.
The example below is built around the most common US setup, which is a housekeeper-cook on the inside and a houseman type role on the outside. Couples who came up through yachting fit this brief well.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, says couples who worked together as yacht crew before moving into household roles are some of the strongest candidates we see for second-home placements.
This role really hinges on that partnership so the requirements section of the description is very important to say that you want the couple to have been working together for a significant number of years.
About the family and property
A high-net-worth family is hiring a domestic couple for their second home in East Hampton. The property is a six-bedroom main house, a two-bedroom guest cottage, and grounds that include a pool and a tennis court. The family comes out for weekends most of the year and stays for the full summer. They host friends and family regularly when they’re at the house.
The role is full-time, live-in. The staff cottage is a separate two-bedroom unit on the property, with a private kitchen, full bathroom, and laundry.
Responsibilities
Inside (housekeeper-cook partner)
- Housekeep the main house and guest cottage, including daily cleaning and deep cleaning before the family arrives
- Laundry, ironing, and linen rotation
- Daily cooking when the family is at the house: weekday meals for the family, plus dinner for up to twelve guests when they entertain
- Stocking the kitchen and pantry ahead of family arrivals
- Getting the guest cottage ready for visiting friends and family
- Light household admin: tracking expenses, receipts, and a weekly update for the family
Outside (houseman partner)
- Looking after the family’s cars: cleaning, fueling, scheduled servicing
- Driving when needed: airport pickups, errands, or local trips for the family
- Property maintenance and small repairs
- Managing outside vendors: pool service, gardener, alarm company, contractors
- Walking the grounds after storms and bad weather
- Security awareness, including knowing who’s expected on the property and when
Together
- Keeping the property guest-ready year-round, even during long stretches when the family isn’t there
- Keeping each other and the family in the loop
- Covering for each other when one partner is sick or on a day off
- Handling the change in pace between empty-property weeks and full-house weekends without the family noticing the gear-shift
Requirements
Essential — for the partnership
- Minimum 5 years working together as a domestic couple in HNW or UHNW households, or as a yacht crew couple
- Verifiable references from previous private families covering the partnership, not just each partner individually. Hamptons or comparable second-home experience is a plus
- Both partners with valid US work authorization and clean US driver’s licenses; the property is twenty minutes from the nearest town and there’s no public transport
- Both partners fluent in English. The family’s main household is in Manhattan and the inside partner will be on regular calls with the family’s PA during the week
Essential — for the inside partner
- Strong daily cooking and dinner-party cooking up to twelve guests, and able to handle Mediterranean and lighter summer menus the family prefers
- Five-star hotel, fine-dining, or yacht background preferred. The household entertains often during the summer and expects plated service for dinners
- Confident with luxury laundry and fabric care. The main house has art and antiques that need the right cleaning products for each material
Essential — for the outside partner
- Practical skills in small repairs, vehicle care, and property maintenance. The property has a pool, a tennis court, and grounds to clean up after Atlantic storms in fall and spring
- Comfortable managing outside vendors and contractors, including the pool service, the gardener, and the alarm company the family already uses
- Security awareness, ideally with some background in close protection or estate security. The property is empty for stretches during the off-season, and the couple are the eyes on the property when no one else is
Personal qualities (both partners)
- Genuinely good at working as a team, including managing disagreements between yourselves without it affecting the family
- Discreet about everything seen and overheard inside the home and on the property, including when the family has summer house guests
- Comfortable working independently for long stretches when the family isn’t there. Off-season weeks at the property can be very quiet
- Stable, settled, and looking for a long-term placement (not a stepping stone)
Work conditions
- Full-time, live-in
- Separate two-bedroom staff cottage on the property, fully furnished, with a private kitchen, bathroom, and laundry
- Health insurance for both partners
- Two days off per week when the family is at the house; flexible time off when they’re not
- Use of a property vehicle for errands and personal use within reason
- Salary based on combined experience, paid as a single household salary
Common variations on this brief
The example above is what we see most of the time from clients who are looking for a domestic couple. Two variations come up often enough to flag:
- Country-estate couple. The role is on a rural property with large grounds, livestock, or other outdoor responsibilities. We’ve placed couples on estates where one partner needed real outdoor experience like gamekeeping, horse management, or working farmland alongside the household work. These briefs need a couple with practical, hands-on experience, often from rural estates, ranches, or working farms rather than from urban or hospitality backgrounds.
- Caretaker couple for a property used only a few weeks a year. The quieter version of the role. The couple lives on the property full-time but the family only visits a handful of times a year. Most of the job is maintenance, security, and being on the property when no one else is, with limited cooking or formal service. Salaries are lower than the briefs that are very full on, but the lifestyle suits couples who want stability and fewer service days.
Probably the most important thing to be clear about in the brief is how much of the year the family is actually staying at the house.
Morgan Richez once worked at a property in London that sat empty for nearly a year. He calls it “one of the worst jobs I did. So boring. You try to find your own duties, which is so difficult.”
The domestic couple working at the same property stayed for years and loved it. Some couples thrive on the quieter rhythm when the owner isn’t there. Others love a full house and would go crazy in a property that’s empty for ten months. Couples sort themselves into one or the other when they apply, but only if the brief tells them exactly what the role is going to be like.
Using this job description
Make sure you change the details on the job description to match your role if you are using this template.
Things that are important to be clear about are the size of the property, how much of the year the family is actually staying, whether there’s a separate chef or other staff already, and how good the staff accommodation is.
Morgan & Mallet places domestic couples across New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, London, Paris, Geneva, and Dubai. If you’d like us to create a job description for your household, or help you hire, get in touch with one of our offices.
Looking for a position as a domestic couple? Have a look at our latest domestic couple jobs on the Morgan & Mallet job board.
This job description was reviewed by Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet International.