Of Thuringian Uradel, he became a personal squire to the Hohenzollern king Frederick William II of Prussia in 1793, and then an ensign in the Royal Guard in 1799.

His work Ideas on the Reorganisation of the Light Infantry, caught the attention of Gerhard von Scharnhorst, so that he was transferred in December 1808 to the newly formed Garde-Jäger-Bataillon as a Stabskapitän.

In spring 1815 he joined the general staff of the army of Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and was then made a colonel.

Having been made a lieutenant general in 1821, he was appointed the successor of the Prussian Minister of War Karl Georg Albrecht Ernst von Hake upon his resignation in 1833.

Job von Witzleben retired due to severe illness in 1835 and died two years later, aged 53.