Templates will make your life much easier. And you should use them for NPCs as well as PCs.
Creating a template is easy. For example, to create soldier template, create a typical soldier. Give him the advantages, disadvantages, and skills a typical soldier would have in your campaign. Then at the top, where you would write the character's name, cross out "Name" and write "Template" in there instead. Done.
If you have aliens in your campaign, you'll need racial template for each. Create them the same way. The difference is that all characters, both PCs and NPCs, have only one racial template (human being the default) and it cannot be modified; it has to be taken "as written".