Fire suppression chief operating officer job description
A fire suppression chief operating officer is in charge of a sprinkler contractor's field work. That means install crews on general contractors' schedules and inspectors working through a calendar of buildings. The COO sets the safety rules for trenches and old ceilings, and the checks that get new systems through their tests the first time.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, plumbing, HVAC and sprinkler contractors · BLS, May 2025
As the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for our fire suppression division, you will lead day-to-day operations, ensuring adherence to regulatory standards and driving profitability. Your strategic oversight and operational expertise will be critical in maintaining safety, advancing business growth, and setting industry benchmarks in the home services sector.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Direct the daily operations and strategic initiatives to drive business profitability and operational efficiency.
Ensure strict compliance with fire safety regulations and company policies across all service areas.
Lead and mentor cross-functional teams to optimize service delivery and operational excellence.
Oversee budgeting, financial performance, and resource allocation to achieve sustainable growth.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review daily operational performance metrics and adjust strategies to meet service delivery goals.
Monitor regulatory compliance through routine audits and process evaluations at various job sites.
Engage with customers, team leaders, and vendors to address issues and enhance service quality.
Collaborate with finance and other departments to analyze profitability trends and cost management.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Revenue Growth: Achieve a minimum of 15% year-over-year revenue increase.
Operational Efficiency: Reduce operating costs by at least 10% over the previous fiscal year.
Regulatory Compliance: Maintain 100% compliance with all applicable fire safety regulations.
Customer Satisfaction Rating: Secure an average rating of over 4.8 stars from customer feedback surveys.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field.
At least 10 years of progressive leadership experience in operations, preferably in home services or related industries.
Proven track record managing complex operational processes, financial performance, and regulatory compliance.
Strong analytical, strategic planning, and leadership skills with excellent communication and interpersonal abilities.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience in the fire suppression or home services industry is highly desirable.
Demonstrated success in leading high-performance operational teams in a growth-oriented environment.
Familiarity with state and federal fire safety regulations and industry best practices.
Background in implementing technology-driven solutions to enhance operational efficiency.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to travel between corporate offices and field locations as needed.
Prolonged periods of sitting and computer use in a standard office environment.
Occasional site visits requiring moderate walking and standing.
Capability to carry basic field equipment during operational assessments if necessary.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Standard office environment with regular visits to on-site service locations.
Typical work hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with flexibility during peak periods.
Limited on-call duties; travel requirements determined by business needs.
Emphasis on a collaborative and innovative work culture that supports professional development and teamwork.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Competitive salary in the range of $150,000 - $200,000 per annum.
Performance-based bonus structure to reward the achievement of key operational targets.
Comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and vision coverage.
401k plan with company matching, along with additional fringe benefits.
10. Company Culture and Overview
Our company is dedicated to excellence in home services and committed to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. We value teamwork, integrity, and a proactive
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Sprinkler fitters spend their days in buildings someone else controls: a general contractor's site, an occupied office, a parking garage in January. The COO decides how they stay safe there and what gets checked before an inspector arrives.
Underground mains put fitters in trenches
A new building's sprinkler job can start with the fire main from the city tap to the riser, laid in a trench. OSHA wants anyone in it protected by sloping the sides, shoring them or using a trench box. The exceptions are a dig made entirely in stable rock, or one under five feet deep where a competent person finds no hint of a cave-in. The competent person checks it daily before work and after any rainstorm. The COO decides who digs and who trains for the role. Source: eCFR 29 CFR 1926.652: Requirements for protective systems.
Older ceilings may hide asbestos
A retrofit can run new pipe across ceilings coated with sprayed fireproofing or past insulated steam lines. In buildings finished no later than 1980, OSHA treats sprayed-on surfacing and pipe insulation as asbestos unless tests prove otherwise. Before work starts, the owner must find out what is there and tell contractors bidding the job. A contractor that finds such material the owner didn't report must tell the owner and the other employers on site within 24 hours. The COO makes the survey a condition of starting. Source: eCFR 29 CFR 1926.1101: Asbestos in construction.
Retrofits happen over people's beds and desks
Adding sprinklers to an occupied apartment building, hotel or office puts crews above people's beds and desks for a few hours a room. One company standard covers every crew. It sets the notice residents get, floor and furniture covers, dust control, and what crews may move. It also says how each unit must look when the crew leaves. Residents complain to the owner fast, and one careless unit can stall a whole building.
Pass the test before the inspector comes
A failed pressure test or final inspection costs a return trip, a new inspection slot and some of the general contractor's patience. The COO sets a list of what happens before anyone calls the inspector. Crews run their own pressure test, check hanger spacing and head clearances against the drawings, label every valve and get the paperwork ready. Field supervisors sign off on the list, and the COO tracks first-time passes by crew.
How much fire suppression chief operating officers make
The closest BLS group for fire suppression chief operating officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $174,130 a year ($83.72 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 760 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for plumbing, HVAC and sprinkler contractors.
Salary and an operations bonus, per the Drive blueprint. BLS files COOs under chief executives and puts sprinkler firms in one industry with plumbing and air-conditioning contractors; the template's range covers that group's median.
Plumbing, HVAC and sprinkler contractors
$174,130$174,130 median Middle half $93,740–$271,790 10th–90th $70,780–$421,320
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Plumbing, HVAC and sprinkler contractors
$70,780
$93,740
$174,130
$271,790
$421,320
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS doesn’t publish pay for fire sprinkler contractors on their own. These figures cover plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run sprinkler installs and an inspection department at the same time, or close equivalents in another piping trade
Has built a trench, lift and asbestos program and seen crews follow it
Knows what makes a sprinkler system fail a pressure test or final inspection
Plans retrofit work in occupied buildings so residents and tenants can live with it
Uses first-time pass rates, callbacks and injury records to decide what to fix
Teach these on the job
Your state's registration and tagging rules
How each local fire official schedules and runs inspections
Your competent-person training for trenches
Your asbestos survey and notice steps
The project and inspection software you run
Install schedules sit in project software, inspection jobs in field service software, and site audits and daily trench checks in a safety app. Have finalists walk through how they'd use those three on a Monday to spot the jobs most likely to fail a test that week.
Fire suppression chief operating officer interview questions
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Fixing missed inspections
You learn that [40] annual inspections are overdue because due dates weren't loaded after a software change. What do you do in the first week?
A strong answer: Tells affected customers honestly, schedules by risk with hospitals and high-hazard sites first, adds capacity, and fixes the process that let it happen.
Behavioral · Building consistent processes
Tell me how you got technicians to actually use a process you built for consistent field work, such as an inspection checklist or a deficiency photo standard.
A strong answer: Involved the technicians in building it, kept it simple, checked use in the field, and can show what it improved.
Agree with the CEO on one way to count tests, citations and field hours. Last year's numbers, counted differently in each branch, make poor targets.
Revenue Growth
Track it by department and branch. For the COO, the real question is whether field capacity kept pace, so set growth beside the fitter and inspector hours added over the same months.
Operational Efficiency
Add up the field costs operations controls: overtime, return trips after failed tests, time spent waiting on ceilings or material, and truck and lift costs. Compare each with last year, by department, and work on the largest first.
Regulatory Compliance
List fire official corrections, failed acceptance tests, OSHA citations and missed trench or asbestos steps by crew each month. A finding stays open until a supervisor has seen the fix in the field.
Customer Satisfaction Rating
On retrofits, ask the property manager each week how many resident complaints came in and what about. On new installs, the general contractor's superintendent rates the crew at closeout. Compare crews, not just jobs.
Career path
Field supervisorRuns crews on site and learns why systems fail their tests.
Operations managerLearns the service side: due dates, red tags and technician hours.
General managerAnswers for install and service margins as well as delivery.
Chief operating officerWrites the testing, trench and retrofit rules every crew works by.
Chief executive officerLeaves the field rules to others and takes on licenses, risk and owners.
Who acts as the competent person on a fire main trench?
Someone you train and name, who can spot cave-in hazards and may order fixes on the spot, which is how OSHA defines the role. When a site contractor digs and shores the trench, agree in writing whose competent person covers it and when your fitters may enter. Never let fitters into a trench nobody has checked that day.
How much does a fire suppression chief operating officer make?
Chief executives who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $174,130 a year ($83.72 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $93,740 and $271,790 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How does a COO keep inspection quality honest?
Check the inspectors' work, not only their paperwork. Each month, send a supervisor to re-inspect a few buildings soon after the technician, then compare findings item by item. Look for reports that are always clean, visits too short for the building, and photos that repeat. Coach on the gaps, and treat a pattern of skipped steps as a serious matter.
Which records should a sprinkler COO keep for each building?
Keep everything that shows what was installed and how it was tested. That means approved drawings, test certificates, inspection reports, tags, impairment notices and repair records. Tennessee, for one, wants full records of each system's tests and operations, open to the state on request. Store them in one system by building, so anyone can pull a history when a fire official or owner asks.
Which site tasks belong in a sprinkler COO job ad?
The template's walking, standing and carrying lines come from regular visits. The COO crosses floors under open ceilings, climbs stairs to riser and fire pump rooms, and stands through a pressure test. The gear is light: a hard hat, a flashlight, a tablet and a drawing set. Some visits are in unheated garages or outdoors. Write these up as tasks, and judge each accommodation request on its own facts.
