An industrial cleaning CEO decides which plants and markets the company serves, wins the master contracts, and answers to the owners for profit and safety. The aim is a company that factory, food plant and warehouse managers trust to send crews inside their gates during a shutdown.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, building services companies · BLS, May 2025
Serve as the visionary leader responsible for defining and executing strategic direction to drive business growth and operational excellence in industrial cleaning and degreasing. Lead contract acquisition, maintain regulatory compliance, and ensure profitability across the organization. Represent the company at industry events and build long-lasting relationships with stakeholders.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Define and communicate the company’s long-term strategy and operational goals.
Drive new business development efforts to secure lucrative contracts.
Oversee all aspects of regulatory compliance and risk management.
Monitor financial performance and implement strategies to ensure sustainable profitability.
Cultivate relationships with key industry partners and maintain a robust network within the industrial cleaning sector.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Hold executive meetings to review operational performance and plan strategic initiatives.
Engage with prospective clients and partners to explore new business opportunities.
Analyze market and industry trends to guide decision-making processes.
Oversee contract negotiations and ensure timely delivery of services.
Monitor operational metrics and adjust strategies as necessary to maintain compliance and enhance profitability.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Annual Revenue Growth: >15% increase per year.
New Contract Acquisition: Secure at least 5 major contracts annually.
Profit Margin: Achieve a minimum gross profit margin of 25%.
Regulatory Compliance: Maintain a 100% compliance record with all industry standards.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Master’s degree in Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field.
Minimum of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in industrial or technical service sectors.
Proven experience in strategic planning, financial oversight, and contract negotiation.
Strong leadership, communication, and decision-making skills.
6. Preferred Experience
Prior executive management experience within the industrial cleaning, degreasing, or related industries.
Demonstrated success in managing complex operations and driving organizational growth.
Experience working in high‐compliance regulatory environments.
A track record of building and maintaining productive networks with industry stakeholders.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to travel frequently for site visits, client meetings, and industry events.
Occasional exposure to manufacturing or industrial environments.
Capacity to engage in extended periods of onsite operational review when necessary.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Typical office-based environment with regular visits to operational sites.
Standard work hours with flexibility for extended hours as needed during business-critical periods.
Regular travel within the region and occasional international travel for industry events.
On-call availability for crisis management or strategic decision-making sessions.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Base Salary: $150,000 - $250,000 per year, commensurate with experience.
Performance-based bonuses tied to strategic KPI achievements.
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
401(k) plan with company match and additional fringe benefits including executive wellness programs.
10. Company Culture and Overview
We are a growth-oriented and innovative company that values transparency, collaboration, and excellence.
Our culture is rooted in a commitment to quality service, continuous improvement, and empowering our employees to reach their full potential.
We foster a dynamic and inclusive work environment focused on creating long-term value for our clients and our team.
Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to pushing the boundaries of industrial cleaning and degreasing services.
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
What makes the CEO job different in industrial cleaning
Nearly all of this company's work happens inside someone else's plant, under that plant's rules. So the CEO's choices about customers, contracts and hiring are judged by plant managers, safety teams and federal agencies.
Injury numbers go to OSHA every year
If your company is classed under NAICS 5617, services to buildings and dwellings, it appears in appendix A of OSHA's recordkeeping rule and must file injury data online. Each site with 20 to 249 workers sends its Form 300A summary every year, and any site with 250 or more that keeps OSHA records sends it too. Plant safety teams ask for the same numbers before you can bid, so the log is a sales file too. Source: eCFR: 29 CFR 1904.41, electronic submission of injury and illness records.
Child labor cases have hit sanitation contractors
In 2023 federal wage and hour investigators found a food plant sanitation contractor had at least 102 children, ages 13 to 17, working overnight in hazardous jobs at 13 meat plants in eight states. The company paid civil money penalties. Federal rules list cleaning power-driven meat machines as work no one under 18 may do, so the CEO owns the hiring checks on every night crew. Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Packers Sanitation Services child labor penalties (2023).
Process safety plants bring contractor duties
OSHA's process safety rule covers any process holding a listed amount or more of a highly hazardous chemical, such as 10,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. That can include refineries, chemical plants and a food plant's ammonia refrigeration system. A contractor that does turnaround or specialty work beside a covered process must teach crews how the job could cause a fire, explosion or toxic release, record how it checked they understood, and warn the plant about hazards its work brings. Decide at the top whether to chase that work. Source: eCFR: 29 CFR 1910.119(h) and appendix A, process safety contractor duties and threshold amounts.
Pick the plants you want to be known for
Food plants tend to buy nightly sanitation that repeats all year. Heavy industry buys shutdown work in big, uneven blocks. Oil and gas customers want vacuum trucks and tank cleaning in remote places. Each needs its own crews, trucks and paperwork. Build a name in one before you add the next, or the safety staff ends up spread across three rulebooks.
How much industrial cleaning & degreasing chief executive officers make
The closest BLS group for industrial cleaning & degreasing chief executive officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for building and home services companies earned a median of $130,000 a year ($62.50 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 430 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for building services companies.
Building services companies
$130,000$130,000 median Middle half $102,340–$208,630 10th–90th $93,610–$275,020
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
Building services companies
$93,610
$102,340
$130,000
$208,630
$275,020
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS doesn’t publish pay for industrial cleaning companies on their own. These figures cover services to buildings and dwellings, 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 sold and renewed master service agreements with plant owners
Reads an OSHA 300 log and a contractor prequalification report without help
Can price the risk of injury, spill and damage claims inside a customer's plant
Has led managers through a serious incident and the review after it
Earns trust from plant managers, safety directors and purchasing teams
Teach these on the job
Your service lines and the equipment each one needs
The prequalification portals your customers use
Food safety terms your food plant customers use
Your insurance program and claim history
Each key customer's contractor safety rules
A CEO here works from the monthly financials, the safety log and the contract list more than any one app. Expect the ERP or job management system, contractor prequalification portals such as ISNetworld or Avetta, and customers' supplier portals for bids and invoices.
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 · Safety record as a business issue
Your experience modification rate has risen, and two large clients say it's now too high to bid their work. What do you do?
A strong answer: Treats it as a top priority, reviews the injuries behind it, invests in the fixes, tells clients the plan honestly, and targets other work while it recovers.
Behavioral · Making hard calls
Tell me about a time you turned down profitable work because of safety or contract risk.
A strong answer: Names the job and the specific risk (crews not trained for it, no rescue plan, unlimited indemnity), what they gave up, how they told the client and team, and what they did instead.
The template's numbers are examples. The board and CEO should set real ones from last year's books, the contract list and the safety record.
Annual Revenue Growth
Measure revenue against the prior year by service line and by customer. Split one-time shutdown jobs from repeat sanitation work so a single big turnaround can't hide a shrinking base.
New Contract Acquisition
Count signed master agreements or multi-year contracts with new plants, not one-off purchase orders. Log the bid date, the signing date and the first work order so the board sees how long a win takes.
Profit Margin
Measure gross profit by job and by contract after labor, travel, equipment, chemicals and waste disposal. Review the weakest jobs each month to learn whether pricing, waiting time or scope caused the loss.
Regulatory Compliance
Track citations, customer audit findings, missing training records and late filings with OSHA, EPA and labor agencies. Give each item an owner and a close date, and show the board the open list each quarter.
Career path
Operations managerRuns crews and schedules across a set of plant accounts.
General managerOwns a branch's profit, customers and managers.
What do the CEO template's site visit and onsite review lines mean in practice?
They describe tasks, not a fitness test. Expect the CEO to walk a plant with the customer's safety lead during a shutdown, sit through each new customer's contractor orientation, wear whatever protective gear each plant demands, and stay for a night shift start to see how crews hand off. Write them into the ad as duties.
How much does an industrial cleaning & degreasing chief executive officer make?
Chief executives who work for building and home services companies earned a median of $130,000 a year ($62.50 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $102,340 and $208,630 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How does an industrial cleaning company win its first master service agreement with a plant?
Most first jobs are small: a single tank, a dust cleanup, or an emergency call when the plant's usual contractor can't come. Pass the plant's prequalification first, with insurance certificates and safety records ready the day they ask. Then do the small job cleanly, send a short report with photos, and ask the maintenance manager what else is on the outage list. The agreement usually follows a run of work orders, not a sales pitch.
What should the CEO do after a serious injury at a customer's plant?
Call the plant's site leader yourself the same day, before they hear it secondhand. Make sure your safety lead files any required OSHA report on time and that similar work pauses until you know the cause. Run the review with the customer in the room, share what you are changing, and follow up in writing. How you handle the weeks after an incident shapes whether that plant calls you again.
What do buyers look for when an industrial cleaning company is for sale?
Buyers study how much revenue comes from the largest few customers, whether those customers sit under signed agreements, and the safety record those customers see in prequalification. They also check the age and condition of vacuum trucks and high-pressure units, and whether managers below the CEO can run the work alone. Fix the weakest of these a year or two before you talk to a buyer.
