An industrial cleaning warehouse manager oversees the building where the company's chemicals, pressure washers, vacuum units and trucks are stored, repaired and loaded. They keep drums and totes stored safely, line up deliveries with the job schedule, and get broken equipment fixed before the next shutdown needs it.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, building services companies · BLS, May 2025
Oversees the safe storage, maintenance, and distribution of chemicals and equipment essential for industrial cleaning and degreasing operations. Ensures compliance with safety standards while coordinating timely chemical deliveries and maintaining optimal warehouse efficiency. Acts as the central point for warehouse management, contributing to overall operational effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Maintain and manage inventory of industrial cleaning chemicals and degreasing equipment.
Ensure safe storage, handling, and disposal according to industry regulations.
Coordinate deliveries and shipments to align with production and service schedules.
Monitor equipment maintenance schedules and facilitate repairs or replacements as needed.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Inspect incoming and outgoing shipments for accuracy and safety compliance.
Collaborate with vendors and delivery teams to optimize scheduling and logistics.
Monitor warehouse safety protocols, conducting regular inspections and training sessions.
Update inventory records and analyze supply chain data to forecast needs.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Inventory Accuracy: Maintain a minimum accuracy rate of 98%.
On-Time Delivery: Achieve a target of 95% on-time dispatch and receipt of supplies.
Safety Compliance: Ensure 100% adherence to established safety protocols.
Equipment Downtime: Reduce equipment downtime to below 5% of operational hours.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor’s degree in Logistics, Supply Chain Management, or a related field preferred.
Minimum of 3 years of experience managing warehouse operations in a similar industrial environment.
Strong organizational and leadership skills with attention to detail.
Excellent communication and collaborative skills to liaise with internal teams and external vendors.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience in the industrial cleaning and degreasing sector or a closely related industry.
Prior background in managing hazardous materials and compliance with regulatory standards.
Familiarity with warehouse management systems and inventory control software techniques.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to lift and move items weighing up to 50 lbs.
Comfortable working in variable temperature environments including moderately hot or cold conditions.
Frequent standing, walking, and occasional bending during inventory checks and safety inspections.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Full-time position with a typical 40-hour workweek.
Standard business hours with occasional overtime to meet critical delivery deadlines.
Minimal travel required to coordinate with suppliers and other external stakeholders.
On-call responsibilities in the event of emergency supply or safety incidents.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Annual salary range of $55,000 - $70,000 USD based on experience and qualifications.
Performance-based bonuses available according to achievement of KPIs.
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance coverage.
401k plan with company matching contributions.
Additional benefits may include paid time off, professional development opportunities, and employee wellness programs.
10. Company Culture and Overview
Committed to fostering a supportive and innovative work environment that encourages growth and continuous improvement.
Emphasizes teamwork, safety, and the importance of every team member in contributing to overall success.
Dedicated to sustainable practices and excellence in customer service.
Supports career advancement and provides opportunities for employees to institutionalize best practices and drive operational success.
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 changes for a warehouse manager in industrial cleaning
This building holds drums of strong cleaners, oil for the trucks and heated washers, and the vehicles that haul it all to plants. Three sets of federal rules reach into the shop that a parts warehouse may never meet.
Flammable solvents have storage limits
OSHA treats some solvent cleaners as flammable liquids. Its cap for a single storage cabinet is 60 gallons of Category 1, 2 and 3 liquids combined, and the rule sets more limits for storage rooms and open floor areas. Find each product's category on its safety data sheet, and plan cabinet space before a large solvent order lands. Source: OSHA: Flammable liquids (29 CFR 1910.106).
Oil tanks and drums can call for a spill plan
EPA's spill prevention rule covers sites that store oil where a spill could reasonably reach navigable waters, such as a nearby creek. A site is exempt when its aboveground oil storage totals 1,320 gallons or less, and only containers with a capacity of 55 gallons or more count toward it. A diesel tank for fueling the trucks and drums of used oil count, but the fuel tanks on the trucks themselves don't, so add them up before you buy another tank. Source: eCFR: Oil pollution prevention, general applicability (40 CFR 112.1).
Trucks and trailers need a yearly inspection
Under FMCSA rules, a commercial motor vehicle, including each trailer in a combination, needs a passed inspection from the last 12 months, and the paperwork has to ride on the vehicle. When the shop keeps up the vacuum trucks and water trailers, put each inspection date on the same calendar as pump and burner service. Trucks that only run in-state may fall under your state's version of the rule, so check it too. Source: eCFR: Periodic inspection of commercial motor vehicles (49 CFR 396.17).
Gear comes back carrying the last plant
Hoses, wands and vacuum lines return coated with whatever they cleaned, from cutting oil to food residue. Set up a wash bay where gear gets cleaned, checked and tagged before it's loaded for the next job, so a food plant never receives a hose that just left a machine shop.
How much industrial cleaning warehouse managers make
The closest BLS group for industrial cleaning warehouse managers is transportation, storage, and distribution managers. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers who work for building and home services companies earned a median of $72,010 a year ($34.62 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $107,230 median for transportation, storage, and distribution managers in all industries. About 460 of the 221,180 transportation, storage, and distribution managers in that survey work for building services companies.
Usually salaried with a performance bonus. For pay, BLS places this job with managers of transportation, storage and distribution, and the top of the template's range falls short of that group's median at building services firms.
Building services companies
$72,010$72,010 median Middle half $58,260–$86,180 10th–90th $52,000–$147,300
All industries
$107,230$107,230 median Middle half $82,440–$146,770 10th–90th $65,120–$194,900
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k$175k$200k$225k
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
$52,000
$58,260
$72,010
$86,180
$147,300
All industries
$65,120
$82,440
$107,230
$146,770
$194,900
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 run a shop or warehouse that stored hazardous chemicals
Plans receiving and loading around a job schedule that changes daily
Keeps service records for engines, pumps and trucks
Leads a small team of shop hands and drivers
Reads the storage and firefighting sections of a safety data sheet
Teach these on the job
Your warehouse or inventory software
Your vendors, their lead times and their return rules
FMCSA inspection forms and record keeping
Service schedules for your washer and vacuum models
Your truck loading lists by job type
Expect inventory or warehouse software and a service log for every washer, vacuum unit and truck, along with forklifts, drum handlers and spill kits. Keep each maker's manual on file, since heated washers and vacuum trucks each carry their own service schedule.
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 · Spill response
You find a drum of caustic leaking in the warehouse. What do you do?
A strong answer: Keeps people back, wears the right gear, contains it with the spill kit, transfers the product, cleans up per the safety data sheet and reports it.
Behavioral · Organization
Tell me about a time you reorganized chemical storage or equipment for safety or speed.
A strong answer: Explains the change, such as grouping by hazard class or staging equipment by job, and the result.
Read the template's targets as examples. Pick yours once you have a full season of counts, deliveries and repair logs in hand.
Inventory Accuracy
Compare cycle counts of chemicals, PPE and parts with the system, item by item. Track how often a count needed an adjustment and why.
On-Time Delivery
Log each delivery in and each truck loaded out against the time the job or vendor needed it, and count the ones that missed.
Safety Compliance
Walk the shop monthly with a written checklist covering storage limits, labels, spill kits, eyewash stations, forklift checks and fire exits. Count items met against items checked.
Equipment Downtime
For each washer, vacuum unit and truck, compare hours down for repair with hours it was booked. Sort by cause so repeat failures stand out.
What physical work comes with running this warehouse?
Lifting up to 50 pounds covers cases, hoses, pump parts and pails; a forklift or drum handler takes the drums and totes. The temperature line is about bays without heat in winter and a hot metal building in summer. Counts and safety walks mean time on your feet and bending to low shelves. Describe each task in the posting and ask candidates if they'd need any change to how it's set up.
How much does an industrial cleaning warehouse manager make?
Transportation, storage, and distribution managers who work for building and home services companies earned a median of $72,010 a year ($34.62 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $58,260 and $86,180 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
What should the shop keep on hand for a chemical spill?
Spill kits sized for the largest container in each area, with absorbent pads and socks, neutralizers suited to the acids and caustics you stock, drain covers, and the PPE to use them. Put a kit at the loading dock, since that's where drums get moved and opened. Restock after every use and check them on the monthly walk.
Where should we look for industrial cleaning warehouse manager candidates?
Chemical distributors, equipment rental yards and fleet shops all train the right habits. Someone from a chemical distributor knows storage and labeling. A rental yard manager knows how to keep machines turning around between customers. Ask each candidate how they handled a damaged drum and how they tracked repairs.
How should the shop get equipment ready for a big shutdown?
Test-run every washer, vacuum unit and pump that's going, not just the ones that came back with problems. Stock spare nozzles, unloaders and hose ends on each truck, load the chemicals and PPE from the job's pull list, and park the loaded trucks the day before. Anything that fails a test run gets tagged and swapped before the crew arrives.
