A lighting company CEO picks the work the company chases: LED retrofits for businesses, new buildings, yard lighting or holiday displays. They sign off on big purchases such as bucket trucks and storage space, set yearly goals for the COO, general manager and CFO, and report results to the owners.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, electrical contractors · BLS, May 2025
You'll lead our lighting company across commercial retrofits, residential and landscape lighting, and the holiday lighting season. You set the service mix, approve major spending on lifts, trucks and storage, and lead the COO, General Manager and CFO / Accountant. You answer to the owners for growth, profit and safety.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Decide the service mix and where to grow: commercial retrofits, new construction, landscape lighting or holiday lighting.
Approve major spending on lifts, trucks, warehouse space and new locations with the CFO / Accountant.
Lead the COO, General Manager and CFO / Accountant with clear yearly goals.
Build relationships with property managers, general contractors, electrical distributors and utility program staff.
Approve the holiday season plan early: crew size, product buying and storage space.
Own the company's safety standards and the response to any serious incident.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review weekly sales, backlog and job profit by service line.
Meet with the COO and General Manager on crews, schedule and large jobs.
Meet key commercial clients and partners.
Review safety incidents and major customer complaints.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Company revenue: [your target].
Net profit: [your target].
Backlog of signed commercial work: [your target].
Holiday lighting clients who renew: [your target].
Recordable safety incidents: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[10+] years of leadership in contracting, electrical or field service businesses.
Experience with profit and loss responsibility and seasonal cash flow.
Experience leading managers of field crews.
Ability to read financial statements and job cost reports.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience in lighting, electrical contracting or landscape services.
Experience with commercial contracts and general contractors.
Knowledge of utility energy efficiency programs.
7. Physical Requirements
Office work at a computer for long periods.
Visit job sites, warehouses and customer properties, including active construction areas.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Based at [main office location], with regular job site visits.
Longer hours in the fall holiday install season.
Travel to clients, distributors and industry events [how often].
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new chief executive officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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Product bans, a short holiday season and work at height shape the big calls here. Here is what a lighting contractor adds to the top job.
Lamp bans move retrofit demand
When a state stops the sale of fluorescent lamps, owners of older buildings have to plan a change. California's AB 2208 ended sales of screw-base and bayonet-base CFLs on January 1, 2024, and of pin-base CFLs and linear fluorescent tubes on January 1, 2025, as a state health facility agency sums it up. Track bills like this in every state you serve, and size retrofit sales and crews before the deadline, not after it. Source: California HCAI: Converting existing lighting systems to LEDs (AB 2208 dates and retrofit types).
A serious injury starts a short clock
A fall from a lift or a roof edge, or a bad shock inside a fixture, can reach the CEO within the hour. Federal OSHA allows eight hours to report a workplace death. A worker's in-patient hospital admission, amputation or lost eye must be reported inside 24 hours. Seasonal holiday leads need the same steps as year-round crews: who they call first, and who in the office files the report while the clock runs. Source: OSHA: Reporting fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye (29 CFR 1904.39).
A new branch can mean a new inspector
Before opening a location in another state, learn which agency will inspect it. In Alaska, the state's AKOSH division, part of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, covers most private employers. Federal OSHA keeps maritime work and the issues the state plan leaves out. Have the safety officer read the state's own rules before the first crew starts there. Source: OSHA: Alaska State Plan.
Holiday work is its own business line
Holiday lighting has its own buyers, its own seasonal crews and a selling window measured in weeks. In a good year it carries the slow months. In a bad one it pulls crews off retrofits that pay better. Each spring, look at what the line earned after storage, hiring and takedown, then decide whether to grow it, hold it or raise prices before product is ordered.
Utility program staff are worth knowing
When a utility pays part of a retrofit, its program sets terms the job has to meet, and those terms can change from one year to the next. Meet program staff and your electrical distributors a few times a year, ask what is coming, and pass it to sales before they price the next proposal.
How much lighting company CEOs make
The closest BLS group for lighting company CEOs is chief executives. Chief executives who work for electrical contractors earned a median of $172,410 a year ($82.89 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 630 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for electrical contractors.
Expect to pay a salary and a bonus set by how much the company clears each year. Some owners add equity or profit sharing to keep a CEO for the long run.
Electrical contractors
$172,410$172,410 median Middle half $118,510–$266,910 10th–90th $90,720–$403,030
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
Electrical contractors
$90,720
$118,510
$172,410
$266,910
$403,030
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS doesn’t publish pay for lighting installers on their own. These figures cover electrical contractors, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Reads a P&L and job cost reports by service line
Has led managers who run field crews, not only office teams
Plans cash and staffing around a short, heavy season
Builds trust with property managers, general contractors and distributors
Makes safety calls that put people ahead of a deadline
Teach these on the job
Lighting products: LED tubes, retrofit kits, controls and low-voltage yard systems
How local utility incentive programs work
How holiday contracts are priced and renewed
Local glare and light trespass rules for outdoor jobs
Your field service and accounting software
The CEO runs on reports more than tools: the accounting package, job costing from your field service software, and a weekly backlog sheet split by service line. Look for someone who can pull those numbers alone instead of waiting for a monthly binder.
Lighting company CEO 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 · Choosing where to invest
Holiday lighting brings strong revenue in a few months but leaves crews idle part of the year. Commercial retrofits are steady but need licensed electricians and lifts. Where do you invest next year?
A strong answer: Compares margin, cash, renewal rates and licensing needs, looks for work that keeps crews busy year-round and decides with data.
Behavioral · Capital decisions
Tell me about a major equipment or facility purchase you approved, such as bucket trucks or a warehouse for holiday product, and later checked against your plan.
A strong answer: Explains the case (owning versus renting, use rates, cash impact), the decision, and how the real results compared afterward.
The template leaves every target blank. Fill each one from your own past seasons, not from another company's numbers, and agree on them with the owners.
Company revenue
Track it monthly by service line: retrofits, new construction, landscape and holiday. One total can hide a weak line behind a strong season.
Net profit
Use profit after overhead, not gross margin on jobs. Check each month against that month one year back. The fall rush makes totals swing.
Backlog of signed commercial work
Count signed contracts not yet installed, in dollars and in crew hours. The hours show whether today's crews can deliver it.
Holiday lighting clients who renew
Divide last season's clients who signed again by all of last season's clients. Keep homes and businesses on separate lines.
Recordable safety incidents
Take the count from the OSHA injury log your safety officer keeps. Read the case notes, not just the total, to see which kind of work hurts people.
Career path
Project managerRuns large retrofit or new construction jobs from contract to closeout.
General managerLeads sales and key client relationships and answers for revenue.
Chief operating officerRuns crews, the safety program and job costs across every service line.
Chief executive officerSets the service mix, approves capital and leads the executive team.
Owner or board memberSome CEOs buy into the company or take a board seat after a sale.
Should a lighting company CEO have an installer's background or a seller's?
Either can work. A former installer or project manager knows what a night retrofit or a two-story roofline really costs. A former sales leader knows the property managers and contractors who bring work in. Choose based on who already runs the other side. If your COO is strong in the field, a sales-minded CEO fills the gap, and the reverse holds too.
How much does a lighting company CEO make?
Chief executives who work for electrical contractors earned a median of $172,410 a year ($82.89 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $118,510 and $266,910 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
What spending should a lighting company CEO sign off on?
Set approval limits in writing with the CFO. Below the line, the COO and department heads buy what their plans already cover. Above it, the CEO sees the case for each lift, truck, lease or new branch, including where the gear sits in the off months and what it costs if the season comes in light.
When should a lighting company shrink or drop its holiday business?
When it stops paying for itself after storage, seasonal hiring, takedown and the retrofit work it pushes aside. Look at several seasons, since weather and a few big accounts can skew one year. Before cutting it, check how many commercial clients first came in through a holiday display. Some companies keep a smaller holiday line just to serve those accounts.
What monthly numbers should owners get from a lighting company CEO?
Revenue and profit by service line, signed backlog, cash against the seasonal plan, safety incidents and any serious complaint. Add one item that looks ahead: holiday sign-ups in summer, or retrofit proposals waiting on utility approval in spring. The fall decides much of the year, so show the owners early how the season is shaping up.
