A lighting company office manager leads the front office: the customer service team, utility rebate applications, permits, insurance certificates and holiday contracts. They make sure every retrofit and holiday job closes with the papers the bookkeeper needs to bill it and the utility needs to pay.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, electrical contractors · BLS, May 2025
You'll run the office side of our lighting company. You supervise the Customer Service Representatives, manage utility rebate paperwork, permits and insurance certificates, keep holiday contracts and deposits on track, and make sure every job closes out with complete paperwork.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Supervise the Customer Service Representatives and set their priorities each season.
Run the utility rebate process: check program rules and product listings, submit pre-approvals, collect spec sheets and before-and-after photos, and track each rebate to payment.
Pull permits for jobs that need them and schedule inspections with the Project Manager.
Issue certificates of insurance, and collect lien waivers and vendor paperwork for commercial jobs.
Manage holiday lighting contracts, deposits and renewals with the customer service team.
Track customer-owned holiday decor in storage by label and shelf location [if you store it for clients].
Manage office systems, vendors and supplies.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Work the shared inbox and voicemail and route requests.
Check rebate, permit and closeout status on open jobs.
Help Customer Service Representatives with escalated calls.
Send closed-job paperwork to the Bookkeeper for billing.
Jobs closed out with full paperwork: [your target].
Certificates of insurance sent on time: [your target].
Holiday contracts signed with deposit before install: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[3+] years of office management in construction, electrical or field service.
Experience with permits, insurance certificates or utility programs.
Keeps rebate, permit and insurance paperwork straight across many open jobs at once.
Comfort with [your field service or job management software] and spreadsheets.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience with utility energy efficiency rebate programs.
Experience supervising office staff.
Familiarity with lighting products, spec sheets, and DesignLights Consortium or ENERGY STAR listings.
7. Physical Requirements
Sit at a computer and on the phone for most of the day.
Walk the warehouse to check stored decor and supplies.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Office-based at [main office location], with weekday hours.
Longer hours and some Saturdays in the holiday install season.
Busier near utility program deadlines and at year-end, when commercial clients often push to finish retrofits.
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 office manager 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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What makes a lighting office manager's job different
Office managers in most trades handle phones, permits and billing handoffs. At a lighting company, utility programs, holiday contracts and commercial decor each bring their own deadlines and paper.
Rebate clocks start at the invoice
Utility programs set deadlines, and a missed one can cost the customer the rebate. One co-op utility's 2026 lighting form, from Wright-Hennepin, says rebates must be applied for within 12 months of the project's invoice date. Log each program's deadline when the job is sold and review the list weekly, not only when a program year ends. Source: Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric: 2026 retrofit lighting rebate info and application.
Commercial decor comes with fire code papers
Malls, hotels and offices that hire you for indoor holiday decor answer to the local fire marshal. The fire marshal in Fairfax County, Virginia, for one, applies code sections that require artificial trees and garland to meet NFPA 701 flame tests, certified by the maker, and that ban unlisted wiring and lights on decorative greenery. Keep each product's flame certificate and listing on file to send with the install. Source: Fairfax County Fire Marshal: Guidelines for decorative vegetation.
Before photos have to come first
The template's rebate process calls for before-and-after photos, and once a crew pulls the old fixtures, the before shot is gone. Put a photo step on the job checklist so removal can't start until the pictures are in the file. Check for them the morning the job starts, not at closeout.
Each city decides which jobs need a permit
A pole retrofit in one town may need an electrical permit and an inspection, while the next may ask for one only on new circuits. Low-voltage landscape lighting raises the same question. Build a short permit cheat sheet per city, with who to call and how long permits take, and update it whenever an inspector surprises you.
The desk's priorities change by the month
In late summer the customer service team works renewals and deposits. Once installs start, date changes take over, and once displays are lit, service calls jump the line. Set the order for each phase in writing, and read the call log daily during the rush so a growing voicemail pile gets caught early.
How much lighting installation office managers make
The closest BLS group for lighting installation office managers is First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers. First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers who work for electrical contractors earned a median of $34.35 an hour ($71,440 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $69,500 median for First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers in all industries. About 6,060 of the 1,436,680 First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers in that survey work for electrical contractors.
Electrical contractors
$71,440$71,440 median Middle half $57,380–$86,480 10th–90th $47,170–$105,200
All industries
$69,500$69,500 median Middle half $55,950–$85,090 10th–90th $45,610–$104,710
$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k$100k$110k$120k
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
$47,170
$57,380
$71,440
$86,480
$105,200
All industries
$45,610
$55,950
$69,500
$85,090
$104,710
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
Running many open files at once without losing a document
Reading program rules and spec sheets closely
Leading and coaching a small customer service team
Permit and insurance certificate experience
Calm handling of escalated customer calls
Teach these on the job
Your utilities' rebate programs and portals
DesignLights Consortium and ENERGY STAR product lookups
Your field service software and closeout checklist
Fire code paperwork for commercial decor
Your holiday contract and renewal terms
Expect long days in the field service app, shared rebate and permit trackers, utility program portals and city permit portals, with the DesignLights Consortium and ENERGY STAR lists open for model checks. Your insurance agent's certificate portal speeds up certificates of insurance.
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 a missed pre-approval
A retrofit was installed before the rebate pre-approval came through, and the customer's price assumed the rebate. What do you do?
A strong answer: Checks the program's rules, contacts the program, tells the manager right away, plans an honest talk with the customer and blocks installs before approval in the future.
Behavioral · Coaching customer service staff
Tell me about a time you coached a customer service rep who struggled during a busy season, such as the holiday booking rush.
A strong answer: Listened to calls, gave specific tips, adjusted their workload and checked progress.
Fill in the template's targets from your own open-job reports. Count the misses by program, city and customer so you can see where the paperwork breaks.
Rebate applications submitted complete
Count applications the program accepted on first submission without asking for more documents. Track the reason behind each request so the checklist improves.
Jobs closed out with full paperwork
At closeout, check each job file for signed completion, photos, spec sheets, permit sign-off and lien waivers where needed, and count the jobs with nothing missing.
Certificates of insurance sent on time
Log each request date and the date the certificate went out, and compare it with the date the customer needed it before crews arrived.
Holiday contracts signed with deposit before install
On each install date, check the contract record for a signature and a posted deposit, and count the installs that went out without one.
Career path
Office assistantHandles mail, filing and invoices for the front office.
Rebate coordinatorPrepares utility applications and tracks them to payment.
Office managerRuns the CSR team, rebates, permits and holiday contracts.
General managerRuns the whole business day to day, with sales and operations reporting in.
The template says the office manager walks the warehouse. What does that involve?
Short trips from the desk to the warehouse: checking that customers' stored decor sits where the log says, confirming bins are labeled before install crews pull them, and counting office and closeout supplies. It's walking and looking, with some opening of bins. Reasonable accommodation applies, as the template says.
How much does a lighting installation office manager make?
First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers who work for electrical contractors earned a median of $34.35 an hour ($71,440 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $57,380 and $86,480 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
What should the office manager check before a holiday install is scheduled?
A signed contract for this season, a posted deposit, the customer's decor pulled and tagged if you store it, and any HOA or landlord approval the sale noted. For a business, add the certificate of insurance and any fire code papers for indoor decor. If one item is missing, hold the job back from dispatch until it's fixed.
How do I test an office manager candidate?
Give them a real retrofit rebate packet with a few things wrong: a spec sheet for a different model, a missing before photo, and a fixture count that doesn't match the invoice. Set a short time limit. Strong candidates find every problem and say who they'd ask to fix each one.
Why is year-end so hard for a lighting office manager?
Two rushes overlap. Holiday displays are up and service calls come in, while commercial clients push to finish retrofits before their budgets or a program year closes. Plan December early: build rebate packets while jobs are still in progress, and agree with the COO which retrofits can still close out by year-end.
