Commercial refrigeration general manager job description
A commercial refrigeration general manager runs one branch: its profit and loss, its grocery and restaurant accounts, and the managers who run its service, install, sales and office teams. They decide what the branch does when a store's freezer fails overnight or an install slips.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, HVAC and plumbing contractors · BLS, May 2025
You'll run one branch as your own business: its profit and loss, its customers and its people. Service, installs, sales and the office all report up to you. When a grocery store's freezer goes down at night or an install falls behind, you decide what the branch does about it.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Own the branch profit and loss, budget and growth plan.
Lead the Service Manager, Operations Manager, Sales Manager and Office Manager, and settle conflicts between service and installs over people and trucks.
Keep the branch's key accounts: meet store and facility managers, review response times and invoices with them, and fix problems before renewal.
Approve pricing on large repairs, equipment replacements and service agreements above [your limit].
Decide when to add technicians, installers or trucks based on backlog and on-call load.
Hold the branch to company standards for refrigerant handling, safety and paperwork.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Start the day with the Service Manager and Operations Manager: overnight emergencies, today's install crews and open escalations.
Review open quotes, unbilled tickets and work orders running over budget.
Call or visit a customer with an open problem.
Approve purchase orders, overtime and equipment rentals, such as cranes for rooftop equipment.
Check on-call coverage for nights, weekends and holidays.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Branch net profit: [your target].
Branch revenue against budget: [your target].
Service agreements renewed: [your target].
Emergency calls reached within agreement response times: [your target].
Technician turnover: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[5+] years managing a commercial refrigeration, HVAC or mechanical service branch or department.
Experience owning a budget and reading a profit and loss statement.
Working knowledge of commercial refrigeration service and installs: what a job takes and what it should cost.
Experience leading supervisors and managers.
A steady approach with an upset customer whose product is at risk.
6. Preferred Experience
Past work as a refrigeration technician, service manager or project manager.
EPA Section 608 certification.
Experience with grocery, foodservice or cold storage accounts in [your market].
Experience with [your field service software].
7. Physical Requirements
Office work plus regular visits to stores, rooftops and install sites.
Climb ladders and walk job sites in required safety gear.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Based at the [branch location] office, with time in the field most days.
Part of the escalation rotation for after-hours emergencies.
Regular hours: [your schedule], plus evenings and weekends during install cutovers and major outages.
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 general 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's different about running a refrigeration branch
A branch GM here weighs emergency service against install dates, with older refrigerants and rooftop work in the mix.
R-22 systems change the repair math
EPA's phaseout schedule ended U.S. production and import of HCFC-22, sold as R-22, in 2020, though servicing existing equipment can go on. When a store's old R-22 rack or condensing unit needs a big repair, approve the quote only after the customer has seen the replacement option and its price beside it. Source: U.S. EPA: Phaseout of class II ozone-depleting substances.
Roof work needs one branch rule
Condensing units on a store's flat roof put techs near an edge. OSHA's general industry rule for low-slope roofs, which covers service work, requires a guardrail, safety net, travel restraint or personal fall arrest system for work less than 6 feet from the edge. From 6 to 15 feet, a designated area is allowed only when the work is temporary and done infrequently. Hold every tech to the same rule, night calls included. Source: eCFR: 29 CFR 1910.28(b)(13), work on low-slope roofs.
Service and installs want the same people
A remodel cutover set for Sunday night and a freezer down at another store can need the same tech. Decide ahead of time which work wins, who can be pulled off an install, and how the install's budget is protected when that happens. Write it down with the service and operations managers so the choice isn't made at midnight by whoever answers.
Hire on the after-hours load, not only the backlog
Install backlog tells you when to add installers. Service shortages show up in other ways: rising overtime, missed agreement response times, and the same few techs taking every night call. Check those signs monthly by account. A tech hired before the busy months has time to learn your chains' cases; one hired during them goes straight onto night calls.
How much commercial refrigeration general managers make
The closest BLS group for commercial refrigeration general managers is general and operations managers. General and operations managers who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $105,740 a year ($50.84 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $105,770 median for general and operations managers in all industries. About 40,250 of the 3,503,020 general and operations managers in that survey work for HVAC and plumbing contractors.
Salary plus a bonus based on branch profit, sometimes with a slice of agreement growth.
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$105,740$105,740 median Middle half $79,040–$158,540 10th–90th $57,570–$214,590
All industries
$105,770$105,770 median Middle half $72,320–$167,280 10th–90th $50,090–$253,390
$0k$50k$100k$150k$200k$250k$300k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$57,570
$79,040
$105,740
$158,540
$214,590
All industries
$50,090
$72,320
$105,770
$167,280
$253,390
BLS doesn’t publish pay for refrigeration 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.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has owned a branch or department budget and read its profit and loss every month
Knows what a compressor change, a case replacement and a walk-in install should take and cost
Stays steady with a store manager whose product is warming up
Has led managers, not only technicians
Sets approval limits and holds to them
Teach these on the job
Your company's refrigerant and safety standards
Your field service and accounting software
Each key account's contract terms and contacts
Your pricing book for large repairs and replacements
The weekly branch reporting the COO expects
The GM works from the branch profit and loss, the field service software's open-ticket and response-time views, the install schedule and the quote log. Tell applicants which software you use and whether purchase orders and overtime get approved in it or on paper.
Commercial refrigeration general manager 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 · Service vs. install conflicts
The Operations Manager wants two service technicians for an overnight remodel cutover the same week the Service Manager is short on on-call coverage. How do you decide?
A strong answer: Weighs agreement response commitments against the remodel's contract and store schedule, looks for other options, decides quickly, and explains it to both managers.
Behavioral · Keeping key accounts
Tell me about a time a grocery or restaurant account was about to leave over response times or repeat failures.
A strong answer: Met the customer in person, owned what went wrong, fixed the causes with the team, kept the customer updated, and shows whether the account renewed.
How much field time does a refrigeration general manager have?
Some on most days. The template's lines describe work like going up to a rooftop unit with a technician, walking a remodel in progress, and meeting a store manager in the back room after a failure. Ship those lines as written, add how often your GM is in the field, and keep the accommodation note.
How much does a commercial refrigeration general manager make?
General and operations managers who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $105,740 a year ($50.84 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $79,040 and $158,540 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
What should a GM approve, and what should the service manager approve?
Set limits by job type. A service manager might approve routine repairs and parts orders up to a set amount, while the GM approves compressor and case replacements, agreement prices and anything above that line. Build the limits into the field service software so quotes route to the right person, and review them each year as equipment prices change.
What can a general manager change, and what does the COO set?
The COO sets company standards: refrigerant tracking, safety rules, how jobs close out and how techs advance. The GM decides how the branch meets them: who covers which account, when to hire, which quotes to chase and how to handle a hard customer. If a standard doesn't fit the branch's market, the GM makes the case to the COO instead of quietly skipping it.
What should a GM do the morning after a store loses product?
Call the store manager, then the chain's facilities contact, before they call you. Gather the ticket times, temperature readings, what failed and what the tech did. Make no promises about the loss until the cause is known, and send any claim to the CEO and insurance broker under company rules. Then fix whatever slowed the response.
