A refrigeration service manager runs the repair and maintenance side of a commercial refrigeration contractor. They lead the technicians and dispatcher, set the on-call rotation, keep preventive maintenance on schedule for grocery, restaurant and cold storage agreements, and decide how fast someone reaches a warm walk-in at midnight.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, HVAC and plumbing contractors · BLS, May 2025
Annual pay: 10th percentile $55,420, middle half $66,460 to $102,640, 90th percentile $128,500. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Reports to
General Manager
Department
Operations
Schedule
Weekdays, plus last call on nights · Office days with ride-alongs, final escalation for the on-call tech, and long weeks in heat waves when condensers fail
Also called
Service operations manager · Refrigeration service supervisor · Service department manager · Branch service manager
Refrigeration service manager job description template
This is our Role Blueprint, word for word. Replace the highlighted fields and adjust the example targets and pay to fit your company.
You'll run the service department: the technicians, the on-call rotation, the preventive maintenance schedule and every open repair. When a walk-in freezer goes warm at midnight, your systems decide how fast someone gets there and whether they fix it on the first trip.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Manage the Lead Refrigeration Technicians, Refrigeration Technicians, Refrigeration Apprentices and the Dispatcher.
Set the on-call rotation and backup coverage for nights, weekends and holidays.
Keep preventive maintenance visits on schedule for every service agreement, and track what each visit finds.
Review technician tickets for diagnosis, parts, refrigerant added and leak checks before they go to billing.
Turn repair findings into written quotes, such as compressor, coil or condensing unit replacements, and follow up until the customer decides.
Keep leak inspection and repair records up to date, following current EPA refrigerant management rules.
Coach technicians through ride-alongs and callback reviews.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review overnight emergency calls and what is still open.
Approve parts orders, overtime and return visits.
Review callbacks: decide who goes back and why the first fix failed.
Talk with store managers and facility contacts about open repairs and quotes.
Check the week's preventive maintenance schedule against technician capacity.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
First-time fix rate: [your target].
Preventive maintenance visits completed on schedule: [your target].
Emergency response within agreement times: [your target].
Repair quotes approved by customers: [your target].
Billable hours per technician: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[5+] years as a commercial refrigeration technician, with [2+] years leading technicians or running service.
Current EPA Section 608 Type II or Universal certification.
Strong diagnostic knowledge of racks, condensing units, walk-ins, display cases and ice machines.
Experience managing an on-call rotation and a service agreement workload.
Comfort with [your field service software] and service reports.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience with chain grocery or restaurant service programs, including their work order portals and response-time rules.
Experience with rack controllers and remote temperature alarm monitoring.
Office and field work, including ride-alongs on rooftops and in walk-in freezers.
Lift up to [50] pounds and climb ladders.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Office-based at [branch], with regular field visits.
Final escalation point for the on-call technician on nights and weekends: [rotation].
Longer hours during heat waves, when condensing units and racks fail more 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 service 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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In refrigeration, every minute a box runs warm puts the customer's stock at risk, and a chain's contract may set how fast you have to show up.
The agreement sets the clock
The template asks for experience with chain grocery and restaurant programs, their work order portals and their response-time rules. The service manager builds the on-call rotation around those promises: which accounts sit far from the branch, which stores have freezers that can't wait, and who is close enough at two in the morning. Track every missed window, because the customer will raise them at renewal.
Why a warm box can't wait
FDA's 2026 model Food Code says cold food that needs time and temperature control for safety must be held at 41°F or below. States and counties adopt their own versions of it. Whether food that sat warm can still be sold is for the store and its health department to decide, so coach techs not to make that call. Rank night calls by what's in the box: a freezer full of product goes ahead of a reach-in with a few drinks. Source: FDA Food Code 2026, section 3-501.16: Hot and cold holding.
On-call time and overtime
If a tech must wait at the shop, or so close by that the hours aren't really theirs, federal wage rules treat that waiting as work. A tech at home with the phone on usually isn't working yet. A late-night drive a long way out to a store's emergency is work time, all of it. Past 40 hours in a workweek, hourly techs earn time and a half on their regular rate. Check your state's rules as well. Source: 29 CFR 785.17: On-call time (Cornell LII).
Reclaimed refrigerant for store service from 2029
Starting January 1, 2029, EPA's HFC rule says service and repair of supermarket systems, automatic commercial ice makers and refrigerated transport that use an HFC must be done with reclaimed refrigerant. It has to meet EPA's standard for reclaimed gas. The rule doesn't name cold storage warehouses or remote condensing units. An agreement signed now may run past that date, so plan the supply with wholesalers, price it into renewals, and note on each ticket whether the gas was reclaimed. Source: eCFR: 40 CFR 84.112, reclamation and reclaimed refrigerant for servicing.
Warranty credit depends on the paperwork
Copeland's guide for its wholesalers shows how strict claims can be. The wholesaler that supplies the replacement compressor handles the claim. The labor to pull and set it isn't covered. A compressor with a missing or defaced nameplate doesn't qualify. If the same install fails again the same way and the teardown finds no defect, the claim is handled out of warranty. The service manager checks each claim before the old part ships. Source: Copeland: Authorized wholesaler counter guide, warranty and repeat failures (rev. 5/25).
How much refrigeration service managers make
The closest BLS group for refrigeration service managers is First-Line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers. First-Line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $39.33 an hour ($81,800 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $79,860 median for First-Line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers in all industries. About 31,350 of the 617,500 First-Line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers in that survey work for HVAC and plumbing contractors.
Plan on a salary. A bonus works best when it follows results this manager steers, such as agreement renewals, callbacks or service department profit. A salaried manager can still be owed overtime. Under federal rules the job is exempt only if the duties fit as well: running the department is the main job, the manager directs two or more employees, and their word on hiring and firing carries real weight.
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$81,800$81,800 median Middle half $66,460–$102,640 10th–90th $55,420–$128,500
All industries
$79,860$79,860 median Middle half $62,690–$101,360 10th–90th $49,600–$126,790
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k
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
$55,420
$66,460
$81,800
$102,640
$128,500
All industries
$49,600
$62,690
$79,860
$101,360
$126,790
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
Can judge a ticket on a rack, condensing unit, walk-in, display case or ice machine at a glance
Builds an on-call rotation that covers every account without leaning on the same techs
Reads a service agreement and knows what it promises on response and maintenance visits
Sends thin tickets back for readings, parts and refrigerant entries before they're billed
Turns repair findings into quotes and follows up until the customer decides
Stays steady with a chain's facilities contact during a store outage
Teach these on the job
Each chain's work order portal and invoice rules
Your field service software and maintenance scheduling
Your warranty claim steps with each wholesaler
Your refrigerant tracking forms and where records live
Your rules for approving overtime, parts and return visits
The job runs on field service software: the dispatch board, maintenance schedules, tickets and quotes, plus each chain's work order portal and the remote alarm system that pages the on-call tech. Tell candidates how big the team is, how many agreement accounts they'd carry, and which software they'd inherit.
Refrigeration service 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 · Callback reviews
A technician replaced an expansion valve, and the case was warm again the next day. What do you do?
A strong answer: Reviews the ticket and readings, sends the right technician back fast, finds whether the diagnosis or install was wrong, and coaches the original technician.
Behavioral · Coaching technicians
Tell me about a technician you coached who kept needing return trips on case or walk-in calls.
A strong answer: Names the gaps (diagnosis steps, truck stock, parts ordering), the coaching on ride-alongs and callback reviews, and the change in first-visit fixes.
Set each target once you have a few months of tickets in hand. Read the results by account as well as by technician, since one far-off chain store can drag a whole month down.
First-time fix rate
Count each month's repair tickets that never needed a second truck roll for the same fault. Report emergency calls and repairs found on maintenance visits on separate lines.
Preventive maintenance visits completed on schedule
Compare the maintenance calendar with closed visit tickets each month, account by account. When an account slips two months in a row, call the customer before they call you.
Emergency response within agreement times
Time from the store's call or alarm to a tech on site, against each agreement's promise. Review the misses weekly by account and by on-call tech.
Repair quotes approved by customers
Quotes approved out of quotes sent, from your field service software. Also track how long each quote waits for an answer, and follow up on the oldest first.
Billable hours per technician
Hours billed to customers against hours paid, per tech, each week. A tech who covers the far chain stores or waits on parts will show a gap that isn't their doing, so read the tickets behind it first.
How is a refrigeration service manager different from a dispatcher?
The dispatcher assigns calls minute by minute and keeps stores updated. The service manager sets the rules the dispatcher works by: who is on call, which accounts come first, when to approve overtime or a second tech. The manager also answers for the results, such as callbacks, missed response times and maintenance that slipped. In this template the dispatcher reports to the service manager.
How much does a refrigeration service manager make?
First-Line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $39.33 an hour ($81,800 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $66,460 and $102,640 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Can a strong lead technician become the service manager?
Often, but test for the work a lead seldom does. Can they build a fair on-call schedule, push back on a chain's facilities contact, review twenty tickets without fixing each one themselves, and write a quote a store owner will sign? The template asks for five or more years as a technician and two or more leading techs or running service.
What belongs in a refrigeration service agreement?
List the equipment covered at each site, how often maintenance visits happen and what each visit includes, such as coil cleaning, drain and defrost checks. Set response times by priority, and say what's billed outside the agreement: parts, refrigerant, after-hours labor and major repairs. Say what records the customer receives after each visit, and how either side can end the agreement.
How should a refrigeration service manager get ready for a heat wave?
Start in spring. Book condenser coil cleanings on every agreement before the first hot week, and stock condenser fan motors, capacitors and contactors on the trucks. Add a second tech to the on-call rotation for the hottest weeks, and write down which accounts come first when calls stack up. Tell chain contacts ahead of time how you'll handle a backlog, so a slow response doesn't surprise them.
How often should a service manager ride along with technicians?
Set a habit, such as one ride-along a week, and pick the trip on purpose: a new tech, a tech with rising callbacks, or an account that's unhappy. The template lists ride-alongs and callback reviews as coaching tools. Seeing a tech work in a store shows things a ticket never will, like how they talk to the manager.
