HVAC Contractor Training Program Manager

About the role

Johnstone Supply, North America's leading wholesale distributor of HVACR equipment, parts, and supplies, offers an opportunity to join a multi-billion-dollar industry leader with over 470 distributor branches and 6 distribution centers. We partner with major companies like Daikin/Goodman, Bosch, Copeland, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and Fujitsu to provide contractors with world-class products, technical expertise, and quality service. Relationship-building is central to our success, and we value the contributions of our customers, partners, and employees.

Responsibilities

• Drive adoption in stores by partnering with store teams to identify barriers to university utilization, co-developing activation plans, and evaluating training program effectiveness through surveys, outreach, and business outcomes.
• Build a community of partners, suppliers, store leadership, and contractors to share training best practices.
• Travel to stores and trade events for in-person training, promotional launches, and contractor-facing events.
• Act as a trusted field resource for stores to position new courses, advertise, and troubleshoot program design.
• Provide tool kits and in-store university materials for store use with minimal lift.
• Utilize scorecards and dashboards to track sales and promotions by store and region.
• Guide store Power Users in developing customized training tracks and learning plans for contractors, coordinating with the eLearning team for university setup.
• Enhance contractor programs by performing training needs assessments, recommending new solutions, and maintaining training best practices for customer acquisition, profitability, facilities, trainer competencies, curriculum, promotion, and safety.
• Research training best practices outside the HVAC industry to address HVAC-R challenges.
• Partner with stakeholders to identify and refine profitable contractor training opportunities and address pain points.
• Establish a voice-of-the-customer process for direct contractor feedback.
• Crowd-source and curate new contractor training content.
• Provide customer support and infrastructure for stores to develop, house, and sell contractor training content.
• Work with the content development team to design and acquire new training content, identifying gaps and recommending new content or vendor partnerships.
• Design and execute marketing campaigns, advertising, outreach, and promotions to drive contractor enrollment and course completion.
• Manage national programs with contractor training licensures (e.g., NATE, State CE), trade schools, suppliers, and resource providers.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Sales, and Product Teams to align with strategic promotion, supplier focus, and shared materials.
• Support branding, marketing, and communications for contractor-related content with corporate marketing and external suppliers.
• Present or support training program topics at Johnstone Annual Meetings, trade events, and training seminars.
• Create business cases, plans, and manage assigned projects, including budgets, status updates, risk assessments, and stakeholder communication.
• Perform other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Johnstone Supply expects employees to contribute beyond assigned responsibilities to ensure the success of our endeavors.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Five or more years of experience in HVAC, contractor development, training, learning programs, distribution, manufacturer rep programs, or a related field.
• Experience developing marketing campaigns, training resources, content, communications, and customer engagement programs preferred.

Skills

• Problem-solving: Advanced critical thinking skills; self-directed, collaborative, and comfortable building programs with ambiguity. Ability to diagnose and rectify problems without conflict, including identifying reasons for low utilization (e.g., awareness, relevance, price).
• Communication & Facilitation: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to build effective working relationships and credibility with store teams and contractors. Ability to write formal business documents (proposals, reports, project plans, training guides, promotional articles) with proper grammar and spelling. Ability to present to small and large groups, launch events, and use industry language to build trust. Skill in listening to identify needs, concerns, and root causes, and influencing others to achieve business goals.
• Project Management & Organization: Ability to manage a project life cycle, including course correction and results; handle multiple store rollouts, campaigns, and projects simultaneously. Ability to develop systems for organizing and tracking information, define project budgets, negotiate within budget/contract requirements, and prioritize tasks in a fast-paced environment.
• Training: Ability to assess contractor learner needs, environmental factors, and job content to define training objectives. Knowledge of adult learning principles, instructional design practices, and blended learning approaches. Experience supporting learning management systems (LMS) and learning technologies. Ability to coach and support users in maximizing training platform capabilities.
• Software/Technical Skills: Proficient in MS Office programs (PowerPoint, Word, Outlook); strong experience in Excel and BI is helpful. Experience with LMS reporting and learning technologies. Knowledge of content development, video editing, email marketing, and course authoring tools preferred (e.g., Articulate, Camtasia).
• Business Math: Demonstrated understanding of basic business finance and promotional math (discounting, margins, ROI). Ability to create and use formulas in Excel and pivot tables to analyze data.

Preferred Knowledge

• HVAC-R industry operations, terminology, certifications, and workforce development challenges.
• Wholesale distribution business models and customer engagement practices.
• Instructional design principles and learning program development.

Physical Demand

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and lift up to 50 pounds. Specific vision requirements include close vision, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Company Values

• Safety: Prioritize safety at work and home, ensuring those you work with do the same.
• Customer Focused: Anticipate and respond quickly to the needs of those we serve.
• One Team: Collaborate, focus on common goals, and leverage team strengths.
• Own It: Take initiative, act with urgency and pride, do things right the first time, and act with integrity.
• Innovate: Embrace and create change that drives continuous improvement and customer-valued solutions.

Benefits

• Competitive wage.
• Health and wellness benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, with options for supplemental care.
• Competitive Paid Time Off (PTO).
• Safe Harbor 401(k) with 100% employer match up to 5% of base pay and immediate vesting.
• Paid holidays (7.5 per year).
• Paid Parental Bonding Time.
• Employer-subsidized medical, dental, and vision plans.
• Employer-paid life insurance and short-term disability.
• Voluntary long-term disability, accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity insurance.
• 24/7 access to virtual care/telehealth options.
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution; Flexible spending accounts (FSA).
• Wellbeing program with opportunities to earn reduced medical costs.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for employees and their families.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Employee referral bonus program.
• Employee service milestone recognition program.

Johnstone Supply is committed to continuous improvement and investing in our people to drive success and superior customer experience.