HVAC Service Manager
About the role
Synergy3 is a family-oriented residential HVAC, plumbing, and insulation company in Philadelphia, PA, recognized as a Best Place to Work by ACHR News. The culture emphasizes teamwork, recognition, and personal milestones — birthday cakes, anniversary bonuses, monthly awards ($500 Team Member of the Month, $200 Cleanest Truck of the Month), and annual events including paintball outings, Thanksgiving breakfast, year-end award ceremonies, and holiday parties at top Philadelphia venues.
The Service Manager is the operational and technical leader of the residential service department, owning day-to-day performance of 15–30 service technicians, the customer experience, and the department’s financial results. This role is distinct because it runs all technical training out of Synergy3’s brand-new, in-house Training Lab — a state-of-the-art facility where training is a core responsibility and the engine driving every KPI. The position is full-time, salary plus bonus, reporting to the VP of Residential Operations.
Responsibilities
Training & Technical Development (core focus):
- Own the technical development of every service technician; build, deliver, and continuously improve a structured training curriculum that takes a tech from day one through Master-level competency.
- Run weekly hands-on training sessions in the lab — protected, recurring block time for every tech. Sessions blend classroom instruction with live diagnosis, repair, and installation on real equipment.
- Design and lead a structured 30/60/90-day onboarding program centered in the training lab, competency-gated with practical skill checks before a tech runs a call solo. New techs prove out in the lab; 30-day test passing continues employment.
- Build and maintain the Synergy3 Technician Career Ladder (Tech Level 1 → Tech Level 2 → Tech Level 3 → Master Tech), with lab-based skill assessments as the gating mechanism for each promotion and pay-band advancement.
- Host OEM and manufacturer-certified training in the lab. Partner with Carrier, Mitsubishi, Bradford White, Navien, Rheem, and others to bring factory trainers and certifications on-site, turning the lab into a credentialing hub.
- Lead NATE, EPA 608, and BPI preparation in the lab. Set credentialing targets per technician, track them, and get them across the line.
- Train the full customer experience, not just technical work. Use the lab for role-plays covering in-home diagnostics, options presentations, membership conversations, and objection handling paired with technical tasks so techs practice the whole call end-to-end.
- Build the Synergy3 training content library: capture every common repair and install procedure on video in the lab, write corresponding SOPs, and make them searchable on every tech’s phone so the lab follows them into the field.
- Run quarterly skills competitions and recertifications in the lab to keep the team sharp, surface coaching needs, and create a culture where technical mastery is celebrated and visible.
- Use the lab as a recruiting and retention weapon: host candidate working interviews, ride-along previews, and apprenticeship intake. The lab is a primary reason top techs choose Synergy3; ensure every candidate sees it.
Service Operations:
- Lead the residential service department day-to-day across HVAC, plumbing, and insulation service lines.
- Manage, coach, and develop the service tech team (15–30 techs at scale), including 1:1s, ride-alongs, performance reviews, and progressive discipline.
- Partner with Dispatch to optimize daily board management, route density, technician-to-call matching, and same-day capacity.
- Own quality control via field ride-alongs, post-install audits, callback investigations, and lab-based root-cause reviews when something goes wrong.
- Drive the service P&L: revenue per tech, average ticket, membership conversion, callback rate, billable hour efficiency, and gross margin.
- Manage customer escalations personally, with the standard that no customer leaves the Synergy3 experience unhappy.
- Partner with the Sales Manager and Install Manager to keep the service-to-sales-to-install handoff tight, and feed real install/service feedback back into both teams’ training.
- Maintain a safety-first culture with documented protocols, lab-based safety drills, and zero tolerance for shortcuts.
Key Performance Indicators (what you’ll own):
- Tech certifications gained per year — every tech advances at least one credential annually (NATE, OEM, license stage)
- New hire ramp time — solo-call-ready in 60 days via lab-based competency gates
- Callback rate — below 3% of completed calls
- Average ticket — hits or exceeds department target
- Membership conversion — 40% of qualifying service calls
- Tech retention (12-month) — 85%
- Customer review score — 4.8+ on Google across the department
- Lab utilization — 100% of techs in weekly training; documented hours per tech
Qualifications
Must-Have:
- 7+ years residential HVAC service experience (plumbing exposure a strong plus)
- 3+ years leading a team of technicians as a Service Manager, Field Supervisor, or Lead Tech
- Demonstrated passion for training and developing people — non-negotiable
- NATE certification (or willingness to obtain within 90 days)
- EPA 608 Universal certification
- Proficient with ServiceTitan (or comparable FSM platform) and KPI-driven management
- Strong working knowledge of NJ residential code
- Comfortable on both sides of the wrench — can still diagnose a failed inverter board and coach a tech through it without taking the screwdriver from them
- Valid NJ driver’s license and clean driving record
Nice-to-Have:
- NJ Master HVAC and/or Master Plumbing license
- Prior experience building or running a training program or apprenticeship
- OEM trainer credentials (Carrier, Mitsubishi, etc.)
- Experience scaling a service department through rapid growth
Pay
Base salary: $120,000 – $150,000 (commensurate with experience), plus a performance bonus tied to department KPIs with five-figure annual upside.
Benefits
- Health, dental, and vision