This is an HVAC service manager role you'd genuinely run, not just hold together. You'd report straight to the Managing Director, with real room to take the whole function on and make it your own.
You've run a service department before as an HVAC service manager, or in refrigeration or critical cooling, and you know how one works from the inside: quoting, compliance, planned and reactive maintenance, and managing engineers and customers at the same time. You're not looking to learn the job on the way up. You can take a department on and make it your own. What matters to whoever hires you is less the exact title on your CV and more that you've genuinely done this.
You'll lead 15 engineers across the southern and northern operations, plus an office team of an administrator, two coordinators and a service account manager. The engineers are skilled and established - they don't need micromanaging. What they need is a manager who's actually available: the technical head they can call when a job isn't going to plan on site, the person keeping them on top of F-Gas and compliance, someone steady they can rely on.
The office team is just as capable. What they're missing is the technical backing you'll bring - pulling together the more complex quotes, getting the right detail onto risk assessments and method statements, and supporting customers when queries come up.
You'll own the department: keeping compliance and certifications in order, and making sure the day to day holds together rather than landing back on the MD's desk. This is hands-on management with real technical depth. It isn't a field engineer's role, and it isn't a desk-only admin seat. You'll be backed to run it, not second-guessed.
The base is the Fareham office in Hampshire, with site visits and customer meetings as they come up. If you'd rather be in the thick of it with your team than running a department remotely from a laptop, this will suit you. On-site presence matters here.
- £55,000 to £70,000 base, depending on experience
- Company car
- Christmas bonus linked to company performance, typically around an extra week's salary
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
- Company credit card for expenses, with travel and travel costs covered
- Room to grow as the business does
Real experience running a service department in HVAC, refrigeration or critical cooling - the technical grounding to back up your engineers and your office team, not just manage them. And you'll need to be happy office-based in Fareham, out to sites when it counts. This isn't a step up for an engineer who hasn't managed before. It's for someone ready to take a department on and stay.
If this sounds like the right fit, send over your CV - doesn't need to be perfect. Everyone gets a response.
