Free HVAC Job Description Template

Essential functions are the fundamental duties of the position — the reason the job exists. Marginal functions are real parts of the job that could be reassigned without changing what the job is. The ADA hangs on this distinction: an employer only has to show that a person can perform the essential functions, with or without reasonable accommodation, and 29 CFR 1630.2(n)(2) gives the test — a function is essential where the position exists to perform it, where a limited number of employees are available to absorb it, or where it is so specialised that the incumbent is hired for that expertise. 1630.2(n)(3) then lists the evidence, and one item on that list is a "written job description prepared before advertising or interviewing applicants for the job". That is why the timing matters and why a single undifferentiated duty list is a liability: if the description treats "attend the annual training day" and "diagnose and repair live systems" as the same kind of requirement, a claimant can argue the employer never really regarded the second one as essential either. This builder keeps them as two separate lists so the distinction survives into the printed document.

It is evidence, not a verdict. 29 CFR 1630.2(n)(3) lists the employer’s judgment and a pre-advertising written description among the evidence of what is essential, alongside the time spent on the function, the consequences of not requiring it, collective bargaining terms, and the actual experience of past and current incumbents. So a description helps — but a court or an investigator will compare it to what the job really looks like. A description that says a technician must lift 75 lb when nothing on the truck weighs more than 40 is not protective; it is a document that undermines your credibility on everything else in the file. Write it accurately, write it before you advertise, and review it when the job changes.

Almost always non-exempt. Two things have to be true for the executive, administrative or professional exemption: a salary at or above the standard level, and duties that fit one of the tests. The standard level is $684 per week — $35,568 a year, with the highly compensated employee route at $107,432 in total annual compensation. Those are the 2019 figures and they are the current operative ones: the 2024 rule that would have raised the level to $1,128 a week was vacated nationwide in November 2024, and the Department of Labor republished the 2019 regulations by technical amendment announced in May 2026 (verified on dol.gov, July 2026). But the salary test is where people stop and the duties test is where they lose. 29 CFR 541.3(a) states that the exemptions do not apply to manual laborers or other blue-collar workers who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy — non-management production, maintenance and construction workers are non-exempt however they are paid. Putting a technician on salary does not make the technician exempt. The builder defaults field roles to non-exempt and warns you on the document if you override it.

EPA Section 608 is the one that is federal and non-negotiable: anyone who maintains, services, repairs or disposes of equipment that could release refrigerant has to be certified. The types matter and templates routinely get them wrong — Type I covers small appliances only, Type II covers high- and very-high-pressure appliances except small appliances and motor vehicle A/C, Type III covers low-pressure appliances, and Universal covers all of them. Writing "EPA certified" on a job description for a technician who works on split systems is not enough; that job needs Type II or Universal. Everything else is state or local: mechanical and HVAC licensing is set jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and the builder asks you to name yours instead of printing a national claim that does not exist. NATE is voluntary and a genuine differentiator; OSHA 10 is common as a preference and sometimes a general-contractor requirement.

Yes, and it is worth the ten minutes. A refrigeration technician working supermarket rack systems has essential functions a residential service technician does not — leak repair and recordkeeping on systems above the applicable charge threshold, work in freezer spaces below freezing for extended periods, emergency response where product loss is measured in hours. A duct cleaning technician has a completely different set: containment setup before agitation, before-and-after documentation, and knowing to stop and report asbestos-suspect material rather than disturbing it. Pick either role in the builder and the essential functions, physical demands and certifications change with it.

It depends entirely on where you post it, which is why the builder asks for the posting location rather than asserting a rule. There is no federal pay-range posting requirement. A growing group of states require a good-faith range in the posting — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington among them — and others require disclosure on request or before an offer. New York goes further and requires the job description itself in the posting for employers with four or more employees. Remote roles are usually judged by where the work could be performed, so a multi-state posting generally has to meet the strictest applicable rule. Check the states you are actually posting into before you rely on any list, this one included.

No federal law dictates specific wording for an EEO statement in a job description, so treat the pre-filled statement as a starting point and have counsel adapt it. The substance is that qualified applicants are considered without regard to the characteristics protected by Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, GINA, USERRA and the applicable state and local laws — several of which protect characteristics federal law does not. Federal contractors should note that the landscape moved: Executive Order 11246 was revoked in January 2025 and its implementing regulations rescinded, while Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and VEVRAA obligations remain in force. If you are a federal contractor, confirm your current obligations rather than reusing a tagline written for the old regime.

No. A job description usually becomes the posting and then the application, and all three of those questions cause problems. The EEOC states that the ADEA does not flatly prohibit asking an applicant’s age or date of birth, but that such requests "will be closely scrutinised to make sure that the inquiry was made for a lawful purpose" — and a graduation year is an age question with a different label. Salary history is banned outright by a large number of states and cities, and since the bans are not uniform the safe operating rule is simply not to ask anywhere. None of these fields tell you whether the person can perform the essential functions, which is the only thing the description is for.

No. This is a template and a set of prompts built from published sources — the ADA regulations at 29 CFR 1630, the FLSA regulations and salary levels published by the Department of Labor, EPA Section 608 certification requirements, and state pay transparency law. Every export carries a disclaimer saying the employer must adapt the document to the actual job and have it reviewed by qualified counsel. Where a rule varies by state — licensing, pay range posting, salary history — the builder asks you rather than printing a national claim, because there is no national answer to give.