01 — MethodologyHow to read these numbersThis facilities manager job description guide is built from three layers. The duty spine is O*NET 11-3013.00, the federal occupational profile for facilities managers, which publishes twelve task statements — from “oversee the maintenance and repair of machinery, equipment, and electrical and mechanical systems” to “plan, administer, and control budgets for contracts, equipment, and supplies” — and rates the role Job Zone 3, meaning employers typically expect an associate’s degree or equivalent experience plus one to two years of on-the-job training. The competency frame is IFMA’s 11 core competencies, the global job-task analysis behind the CFM exam: communication, risk management, sustainability, finance and business, occupancy and human factors, leadership and strategy, operations and maintenance, project management, performance and quality, real estate, and facility information and technology management.The industrial layer comes from eight 2026 postings read on employer career pages and retrieved September 15, 2026, dated June through September 2026 where the page shows a date: a battery-materials plant in northern Nevada, a space-systems manufacturer’s solar-cell fab in New Mexico, a launch provider’s launch site in South Texas, its rocket test site in central Texas and its solar-cell factory in central Texas, a fusion-energy developer in the Bay Area, a colocation operator in Iowa, and an AI-training campus in Memphis. They are cited by environment and state, never by name, and they are what separate an industrial req from the generic template.Pay comes from BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 11-3013, nationally and by industry where BLS publishes the cell — aerospace (NAICS 3364), motor vehicles (3361), electrical equipment including batteries (3359), and the 3-digit parents for electronics (334), data hosting (518) and building construction (236) where the 4-digit cells are suppressed. Posting aggregates from Salary.com, Indeed and ZipRecruiter are labeled as posting data with their retrieval date, and the divergence between them is shown rather than averaged.What these figures are — and are notFigures as of September 2026. These are public benchmarks and posting excerpts, not iRecruit placement data and not an offer range: BLS medians blend a 400,000-square-foot fab with a suburban office park, and posting requirements describe what employers asked for, not what they hired. Use them to draft and calibrate a req, then price your own site, shift pattern and on-call load.02 — At a glanceThe benchmarks at a glanceThe whole guide in one screen. Each row jumps to the full section.011. Role summary and scopeSite type, square footage or MW, systems owned (CUP, HVAC, power, gases), team size, reporting line, shift and on-call expectation, all in the first 80 words80 words022. Core responsibilitiesThe six blocks below: PM program, work orders, critical utilities and uptime, O&M budget and vendors, EHS and compliance, capital projects and commissioning6 blocks033. RequirementsYears in a named environment (5-7 in industrial or mission-critical), degree-or-equivalent clause, CFM/FMP preferred, CMMS and BMS fluency, OSHA/NFPA, ITAR eligibility where it applies5-7 yrs044. Success measuresPM completion, work-order backlog and response time, unplanned downtime, O&M budget variance, TRIR and inspection closure, each written as a number with a target5 KPIs055. Pay, schedule and conditionsBand anchored to BLS OEWS May 2025 for your industry, shift and on-call rotation, travel percentage, physical and environmental requirements$107K medAnchor numbers: the BLS OEWS May 2025 national median for facilities managers is $106,660 with a 25th–75th band of $82,020–$138,870; aerospace manufacturing pays a $157,460 median, electrical-equipment and battery manufacturing $124,660, and data hosting $122,480. Five of the eight industrial postings read for this guide state 24/7 on-call or extended-hours availability, three name a CMMS or work-ticketing system, and all three from the launch provider carry an ITAR clause.
03 — BenchmarksThe six core responsibility blocksO*NET’s twelve tasks collapse into six blocks in an industrial req. Each block below is a paragraph you can paste, and each ends with the KPI an employer should write into the posting so the candidate knows what a good year looks like before the first interview.PM programOwn the preventive and predictive maintenance program for every facility assetBuild and execute PM schedules across HVAC, electrical distribution, compressed air, process gases, water and fire protection, and keep the asset register current in the CMMS. A launch provider’s September 2026 posting in South Texas assigns overall PM ownership across multiple sites; a battery-materials plant in Nevada makes CMMS readiness and asset data a named duty. KPI to write in: PM completion on schedule as a percentage target, with the overdue list reported weekly.Work ordersRun the corrective and break/fix program through a ticketing or CMMS queueTriage, staff and close reactive work against response standards by priority, and audit the CMMS so labor, parts and history land on every ticket. The Iowa colocation posting makes CMMS standards and database audits an explicit responsibility; the Memphis campus req assigns the work-ticketing system outright. KPI to write in: open backlog in labor-hours or weeks, and percent of priority-1 tickets responded to inside the stated window.UptimeKeep critical utilities and building systems in continuous serviceOperate the central utility plant, power distribution, cooling, gas and chemical delivery and wastewater with no unplanned interruption to production or IT load. The Texas solar-cell factory req lists system uptime, utility cost, environmental compliance and impact on production yield as its tracked metrics; the Iowa data center defines the goal as 100% availability. KPI to write in: unplanned downtime minutes per quarter and the count of production- or load-affecting events.O&M budgetPlan and control the operating and maintenance budget, contracts and vendorsBuild the annual O&M budget, forecast utilities and consumables, negotiate and manage service contracts, and hold third-party providers to scope and SLA. The Memphis req states the job as keeping maintenance costs low and vendors competitive; the Nevada plant pairs capital and expense projects with budget and schedule oversight. KPI to write in: O&M spend versus budget as a variance tolerance, and contracted-service cost per square foot or per MW against the prior year.EHSLead safety, environmental and code compliance for the facility scopeOwn OSHA, EPA, NFPA and local-code compliance for facilities work, run permit-to-work and contractor safety, and close inspection findings. Seven of the eight industrial postings name safety metrics or regulatory compliance; the Texas solar-cell factory adds pyrophoric gases, wastewater treatment and environmental permitting. KPI to write in: TRIR and DART for the facilities team and its contractors, and days-to-closure on inspection and audit findings. Partner roles: EHS manager and EHS engineer.Capital and CxDeliver capital projects and take construction handover into operationsScope, budget and manage facility capital projects, review turnover packages (as-builts, O&M manuals, warranties, asset data), lead commissioning and startup readiness, and load new assets into the CMMS before beneficial occupancy. The Nevada battery-materials req and the Iowa data center req both make the construction-to-operations transition a core duty. KPI to write in: projects delivered on schedule and within approved budget, and percent of new assets with a complete PM plan at handover.Sources: O*NET OnLine 11-3013.00 task statements; IFMA 11 core competencies; eight employer career-page postings retrieved September 15, 2026, dated June 17 through September 5, 2026 where shown (battery-materials plant NV, space-systems manufacturer NM, launch site TX, rocket test site TX, solar-cell factory TX, fusion developer CA, colocation operator IA, AI-training campus TN).Why industrial reqs diverge from the generic templateGeneric facilities manager templates are written for office and retail portfolios, where O*NET tasks like managing leases, distributing supplies and approving payroll carry real weight. The industrial reqs read for this guide barely mention them. What they add instead is production-coupled infrastructure: a central utility plant, gas farm and chemical distribution at the Texas solar-cell factory; nitrogen, vacuum and cleanroom HVAC at the New Mexico fab; UPS, generators and automatic transfer switches at the Texas test site; power and cooling capacity in the data halls at the Iowa colocation site. The title also slides between facilities manager, facilities engineer and critical facilities manager for overlapping scopes — the fusion developer’s “facilities engineer” asks for 10 years and posts $120,000–$170,000, while the launch site’s “manager” lists a high-school diploma with 3 years hands-on as the basic qualification. Write the scope first and pick the title second. 04 — Cost driversThe six must-have qualificationsRequirements sections in the eight industrial postings agree more than the titles do. Six items recur; the value on each is the modal ask, and the description tells you when to flex it.5-7 yrsFacilities or plant experience in a comparable environmentFive of eight postings ask for 5 or more years: the Nevada battery-materials plant wants 7+ in complex manufacturing and the fusion developer 10+ in large-scale industrial or research facilities, while the launch site and test site accept 3 and 2. Specify the environment (mission-critical, cleanroom, heavy industrial), not just the years.BS or 9 yrsEngineering degree or documented equivalentThe New Mexico fab accepts a bachelor’s in engineering plus 5 years, or 9 years without one; the Texas launch site lists a high-school diploma as basic and a mechanical engineering degree as preferred. O*NET’s Job Zone 3 rating supports a degree-or-equivalent clause rather than a hard degree gate.CFM / FMPIFMA credential, preferred rather than requiredThe CFM requires 5 years of FM experience (3 with an FM degree), a 3-hour, 120-question exam at $615 for IFMA members and $910 for non-members, and renewal every 3 years; the FMP is a lifelong credential IFMA suggests after about a year in the field. None of the eight industrial postings required either; list them as preferred and weight them for multi-site or corporate scopes.3+ yrsDirect supervision of shift-based techniciansThe Iowa colocation req requires a minimum of 5 years managing non-exempt shift employees; the Texas solar-cell factory asks for 2+ years in a leadership position. For a 24/7 site, write the team size and shift structure into the req so the candidate can self-select.CMMS + BMSFluency in maintenance and building-control systemsThree of eight postings name a CMMS or work-ticketing system and three name building management or automated monitoring systems; the Texas solar-cell factory prefers SCADA and PLC expertise. Ask for the specific platforms in use and how the candidate used the data, not just the logo.OSHA + NFPAWorking code and safety knowledge, plus ITAR eligibility where it appliesThe Texas test-site posting names NEC, ASHRAE, NFPA and the International Building Code; the solar-cell factory names OSHA, EPA and NFPA. Every posting from the launch provider carries an ITAR clause, so defense and space reqs should state export-control eligibility up front. See the construction certifications guide for OSHA 30 and NFPA 70E context.Two qualifications that generic templates lean on are absent from the industrial set: real-estate and lease administration, and space planning. Two that generic templates omit recur here: 24/7 on-call or extended-hours availability, stated in five of the eight postings, and physical and environmental capability — standing for six hours, working at heights or in hazardous atmospheres with PPE. Put both in the requirements block, because they are the reasons candidates decline after the offer. 05 — VariationSix environment variants of the reqThe same title covers very different jobs. Each variant below carries the BLS OEWS May 2025 industry band where BLS publishes one, the posting cues that define the scope, and the sentence that should change in the req.Corporate campus or multi-building office$81K-$131KBLS OEWS May 2025 real-estate industry (NAICS 531) 25th–75th band, median $107,020, the fifth-largest industry employer of the occupation at 7,050 (local government leads at 12,100). Scope is work orders, janitorial, grounds and vendors; the Memphis campus req is this variant even on an AI site, and it accepts business or supply-chain degrees.Manufacturing plant$102K-$150KBLS OEWS May 2025 electrical-equipment manufacturing (NAICS 3359, which includes battery manufacturing) 25th–75th band, median $124,660; motor-vehicle manufacturing (3361) median $124,920. Scope adds production-coupled utilities, commissioning and CMMS asset data, as in the Nevada battery-materials req. Tie the plant’s facilities engineer and facilities supervisor reqs to the same KPI set.Launch or test site$131K-$163KBLS OEWS May 2025 aerospace product and parts manufacturing (NAICS 3364) 25th–75th band, median $157,460 — the second-highest published manufacturing median for the occupation, behind iron and steel mills (NAICS 3311) at $200,600. Postings add cryogenic and fluids infrastructure, UPS and generator-backed power, remote-site logistics, ITAR, and extended hours around launch and test campaigns.Data center$85K-$177KBLS OEWS May 2025 data processing and hosting (NAICS 518) 25th–75th band, median $122,480 on only 520 reported facilities managers — the widest band in the set, because many operators title the role critical facilities manager or site manager. The Iowa req defines success as 100% availability with 24x7 on-call. See the data center facilities technician page for the technician tier.Cleanroom, fab or GMP$106K-$166KBLS OEWS May 2025 computer and electronic product manufacturing (NAICS 334) band, median $134,820; the semiconductor 4-digit cell (3344) pays a $138,600 median on 690 reported facilities managers ($113,600–$174,430 25th–75th). Pharmaceutical manufacturing (3254) pays a $148,650 median. Postings add high-purity gases, DI water, exhaust and cleanroom HVAC, pyrophoric and toxic chemical handling, and production yield as a facilities KPI.Multi-site or regional$82K-$129KBLS OEWS May 2025 facilities support services (NAICS 5612, the outsourced FM providers) band, median $100,190, the closest proxy for portfolio roles. The Nevada req carries 30% domestic travel, the Texas solar-cell factory 20% international. Write travel percentage and site count into the summary; this is where CFM and FMP carry the most weight, and where the scope should be checked against a facilities director before titling.Two patterns cut across the variants. The industry premium is real and large: a facilities manager in aerospace manufacturing earns a $157,460 median against $106,660 nationally in the same BLS OEWS May 2025 release, a 48% gap that holds at the 25th percentile ($131,180 versus $82,020). And the environments with the fewest reported incumbents — data hosting at 520, building construction at 490 — have the widest bands, which is exactly where a posted range drawn from a generic aggregator will misprice the req. 06 — TrendCompensation and market context for the reqThe federal spine is BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 11-3013: 156,180 facilities managers employed, mean wage $116,890, and a distribution running $64,480 at the 10th percentile, $82,020 at the 25th, $106,660 at the median, $138,870 at the 75th and $176,120 at the 90th. Across the industrial sectors this guide covers, electric power generation and transmission (NAICS 2211) tops the set at a $158,660 median, aerospace manufacturing (3364) at $157,460, pharmaceutical manufacturing (3254) at $148,650, chemical manufacturing (325) at $135,140, computer and electronic products (334) at $134,820, transportation equipment (336) at $131,390, data hosting (518) at $122,480 and building construction (236) at $122,100. The aerospace and defense manufacturing and data center construction markets sit at the top of that table.Posting data scatters around the federal figure, and the scatter is the point. Salary.com put the facilities manager median at $106,511 with a $93,916–$117,869 25th–75th band as of September 1, 2026 — almost exactly the BLS median with a much narrower band. Indeed averaged $85,358 across 7,100 postings from the prior 36 months (updated September 7, 2026), range $53,471–$136,261. ZipRecruiter averaged $74,526 with a $54,000–$89,500 25th–75th band (page dated August 2026). All three were retrieved September 15, 2026. The lower aggregator averages are pulled down by small-portfolio, retail and property-management postings that share the title; an industrial req priced off them will sit in the bottom quartile of the BLS distribution for its industry.The facilities engineer title behaves differently. BLS has no code for it, and Indeed’s posting average is $100,314 across 979 postings (updated September 7, 2026), range $65,275–$154,162 — above the manager average on the same site, because the engineer title clusters in manufacturing and mission-critical work. The one industrial posting in this set with a published range, the Bay Area fusion developer’s facilities engineer at $120,000–$170,000 for a 10-year profile, spans the BLS median-to-90th band. Demand is steady rather than explosive: BLS projects 13,200 annual openings for facilities managers from 2024 to 2034 on 2024 employment of 151,400, average growth of 3–4%, so the constraint is fit to environment rather than headcount. 07 — WorkforceHow to write, post and interview against the reqLead with scope, not the company paragraph: square footage or MW, the systems owned, the team, the shift and on-call pattern, and the travel percentage in the first 80 words, because those are the facts the industrial postings bury under boilerplate and the facts a qualified candidate scans for. Paste the six responsibility blocks with their KPIs, state 5–7 years in a named environment with a degree-or-equivalent clause, list CFM or FMP as preferred, and put ITAR eligibility, physical requirements and on-call in the requirements block rather than the fine print. Post the range, anchored to the BLS OEWS May 2025 band for your NAICS code rather than a national aggregator, and say whether on-call carries a stipend. For the title, use facilities manager for a single site with a team, facilities operations manager for a utilities-heavy plant, and critical facilities manager for a data center; a facilities engineer req is a different document with commissioning and design duties at its center.Run the interview loop against the KPIs you wrote. A screening call on PM completion, backlog and unplanned downtime at the candidate’s last site — with the actual numbers — separates managers who ran a program from managers who ran a crew. A technical panel walks a single-line diagram or a CUP flow and asks what fails first; a case exercise hands over a turnover package with missing O&M manuals and asks for the 90-day plan; a final round with production or IT leadership tests whether the candidate speaks in yield and load rather than tickets. iRecruit is building candidate density across facilities managers, facilities engineers and facilities technicians for manufacturing, launch and mission-critical sites, and our screen runs the same KPI questions before a shortlist reaches you; for a whole facilities org, embedded recruiting support or RPO covers the technician tiers in the same loop.For the hiring side of this market, see the Facilities Management Recruiters practice. 08 — FAQFrequently asked questions What does a facilities manager do, according to O*NET?+O*NET 11-3013.00 lists 12 task statements: monitoring the facility for safety and security, overseeing maintenance and repair of equipment and electrical and mechanical systems, overseeing construction and renovation for code and regulatory compliance, planning and controlling budgets for contracts, equipment and supplies, participating in architectural and engineering planning, setting departmental goals, training staff, preparing operational reports, managing supplies and surplus property, managing leases, and approving payroll. Industrial reqs weight the first four heavily and often drop the last three.What is the difference between a facilities manager and a facilities engineer job description?+The manager req centers on running the program — team, PM completion, work-order backlog, budget and vendors — with 5–7 years and a degree-or-equivalent clause. The engineer req centers on design, capital projects and commissioning: the Texas test-site posting asks for an engineering degree plus 2 years of MEP design or build, the fusion developer for 10 years with a PE preferred at $120,000–$170,000. Indeed’s posting averages (updated September 7, 2026) run $100,314 for facilities engineer against $85,358 for facilities manager.What KPIs should an employer write into a facilities manager job description?+Five, each with a stated target: PM completion on schedule as a percentage, work-order backlog and priority-1 response time, unplanned downtime minutes or production-affecting events, O&M spend versus budget as a variance tolerance, and safety metrics such as TRIR, DART and days-to-closure on inspection findings. The 2026 Texas solar-cell factory posting adds utility cost and impact on production yield; the Iowa colocation posting states the availability target as 100%.What qualifications and certifications should a facilities manager have?+The modal industrial ask in 2026 postings is 5–7 years in a comparable environment, a bachelor’s in engineering or 9 years equivalent, 3 or more years supervising shift technicians, CMMS and BMS fluency, and working OSHA, NFPA, NEC and ASHRAE knowledge. IFMA’s CFM (5 years of FM experience, a 3-hour 120-question exam, $615 for members or $910 for non-members, 3-year renewal) and FMP are preferred rather than required in every posting read for this guide.How much should a facilities manager job description pay in 2026?+Anchor to BLS OEWS May 2025 for your industry: the national median is $106,660 (25th–75th $82,020–$138,870), aerospace manufacturing $157,460, electrical-equipment and battery manufacturing $124,660, data hosting $122,480, and the electronics and semiconductor parent industry $134,820. Aggregators run lower — Indeed $85,358, ZipRecruiter $74,526, Salary.com $106,511, all retrieved September 15, 2026 — because they pool small-portfolio and property-management postings under the same title. Write the req, then fill itHiring a facilities manager for a plant, fab, launch site or data center? iRecruit is assembling candidate density across facilities management, engineering and technician roles in manufacturing and mission-critical environments. Send the scope and we’ll screen against your KPIs and shortlist.Scope a search →Candidates — register with us →
