What should a refrigeration technician job description include? (free template)

Duties and responsibilities.

Write the description before you advertise the job.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, essential functions are the fundamental duties of the position, not the marginal ones, and a written description prepared before advertising or interviewing is evidence of what is essential — a function can be essential because the job exists to perform it, because few employees are available to share it, or because it is highly specialised.

For a refrigeration technician, that list doubles as your screening rubric: it is what you check the hire against in the interview and on their first routes.

The raw material is well documented.

O*NET defines the occupation as workers who install or repair heating, central air conditioning, HVAC or refrigeration systems, and BLS's duty list reads like a refrigeration posting: installing, maintaining and repairing HVACR systems; installing electrical components and wiring; inspecting and testing systems; discussing malfunctions with customers; repairing or replacing parts; recommending maintenance; and keeping records.

O*NET rates "discuss heating or cooling system malfunctions with users to isolate problems or to verify that repairs corrected malfunctions" as the occupation's highest-importance core task, ahead of testing electrical circuits for continuity, repairing or replacing defective components, and connecting control wiring from wiring diagrams — diagnosis and customer conversation sit at the top of the occupation's own task ratings, so weight them in the description if your routes run service.

Lead with the split that defines this trade: service or installation.

BLS says some HVAC technicians specialize — commercial refrigeration among the specialties — and that some specialize in installation while others repair and maintain systems.

A refrigeration service technician job description reads differently from an installation posting: one is built around diagnosing malfunctions, inspecting and testing systems and repairing them; the other around installing new systems and their electrical components.

Say which side — or sides — the hire will work, then make the list yours: name the equipment your agreements actually cover, the customers behind it, and the documentation your contracts require.

Title matters for the same reason: there is no refrigeration-only occupation code — O*NET retired the separate installer code and directs users to the single combined occupation, Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers, and BLS example titles inside it include Refrigeration Systems Installer — so "refrigeration technician" alone does not say whether your job is supermarket racks, centrifugal chillers or walk-in boxes.

Put the equipment and the level in the title.

Hiring a helper is its own posting: BLS says HVAC technicians typically need a postsecondary nondegree award — programs run 6 months to 2 years — followed by lengthy on-the-job training, so say whether you are buying that training or providing it.

If seeing the day-to-day definition of the job would help you write it, our refrigeration technician career guide covers what the work is from the worker's side; this page stays on yours.

Physical demands, stated plainly.

Before a conditional offer you may state the job's physical requirements — lifting a set weight, climbing ladders, and the job's other physical demands — and ask whether the applicant can meet them.

Putting them in the description does double duty: it tells candidates what the day costs their body, and it gives you compliant wording to screen on later.

Licence and certification requirements — worded exactly.

Never write a generic "must hold a state license" line: what governs refrigeration work differs state by state and city by city, and a requirement that fits nowhere reads to a working tech as an employer who has not checked their own market.

One credential is federal law, so start there: under 40 CFR 82.161, any person who could reasonably be expected to violate the integrity of a refrigerant circuit while maintaining, servicing, repairing or disposing of appliances containing a class I or class II refrigerant or a non-exempt substitute such as an HFC must pass an exam from an EPA-approved technician certification program.

On refrigeration work the type on the card maps onto the equipment you service:

• Type I — small appliances: fully manufactured, charged and hermetically sealed in a factory with 5 pounds or less of refrigerant. EPA's examples include vending machines and water coolers.
• Type II — medium-, high- and very-high-pressure appliances. EPA classifies refrigerants including R-22, R-407A, R-407C, R-502 and R-410A as high-pressure, and EPA's own definition makes an appliance that uses a high-pressure refrigerant a high-pressure appliance — Type II work.
• Type III — low-pressure appliances, the class EPA says includes chillers using refrigerants such as R-11, R-123, R-113 and R-245fa. A tech servicing a low-pressure chiller plant needs this type on the card.
• Universal — all three types at once.

The card has two mechanics worth knowing before you word the line.

The certification does not expire — so a candidate's card is never "lapsed", it is either the right type or not — and EPA does not issue the cards; approved certifying organizations do, and EPA runs no national lookup: since January 1, 2018, each non-federal certifying program must publish online a list of the technicians it certified on or after January 1, 2017.

Ask candidates which organization issued their card, then check that issuer's list — our guide to how to verify a tech's EPA 608 certification walks the step.

Hiring an apprentice instead?

An uncertified apprentice may assist only while closely and continually supervised by a certified technician, and the rule sets no time limit on that exemption — but the apprentice cannot do refrigerant work unsupervised until they have passed the certification exam, so your apprentice posting should say who supervises.

Above that federal floor, licensing is a state-and-local question, and your market's answer is specific.

Washington, D.C. licenses refrigeration and air-conditioning mechanics individually through the DLCP Board of Industrial Trades at apprentice, journeyman and master levels, with "limited" versions for equipment at or below 25 compressor horsepower.

Connecticut licenses HVAC workers statewide through the Department of Consumer Protection, and its limited classes include the D-2 Limited Warm Air, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Journeyperson licence, which covers warm air, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems — including gas piping for appliances — but not oil burners.

Delaware's Master HVACR Restricted licences are limited to one specialty, refrigeration among them, and applicants for the master and the restricted refrigeration or air-conditioning licences must hold EPA Section 608 certification at the appropriate level.

Denver — a city, not a state — issues its own certificates: Refrigeration Journeyman, Refrigeration Class A, Refrigeration Class B (residential, 5 tons or less) Supervisor, and Refrigeration Operator.

Alabama's credential sits at the contractor level: the Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors certifies contractors in two exam categories, Heating & Air Conditioning and Refrigeration.

And two of these examples have no statewide technician licence.

Alaska has no statewide HVAC or refrigeration technician certificate — its Mechanical Inspection section issues certificates of fitness only for electrical, plumbing, boiler, asbestos, hazardous paint and explosive-handler trades — and the HVAC-related credential the state does issue is the Mechanical Administrator licence (Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing), a supervisory licence whose categories include heating, sheet metal and refrigeration.

Indiana has no statewide HVAC technician or contractor licence — the state licensing agency's profession list includes plumbing but no HVAC, heating, mechanical or refrigeration board — and Indianapolis' business-licensing office states that HVAC licensing in Indiana is at the discretion of the local municipality.

That spread is the point: the same job title is an individually licensed trade in one jurisdiction, a city certificate in another, a contractor classification in a third, and no statewide technician licence in a fourth.

Use the template's placeholder and fill it from your own state or city before you post.

Pre-offer, you may ask applicants about required certifications and licences and ask them to describe or demonstrate how they would do a task — collect certification and licence numbers on the application so you can verify each one with the issuing authority; our guide to verifying a licence before you hire covers that step.

Verify before you post.

Licensing sits with different agencies in different places — a state board, a city licensing office, a contractors board — and the rules change.

Confirm the requirements for your jobs with the agency that governs your work — the state body, or the city and county where rules are local — and treat this page as employer information, not legal advice.

The full hiring picture, from sourcing to the first 90 days, is in our guide to how to hire a refrigeration technician.

Pay and pay-plan disclosure.

Post a real range — the low, the high, and how the plan works.

A number of states now require the range in the posting itself.

As of September 2026, statutes confirmed to require a pay range in job postings include California (employers with 15 or more employees), Colorado, Washington State (15 or more), the District of Columbia, Maryland, Maine (10 or more, since July 29, 2026), Massachusetts (25 or more), Minnesota (30 or more), Illinois (15 or more), New Jersey (10 or more employees over 20 calendar weeks), New York (4 or more), Vermont (5 or more) and Virginia (since July 1, 2026).

Delaware's law was signed in September 2025 and does not take effect until September 2027, and it won't apply to employers with 25 or fewer employees.

Connecticut and Rhode Island do not require the range in the posting: Connecticut requires giving the applicant the wage range on request or by the time of an offer, and Rhode Island on request and before pay is discussed.

Our research did not confirm posting requirements in Hawaii, and city ordinances were outside this check — there is no closed national list, so verify each state, and each city, where the job is located or where applicants will work.

The state-by-state rules are in our guide to pay transparency laws by state.

Several of these laws reach past the number.

Colorado requires a benefits description and how and when to apply in every posting; Illinois lets a hyperlink to a public page carrying the pay scale and benefits satisfy the rule; Minnesota and Washington require a general description of benefits; Washington, D.C. requires the minimum and maximum projected pay in every listing and disclosure of healthcare benefits before the first interview.

If the job is paid on commission, say so in the posting: New York's labor department requires postings to clearly state it, and Vermont goes the other way — an ad for a commission-based job need only disclose that fact and may skip the range.

Name the pay plan itself — hourly, commission, salary, or a mix — and resolve the overtime math before the posting, not after.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act follows the pay, not the label: a flat-rate tech is still owed overtime computed on total job pay divided by hours actually worked; commissions count in the regular rate; and the FLSA's section 7(i) commission exemption — which can fit a commission-heavy pay plan — is narrow: it applies only in a retail or service establishment, to an employee whose regular rate exceeds one and a half times the minimum wage and who earns more than half of pay in commissions over a representative period of at least one month.

Whether a service company like yours qualifies has been decided case by case since the Department of Labor withdrew its list of businesses said to lack a "retail concept" in May 2020 — price the plan with your bookkeeper and employment attorney before you promise a split.

Anchor the range to the market, then check it against your metro.

BLS publishes no refrigeration-only wage: refrigeration technicians are counted inside Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers (SOC 49-9021), so every federal figure is the combined HVACR number.

Within that series (OEWS May 2025, released May 15, 2026), the median wage was $29.33 an hour, $61,010 a year, with the middle half earning between $23.25 and $37.05 an hour — and there is no BLS starting-pay statistic, so the closest proxies for an entry-level offer are the 10th and 25th percentiles, which reflect all workers in the occupation, not only new hires.

A caution when you use the figures: OEWS pay includes commissions and production bonuses but excludes overtime pay, shift differentials and nonproduction bonuses, so a tech working on-call and peak-season hours can earn above the measured number.

State-by-state figures sit on our refrigeration technician salary page — use them rather than a competitor's ad.

Schedule, on-call, truck and tools.

These lines tell a tech what the job actually costs, so state each one instead of letting the new hire discover it.

Schedule: BLS says most HVAC technicians work full time, schedules may include evenings or weekends, they may be on call for emergencies, and they sometimes work overtime or irregular schedules during peak heating and cooling seasons — so give your working days and hours and the honest shape of your year.

If your supermarket routes run overnight calls when a rack goes down, say so; if the busy season means six-day weeks of overtime, say that here.

On-call: state whether there is a rotation, how often it lands on one tech, and how after-hours call-outs are paid — our guide to paying techs for on-call and after-hours work covers the pay treatment, and it belongs in the pay section rather than nowhere.

Truck and tools: say whether the shop provides a vehicle — and whether it goes home — or whether the crew meets at the shop and rides out together.

Say what the company supplies — gauges, recovery machines, electronic leak detectors and truck stock — and what the tech is expected to bring, such as hand tools.

If you fund certification exams, licence renewals or ongoing training, name it.

Good refrigeration technicians read postings the way managers wish candidates read resumes: fast, and looking for reasons to stop.

The fastest reasons to stop are all fixable in the copy.

No pay range.

A posting that hides the number reads as a number worth hiding.

In the states listed above it is also a legal exposure for covered employers, not just a conversion problem.

A licence line that fits nowhere.

A generic "state refrigeration licence required" tells a working tech you have not checked your own market — and the market genuinely varies: Washington, D.C. licenses the mechanic, Denver issues its own city certificates, Alabama certifies at the contractor level, and Alaska and Indiana have no statewide technician licence — Alaska's statewide credential is the supervisory Mechanical Administrator licence, and Indiana's rules are local.

Name the licence, the class and the issuing authority, or state plainly that you will help the right candidate obtain it.

"EPA certified" without the type.

"EPA 608 required" screens on half the requirement: Type II covers medium-, high- and very-high-pressure appliances, Type III covers low-pressure appliances, and neither card covers the other's equipment.

Write the type your equipment needs — or Universal — and say what you will accept in a new hire's first months.

A certification that does not exist.

There is no federal A2L certificate to demand and no 608 recertification to check — the certification does not expire, and the A2L courses vendors offer are voluntary credentials.

Treat them on a resume as a plus, never as a requirement you screen people out on.

Age-coded wording.

Terms like "young", "recent college graduate", "boy" or "girl" violate age-discrimination rules unless a statutory exception applies, and help-wanted ads generally may not show a preference for, or discourage, applicants based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age 40 or older, disability or genetic information.

Describe the work, not the person you imagine doing it.

Questions the posting cannot ask.

Stating the physical demands and asking whether the applicant can meet them is allowed.

Asking about past job injuries or workers' compensation history before an offer is not — keep those questions out of the posting, the application form and the phone screen.

Referral-only hiring.

Recruiting mainly by word of mouth through a mostly one-group workforce can itself be discriminatory if almost all hires come from that group.

Post the job publicly.

Small-shop assumptions.

Federal EEO laws cover private employers with 15 or more employees and the age law those with 20 or more, but state law may differ, so check yours.

Federal contractors must include the equal-consideration tagline in job ads; no general federal rule requires one of other private employers.

Screening rules you have not checked.

Background-check, ban-the-box and paid-sick-leave rules were not verified state by state in our research — confirm the rules where you hire before you screen.

Eligibility verification, before the first day.

While applications come in, check whether your state mandates E-Verify.

Florida requires private employers with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify for new hires; North Carolina requires employers with 25 or more employees in the state to verify new hires through it; South Carolina requires every private employer to verify every new employee within three business days; and Arizona, Alabama and Mississippi require every employer to use it.

The thresholds reported for Georgia, Tennessee and Utah were not verified in our research, so check your state's current rule directly.

Federal contractors covered by the FAR E-Verify clause must enroll within 30 days of contract award.

With the copy fixed, put the posting where refrigeration technicians actually look: browse current refrigeration technician jobs to see what candidates see on the board.

Before you publish, run the wording past our guide to how to write a job ad for HVAC technicians — the ad-writing rules hold trade-wide — and when the replies come in, our guide to how to hire a refrigeration technician covers sourcing, screening, pay and the first 90 days.

This page is employer career information, not legal advice. Confirm licence and certification requirements with the agency that issues them — the state board, or the city and county where rules are local — pay-posting rules with each state labor department, and employment-law questions with an employment attorney.