What should an HVAC sheet metal worker 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.

Then split the work the way your shop actually runs.

The trade, as O*NET defines it for the sheet metal worker classification, is fabricating, assembling, installing and repairing sheet metal products and equipment — ducts, control boxes, drainpipes, furnace casings — and it includes duct installers who hang prefabricated duct.

Shop fabrication and field installation are different jobs, and so are commercial new construction, residential changeouts and duct retrofits.

A fabricator who has spent the year at the shear and brake reads a prefab duct-hanging posting as a different job, and vice versa, so the shop-versus-field split is the fastest signal your posting gives about fit.

List the duties that make the job what it is at your company: reading drawings, layout and fabrication, hanging and sealing duct, setting equipment, and documenting the job.

If you need the day-to-day definition of the role first, the sheet metal worker career guide covers what the job is; this page stays on the employer's side of it.

Physical demands, stated plainly.

Before a conditional offer you may state the job's physical requirements — lifting a set weight, climbing ladders — 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 registration requirements — worded exactly.

Never write a generic "must hold a state HVAC licence" line: sheet metal licensing differs by state and often by city, and the names and levels are not interchangeable.

Massachusetts licenses sheet metal workers through the Board of Examiners of Sheet Metal Workers at apprentice, journeyperson and master levels, and licenses sheet metal businesses with a Sheet Metal Business License.

Iowa issues journeyperson licences by discipline, with sheet metal as its own discipline alongside plumbing, mechanical, HVAC-refrigeration and hydronic.

Philadelphia requires a Sheet Metal Technician License to install, maintain and service sheet metal used in HVAC systems; applicants must complete a registered sheet metal apprenticeship with at least 8,000 hours of practical experience and 800 hours of related instruction, and the licence renews every three years.

Write the exact licence class your state, or city, requires, with the jurisdiction named — or use the placeholder line in the template below and fill it in before you post.

If you accept apprenticeship training in place of a licence, say that too; it widens your funnel to good candidates who are one rung short.

Refrigerant certification is a separate question, and the federal rule keys to the circuit, not the job title.

Under the EPA rule (40 CFR 82.161), certification is required for anyone who could reasonably be expected to violate the integrity of the refrigerant circuit while maintaining, servicing, repairing or disposing of appliances containing CFC and HCFC refrigerants or non-exempt substitutes.

If your sheet metal crew's work could reasonably be expected to violate the integrity of the refrigerant circuit — pressure-testing coils or tying into refrigerant lines, for example — name EPA 608 in the posting.

If they only fabricate and hang duct and your mechanics own the circuit, say what you actually require instead of pasting a 608 line into a duct job.

Verify before you post.

Licence classes and thresholds change, and licensing is often local.

Confirm the requirements for your jobs with your state's licensing board — or the city and county where licensing is local — and treat this page as employer information, not legal advice.

Pay and pay-plan disclosure.

Post a real range — the low, the high, and how the plan works: hourly, salary, prevailing scale, or a shop rate plus production bonus.

A number of states now require pay information in the posting itself.

As of September 2026, statutes our research confirmed to require pay 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, from 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 (from July 1, 2026).

Delaware's law is signed but does not take effect until September 2027, and it will not apply to employers with 25 or fewer employees.

Connecticut and Rhode Island do not require the range in the posting — Connecticut requires 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 or Nevada, and city ordinances were outside this check, so verify each state, and city, where the job is located.

For the state-by-state rules, see 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: New York's labor department requires postings to clearly state if a position is commission-based, and Vermont goes the other way — an ad for a commission-paid job, in whole or in part, need only disclose that fact and may skip the range.

For the market numbers behind your range — the national BLS figures for the trade — use our sheet metal worker salary page rather than a competitor's ad.

Schedule, on-call, truck and tools.

State each of the four instead of letting the new hire discover it.

Schedule: give the working days and hours and the honest shape of the workload — you know whether your opening is steadier shop weeks or field weeks that stretch in construction season, and if summer means longer weeks, say that here.

On-call: say whether there is a rotation, how often it lands on one tech, and how after-hours call-outs are paid, with that pay treatment in the pay section rather than nowhere.

Truck and tools: say whether field crews get a company truck and whether it goes home with the tech, what the company supplies — shop tools, brakes, fuel card, tablets — and what the tech is expected to bring, such as hand tools.

If you fund certifications or licence renewals, name it.

Employment-eligibility paperwork — at hire, not in the ad.

State E-Verify mandates attach when you hire, so they shape your onboarding checklist more than your ad copy — know them before you promise a start date.

Arizona, Alabama and Mississippi require every employer to verify new hires through E-Verify.

South Carolina requires all private employers to verify every new employee within three business days.

Florida has required private employers with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify since July 1, 2023, and North Carolina requires it of employers with 25 or more employees in the state.

Reported thresholds for Georgia, Tennessee and Utah were not confirmed by our research — check your state before you assume.

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

Good sheet metal workers 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 — so it is worth reading how to write a job ad for HVAC technicians before you publish.

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, not just a conversion problem.

A licence line that fits no jurisdiction.

A generic "must hold a state HVAC licence" line tells a Philadelphia duct installer — whose city issues a Sheet Metal Technician License with its own apprenticeship-hour requirements — that you have not checked your own market.

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

Age-coded wording.

Terms like "young", "age 25 to 35", "recent college graduate", "boy" or "girl" violate age-discrimination rules unless a statutory exception applies, and help-wanted ads 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 ad cannot ask.

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

Asking disability-related questions or requiring a medical examination before a conditional job offer is not — keep those 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 laws often cover smaller shops, so check yours.

Federal contractors must include the equal-consideration tagline in job ads; many other employers add an equal-opportunity line voluntarily.

With the copy fixed, put the posting where sheet metal workers actually look: browse current sheet metal worker jobs to see what candidates see on the board.

When you are ready to run the full process, our guide to how to hire an HVAC sheet metal worker covers which level to hire, the licences to verify, sourcing, screening and the first 90 days.

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