Director of Service
8 days ago
Harmans
Job DescriptionSalary: $130k - $160k Lighting Maintenance Inc. (LMI) is a well-established electrical and lighting contractor serving commercial, municipal, and government customers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. We are seeking an experienced Director of Service to lead, grow, and professionalize our Service Department across all locations. This is a senior leadership role with real authority, real accountability, and clear performance expectations. This is not a ceremonial title and not a remote oversight position. The Director of Service is expected to show up, lead from the front, and be measured by outcomes. Location: Mid-Atlantic (based in Harmans, MD; NOVA; or Norfolk, VA) Role Purpose The Director of Service is responsible for the growth, profitability, performance, and operational discipline of LMIs Service Department across all locations. This role owns service revenue growth, contract execution, customer relationship outcomes, service manager leadership, documentation and change-order discipline, and reporting predictability. A core requirement of this role is government contract performance and recovery. LMI holds a large portfolio of county, city, and state-level government service contracts. The Director of Service must understand how these entities buy, route work, administer contracts, and enforce procurement rulesand must be willing and able to meet directly with officials when contracts underperform or work is not flowing as awarded. This is a hands-on leadership role. You will be expected to engage directly with customers, service managers, field teams, and government decision-makers, and take full ownership of results. Team and Organizational Scope You will directly lead a team consisting of Service Managers and a Business Development professional dedicated to commercial service work. You are responsible for setting expectations, coaching performance, enforcing standards, and ensuring this team produces predictable, profitable results across the footprint. Schedule Expectations Work hours are typically business hours, but this is a leadership role. 50+ hours per week may be required depending on workload, customer needs, and performance objectives. High visibility, high accountability, and high responsiveness are part of the job. Primary Performance Outcomes (Non-Negotiable) The Director of Service will be judged on measurable results, including: (1) service revenue growth and profitability, (2) contract utilization and execution performance across the portfolio, (3) billing speed and cleanliness, (4) reduction of leakage and avoidable rework, and (5) restoration of fair, compliant utilization of LMIs awarded government contract vehicles. Service Business Performance (P&L + Predictability) The Director must deliver the approved service plan with stable, repeatable performance month-to-month. This includes revenue, gross margin, and net contribution. Work completed must convert to invoices quickly and cleanly with complete backup, especially on government accounts where documentation and approvals drive payment. The Director must actively reduce leakage, including call-backs, free extras, bad coding, missing authorizations, incomplete closeouts, and job-cost errors that bleed margin. Backlog must be visible, prioritized, and moving; stuck work must be rare and owned to resolution. Government Contract Recovery & Enforcement (County/City/State Focus) The Director must be capable of restoring contract utilization when agencies or counties drift away from the awarded vehicle, steer work outside the contract, delay routing, or create scope/approval friction. This requires comfort operating with procurement officials, contract administrators, program managers, finance/AP stakeholders, and contracting officers across county, city, and state agencies. A firm understanding of procurement rules and contract administration is critical for success. The Director must understand how to operate within procurement regulations, how to document a case, when and how to push back, and how to drive corrective action professionally without drama. The Director must be able to build evidence-based case files (invoices, POs, proposals, scope references, contract language), conduct in-person meetings with the right decision-makers, and convert those meetings into measurable changes in behaviorspecifically: work orders and POs routing through the awarded contract vehicle as intended. Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (Required Skill) The Director must be a strong negotiator. This includes negotiating service resolutions with customers, negotiating contract corrections with public agencies, and negotiating internally with managers to enforce standards and drive performance. The role requires the ability to handle difficult conversations, protect LMIs position, and achieve outcomes while maintaining relationships. The Director is also responsible for reducing disputed invoice aging by tightening documentation standards, forcing contract-compliant approvals, and resolving disputes through disciplined communication and escalation when required. Key Responsibilities Service Growth and Financial Performance The Director will deliver 2025% year-over-year growth in the Service Department. Minimum acceptable growth is 15%. Performance is measured monthly, quarterly, and annually. The Director is expected to generate growth through service leadership: expanding existing customers, optimizing contract utilization, correcting underperforming contracts, and building a disciplined service operating system that produces predictable results. Contract Ownership and Accountability The Director owns the performance of all service contracts, including municipal and government agreements. You will maintain active awareness of revenue vs run-rate, call volume, work order frequency, response times, customer usage trends, and missed opportunities. Underperforming contracts must be corrected quickly and decisively. Contracts are not allowed to limp along. When performance slips, the Director engages the service manager, field team, and customer, diagnoses root cause, and implements corrective action that protects the relationship while improving profitability and utilization. Customer Relationship Ownership The Director owns senior-level customer relationships and personally engages when performance drops, complaints arise, usage declines, disputes occur, or expansion opportunities exist. Customers must view LMI as proactive, responsive, and professional. The Director drives contract expansions, amendments, increased utilization, and higher-value recurring work. Multi-Location Operating System (5 Locations, One Standard) The Director will implement one standard operating system across all locations, including dispatch rules, documentation requirements, change-order gates, closeout checklists, pricing/margin discipline, and invoice backup packages. Capacity and coverage must be structured: the right skills in the right places, controlled overtime, and consistent emergency response protocols. Weekly cadence is required: scorecard review, backlog review, billing/WIP scrub, field audits, and government-contract utilization review. Service Manager Leadership The Director directly leads and holds accountable Service Managers across locations. This includes regular, structured touchpoints, coaching, performance tracking, and enforcement of operational discipline. The Director ensures managers are running profitable operations and that accountability is real, not theoretical. Documentation and Change Orders (Non-Negotiable) Documentation is everything. Verbal instructions mean nothing. The Director enforces no written authorization, no work for government and any customer requiring approvals. Every job must have proper notes/photos, labor coding, materials capture, change-order documentation, and a complete closeout packet that is spot-auditable. Any work performed outside contract rules triggers immediate corrective action and written escalation. Executive Reporting and Communication The Director provides regular, structured reporting to executive leadership with no surprises. Reporting includes service revenue trends, contract performance summaries, underperforming contracts and corrective actions, growth progress versus targets, billing performance, dispute aging, and risks with mitigation plans. Communication must be executive-level: clear, timely, fact-based, and solution-oriented. Marketing and Service Promotion The Director will direct and coordinate service-related advertising and promotion efforts as needed to support growth, brand visibility, and customer acquisition across the footprint. What Success Looks Like Service contracts are actively managed, profitable, and expanding. Billing is fast, accurate, and supported with complete backup. Underperforming contracts are identified early and corrected. Government contracts show improved, compliant utilization and reduced award drift. Service Managers own their operations and hit performance targets. Customers view LMI as proactive and professional. Executive leadership has clear visibility into performance, risks, and opportunitiesand is no longer required to stabilize day-to-day service failures. Required Experience and Qualifications Candidates must have demonstrated leadership in a multi-location service environment (electrical, construction, utilities, facilities, or similar). You must have meaningful government contract administration experience at the county, city, and state level, including working knowledge of procurement processes, contract routing behavior, and dispute resolution. A strong track record of negotiating outcomes with customers and public agencies is required. You must be able to grow revenue, improve margins, reduce leakage, and implement operational discipline through systems and accountability. Experience managing managers and holding teams accountable is required. Strong written and verbal communication is required. You must be comfortable working directly with customers, field teams, and executives, and willing to work extended hours when the role demands it. What This Role Is Not This is not a passive oversight role. This is not a learning-on-the-job position. This is not a role where problems are delegated upward. This is not a title without authority or accountability. Bottom Line This role is for someone who wants ownership, expects accountability, and is comfortable being measured by results. If you can lead service like a business, restore government contract utilization through professional engagement and procurement competence, negotiate effectively, and build a disciplined operating system across five locations, you will thrive at LMI.