How to hire a restoration production manager: requirements, pay to offer, where to find them and how to screen

A restoration production manager runs the field side of your company: which crew goes to which job, whether every truck carries the drying equipment that job needs, and whether each active loss is moving toward its drying goal. The hire disappoints when you scope it as a super-technician or a second project manager, so decide what the role owns before you write the posting.

Scope these five loads before you post:

• Crew and equipment scheduling across jobs. The manager assigns techs and crews to concurrent losses, keeps air movers, dehumidifiers and extraction equipment matched to each job, and reshuffles when a storm surge or an after-hours call-out lands.
• Drying-goal oversight. Someone has to read the moisture logs across every active job and ask why a drying chamber has not reached its targets. The manager is that person: drying work checked against the job's readings across the board, not one job at a time.
• Safety and quality control in the field. The manager enforces the programs you already run — containment set up as the job calls for, respirators worn where your program requires them, documentation complete enough to bill from.
• The office-field bridge. Estimators, coordinators and owners plan; crews execute. The manager keeps both sides working off the same job list, the same equipment counts and the same priorities.
• Fleet and equipment readiness. Vehicles serviced, chambers and dehumidifiers counted and staged, jobs documented on your job management system. When the Saturday call-out comes, the manager already knows what is available.

Decide the span before you post: how many crews the manager runs, whether they still carry a toolbag on jobs, and how much hiring and firing authority they hold. Those three answers drive the pay structure, the classification questions and the screen — each covered below.

If you are still deciding whether this is the role your company needs next — versus another crew lead, a project manager or an operations manager — start from hiring for your restoration company, then come back here for the role-specific screen.

The worker-side view — the day-to-day, the route into the job, how it differs from project management — is the career guide to what a restoration production manager does. This page stays on your side of the hire.

Separate two things employers blur: certifications, which are credentials your company requires of the manager, and licenses, which are state law attached to specific work your crews perform.

The certifications worth naming are IICRC certifications. The IICRC is a certifying body, not a school and not a licensing agency — it approves independent schools and instructors that meet board criteria rather than teaching its own classes. To become certified, a person attends an IICRC-approved course, passes the written exam and documents skills in the subject. The credential itself is covered in the IICRC certification guide.

For a manager who owns drying outcomes, set the ladder like this:

• Water Damage Restoration Technician (WRT) as the floor. It has no prerequisites, so you can require it of a candidate coming up from a crew lead role or from an adjacent trade. IICRC describes the course as 3 days and 19 hours, not counting exam time, lunch and breaks.
• Applied Structural Drying (ASD) as the oversight credential. It requires the WRT first and covers effective, efficient and timely drying of water-damaged structures and contents — the judgment you are hiring the manager to exercise across jobs. The ASD is in-person only, so plan the class days into the schedule.
• Applied Microbial Remediation Technician (AMRT) when crews handle mold or sewage. It also requires the WRT first and covers mold and sewage remediation.

Verification is a calendar check as much as a certificate check. IICRC-certified technicians need 14 continuing education credits (CECs) every four years, and Master designations and inspectors need 14 every two years — ask whether the credential is current, and check it with the IICRC before you rely on it.

Licenses are a different question, and they attach to the work, not the manager's title. A production manager overseeing mold jobs in a licensing state is managing work the state licenses:

• Texas — mold assessment and remediation licensing moved from the Department of State Health Services to the Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) on November 1, 2017.
• Florida — the Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses mold assessors and remediators, and the license covers mold growth greater than 10 square feet.
• New York — mold assessment and remediation are licensed under Labor Law Article 32 through the Department of Labor.
• Louisiana — the State Licensing Board for Contractors requires a Mold Remediation license for projects valued at $7,500 or more.
• Washington, D.C. — residential indoor mold assessment and remediation require certification and a license under rules issued by the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE).

The state detail lives in the state mold licensing series. Asbestos runs on the same logic: EPA's Model Accreditation Plan sets the five accredited disciplines — worker, contractor/supervisor, inspector, management planner and project designer — and where a state runs its own program, the accreditation you verify for your crews is the state's. Not every state runs one: Wyoming has no state registration or licensure program for asbestos companies or individuals, though its Department of Environmental Quality's Air Quality Division still enforces state asbestos regulations for inspections and abatement projects. The asbestos abatement licensing series keeps the state detail.

Rules change. License and accreditation requirements are state law, and they move. Confirm the current requirements with the agency named for your state before you staff mold, sewage or asbestos-heavy work under a new manager.

No Bureau of Labor Statistics wage line is titled "restoration production manager" in the sources this research checked, so your posting should not quote one. The closest available benchmark is the BLS occupation group construction managers (SOC 11-9021). In the BLS OEWS May 2025 release, that group's median wage was $114,990 a year ($55.28 an hour), and the middle band — the 25th to 75th percentile — ran $88,550 to $151,640, across all industries and payroll jobs.

Read that as a bracket, not a target. The group covers all construction managers, many of them on large commercial projects, so it is not specific to restoration — and it counts payroll employees only. Use it to sanity-check your range; set the number from your own books: the job volume the manager carries, the gross profit on those jobs, and how much of the equipment and scheduling load the role takes off you.

Structure the offer before you argue about the number, because this is a role where classification questions show up early:

• The salary level. If you pay a salary and treat the manager as exempt, the federal salary level for the FLSA's executive, administrative and professional exemptions is $684 per week under 29 CFR 541.600. State salary floors can sit above the federal one.
• The duties tests. Meeting the salary level is only one part. The executive exemption needs a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a recognized department, customarily and regularly directing two or more employees, and hire/fire authority or recommendations that carry particular weight. The administrative exemption needs office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, with discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.
• The working-manager trap. A manager whose primary duty is ordinary production work does not become exempt just because they occasionally direct other workers. "Primary duty" means the main or most important duty — spending more than 50 percent of the time on exempt work generally satisfies it, but time is not the only test.
• If the role is non-exempt. Overtime comes at not less than 1.5 times the regular rate, and any production, retention or attendance bonus you promise is not discretionary — it must be included in the regular rate for overtime.
• Bonus plans on top of salary. An exempt employee guaranteed at least $684 a week on a salary basis may also receive commissions or a percentage of sales or profits without losing the exemption.

The posting itself may need the number in it. Among the states this research verified:

• California — employers with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale in job postings.
• New York — businesses with four or more employees must list a compensation range, minimum and maximum, and say when a job is commission-based.
• Washington — employers with 15 or more employees must disclose the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits.
• Illinois — employers with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale and benefits, which a hyperlink can satisfy.
• Colorado — job postings must disclose compensation and benefits, and employers may not ask about or rely on an applicant's pay history.

That is the set this research verified, not a complete list of states. Confirm your state's current posting rule before you publish the ad, and confirm the classification with the Department of Labor or employment counsel before you finalize the offer.

Work these pools in order, starting closest to home:

• Your own bench. A crew lead who already runs multi-tech jobs, holds the WRT and keeps clean moisture logs is the shortest path to a production manager. The gap to close is span — running several crews instead of one — plus the scheduling and documentation load across all of them. Pair the promotion with a written scope so crews hear about the change from you, not from the new manager.
• Supervisors from adjacent construction work. A framing or roofing superintendent already runs crews, schedules materials and lives on job sites. The restoration-specific parts — drying goals, moisture logs, containment, the documentation your files are billed from — are teachable, so screen hard for scheduling habits and paperwork discipline.
• Managers moving from larger restoration companies. Candidates moving from franchise locations or national restorers may bring big-company process. The interview's job is to find out which parts transfer to an operation your size — and which parts they will try to rebuild around you.

Post where restoration candidates will see it. A general board lists your opening among unrelated trades; a restoration-focused board keeps it next to restoration work. The employer guide to where to post the job compares the options, and the restoration production manager jobs page shows what candidates see.

Write the posting to carry the load: the pay range (required in the states covered above, at the employee counts each law sets), the on-call rotation, the storm and travel expectations, and the certifications you require versus sponsor. Then check the wording. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) bars help-wanted ads that show a preference for or discourage applicants based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 and up), disability or genetic information. The agency's own example is an ad seeking 'females' or 'recent college graduates', which may discourage men and people over 40 from applying. Write the requirements as the work — crews run, jobs carried, certifications held — and let the interview test the rest.

Screen for the two judgments the job turns on — scheduling under constraint and drying oversight — and keep every step lawful:

1. Phone screen. How many crews they have run at once, which loss types, certifications held and whether they are current, and availability for the on-call rotation.
2. Structured interview. Same questions for every candidate, so you can compare answers. Ask for the load first: a month with four open water jobs and two fire jobs — how did crews and equipment move between them? Then a failure: a job that stalled short of its drying goal, and what they changed. Then a safety call: a time they pulled a crew off a task, and what happened after.
3. Practical exercise. Hand them three concurrent jobs, a finite equipment list and a calendar, and ask for the week's plan. On an active job walk, ask what they check first — the moisture log, the drying chamber, the containment, the photos. Listen for decisions justified by readings rather than habit.
4. Ride-along. Half a day on a real job with one of your crews. One legal note before you set it up: under 29 CFR 785.11, work the employer suffers or permits is work time, even work it did not request — the rule applies where the employer knows or has reason to believe the work is happening. Whether a candidate's ride-along time is employment under the FLSA is fact-specific, and this research holds no Department of Labor source saying every ride-along must be paid. Where the candidate is doing the job's work, pay for the time and confirm the treatment with the Wage and Hour Division.
5. Checks. Background, driving record and references, run in the order the law requires — below.
6. Offer. Conditional on the checks, with the pay structure, the on-call rotation and the storm expectations in writing.

The interview has edges. Under the ADA, as the EEOC reads it, an employer may not ask medical or disability questions or require a medical exam before a job offer — but may ask whether and how a candidate can perform the job. Phrase the field requirements as functions — job walks, ladders, equipment handling — and leave medical questions until after a conditional offer, asked of every new employee in the same job.

Criminal history is another edge. The EEOC says employers can consider criminal records in hiring but may not treat applicants differently by race or national origin when doing so, and the agency's page notes some states restrict when criminal history may be asked during the hiring process. Check your state's rule before the question goes on the application.

Background reports and driving records are consumer reports when you buy them from a screening company. Before you order one, the Federal Trade Commission requires a written disclosure that stands alone — it cannot live inside the application — and the applicant's written permission. Before rejecting an applicant based on the report, the FTC requires a pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of the applicant's rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Set your driving-record criteria with your insurance agent: this research did not establish an industry-wide standard for what a manager's record must show. The full sequence, and the state wrinkles, are in the background checks guide.

Pay history is the last edge. California generally bars employers from seeking an applicant's salary history but allows questions about salary expectations. Illinois bars asking about or screening applicants on wage or salary history, and also allows expectation questions. Colorado bars asking about or relying on an applicant's pay history. Ask what the candidate is looking for rather than what they made, and check your own state before the script is final.

Order matters. Disclosure and consent before the report; the report and the rights summary before any rejection. Run the sequence past counsel or your state labor agency once — it is the same sequence for every future hire.

The hire is made — or lost — in the first weeks, and almost everything that matters is writing things down before day one.

Paperwork first. Form I-9, Section 2 is due within 3 business days of the employee's first day. Hire on a Monday and Section 2 is due by Thursday; for a job lasting fewer than 3 business days, it is due on the first day.

Safety programs, handed over explicitly. Your new manager is now the person enforcing them across crews. Where respirators are required, OSHA's respiratory protection standard calls for a written program run by a suitably trained program administrator. Fit testing happens before first use, whenever a different facepiece is used, and at least annually after that — and the respirators, the training and the medical evaluations are provided at no cost to the employee. If your crews handle sewage or trauma scenes, work out which assignments involve the bloodborne pathogens standard's occupational exposure — the plan requirement covers employers with occupationally exposed employees. Where it applies, the standard requires a written exposure control plan, reviewed and updated at least annually. Walk the new manager through each program in week one. The full checklist is in the restoration company safety program guide.

A ramp with named decision rights. First two weeks on your jobs with your crews, watching how decisions actually flow. Write down what the manager approves alone — crew assignments, equipment moves, daily priorities — and what escalates to you: hiring, firing, pay changes, customer refunds, anything touching an open insurance dispute. A manager who does not know which side of that line a decision sits on will either bottleneck you or guess.

Close the credential gaps you found in screening. If the hire came up from a crew lead without the ASD, sponsor it now — the ASD requires the WRT first, covers drying of water-damaged structures and contents, and runs in person only, so plan the class days. If crews are taking mold or sewage work, the AMRT sits on the same WRT base. The employer-side program is the sponsoring IICRC certification guide.

Keep them with scope, not just money. Put pay reviews on a scheduled calendar. Keep the credential ladder visible: IICRC certifications need 14 CECs to stay current — every four years for technicians, every two for Master designations and inspectors — so budget the time the same way you budget the class. Give the manager the authority you wrote down in week one, in front of the crews. And when a production manager resigns, ask the real reason rather than the polite one, and write it into the next posting's scope. More on keeping field staff is in the employee retention guide.

Employer information, not licensing, legal, insurance, health or tax advice. Confirm requirements with the state agency named for your work, and with OSHA, the Department of Labor, an insurance professional or counsel where the question is theirs.