Sample facilities manager job description and interview questions

January 17, 2023

As a business owner, you have a responsibility to provide your employees with a safe work environment every day. Of course, you can’t possibly keep track of all the building services needs, equipment maintenance, and facility planning tasks while running your business. That’s why it is helpful to have a Facilities Manager to handle those important tasks.

If you’re looking to hire a Facilities Manager or hoping to become one, take a look at this sample Facilities Manager job description to learn about the key job duties and required qualifications. You can also explore some useful questions to ask Facilities Manager candidates during job interviews.

What is a Facilities Manager?

Facilities Managers are responsible for maintaining a clean, safe facility for employees and customers. They oversee various aspects of facility management, including planning, evaluating, and maintaining building systems. They also play an important role in safety by overseeing safety procedures related to the facility and work equipment including equipment safety standards and hazardous waste disposal procedures.

Facilities Managers can do this in all types of work environments. They may work in offices, manufacturing facilities, hospitals, retail establishments, government buildings, or just about any other facility that you can think of.

Facilities Manager job description template

Overview

The Facilities Manager will be responsible for managing the design, planning, construction, and maintenance of equipment, machinery, buildings, and other company facilities. They will also plan, budget, and schedule facility modifications, including estimates on equipment, labor, materials, and other related costs. The ideal candidate will be an Experienced Facilities Manager with a clear understanding of OSHA regulations and facilities safety procedures.

Job Responsibilities

Oversee building space allocation and layout, renovations, and facility expansion.
Initiate planned maintenance programs for major office equipment; responsible for preventive maintenance of facility equipment, including HVAC, office equipment, etc.
Work with vendors to coordinate building maintenance.
Develop and manage the annual facilities maintenance budget.
Inspect construction and installation progress at company facilities.
Support the procurement of new equipment for the facility.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Facilities Management or a related field.
Two to four years of experience as a Facilities Supervisor, Maintenance Manager, or a similar role.
Strong knowledge of business codes and safety regulations.
Excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills.
Time management skills and the ability to multi-task.
Thorough understanding of OSHA regulations.

Facilities Manager Interview Questions

Here are some helpful questions to ask when interviewing candidates for a Facilities Manager role.

Tell me about a couple of facilities management obstacles that you’ve run into and what you did to overcome them.

You want to hire a Facilities Manager with excellent decision-making and problem-solving skills. This question helps you dive into their past experience to understand how they handle issues that arise in the facility to create a positive outcome for the business and its employees.

What do you see as the components of an effective facilities management program?

Interview questions like this can help you understand what aspects of facilities management the candidate prioritizes most and how they incorporate those priorities into their facilities management program and procedures.

An effective facilities management program will generally include space and office planning, a regular equipment maintenance schedule, emergency response planning, lease or real estate management, energy and sustainability initiatives, and in-house communications.

This question can also reveal any areas that are important to your business that may not have come to mind for them. This may indicate that it’s an area that they are less familiar with. Feel free to ask clarifying questions to find out whether they forget to list something due to interview nerves or if it was not a major component of their last role. Since Facilities Managers can work in a variety of industries and facility types, there can be a lot of variation in what the role encompasses from company to company.

How do you keep up with changes in business codes and safety regulations?

The Facilities Manager plays an important role in keeping your business compliant and your employees safe. You don’t want them to be working with outdated knowledge. Inquire about how the candidate keeps their knowledge up-to-date. There are tons of resources available including newsletters and publications from OSHA, industry groups, equipment vendor trainings, and more that can help Facility Managers stay up-to-date.

How do you prioritie your tasks when you have multiple urgent building services requests?

One major challenge that Facilities Managers face is juggling multiple priorities and requests. Each employee or department lead inevitably wants their requests to come first, but that is not always practical.

Since the Facilities Manager’s main priority should always be safety, that’s the best way for them to indicate that they will prioritize tasks. Ideally, they will indicate that they will assess any facility issues for safety, put temporary measures in place (such as wet floor signs, out-of-order signs, etc), and then work through the requests based on business needs and safety concerns.

What if your experience with crisis management?

Crisis management is arguably one of the most significant aspects of facilities management. However, since most workplaces don’t frequently have emergencies or crises, it’s also an area that candidates may not have hands-on experience with.

If a candidate indicates that they have had to support their facility during a crisis, ask them how that went and what they learned from it. How would they do things differently the next time around?

If the candidate does not have experience handling a crisis, how do they plan for crises? Ask about their experience with emergency response planning and how they have created such plans in past roles. You can also inquire about any crisis management trainings that they may have attended to build their skills.