How to hire a facilities manager: where to find, how to screen and what to pay

The facilities manager is the operations manager for your building: the person who keeps the systems running, the vendors honest and the capital projects on schedule. O*NET's top tasks for the occupation are monitoring the facility to keep it safe, secure and well-maintained; overseeing maintenance and repair of machinery and building systems; overseeing construction and renovation projects; and planning and controlling budgets for contracts, equipment and supplies.

The title is elastic. O*NET's sample job titles for facilities managers include facilities coordinator, facilities director, facilities maintenance manager, building maintenance superintendent and facilities operations specialist. Read postings with that in mind: a facilities coordinator title often signals a junior role rather than the accountable job you are trying to fill.

The job is bigger than a maintenance supervisor's. O*NET classes the maintenance supervisor with first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers and repairers — the crew-facing job. A facilities manager owns the layer above: the contracts, the projects and the budgets those crews work inside. In commercial buildings, the safety-and-security monitoring in O*NET's first task is the work your tenants feel directly: life-safety readiness, and the vendor response when a system fails after hours.

The counts show where the title sits. Nationally, BLS OEWS counted 156,180 facilities managers across all industries in May 2025. Inside real estate (NAICS 531) the same occupation employed 7,050 people at a median of $51.45 per hour. Only a thin slice of the occupation works in real estate, so plan to recruit from facilities departments that never touch housing.

You need one when the work has outgrown a supervisor's desk. Signals worth acting on: capital projects are being run off the maintenance calendar, vendor contracts renew without anyone negotiating them, your maintenance supervisor spends more hours on bids and budgets than in the shop, and no single person owns building-systems risk across your properties. For how the role fits a commercial operation, our staffing context guide covers the wider team. For the job from the employee's side, see what a facilities manager does.

Recruit across industries first. Of the 156,180 facilities managers BLS counted across all industries in May 2025, only 7,050 work in real estate (NAICS 531) — the occupation sits mostly outside this industry. The skills you are hiring for are on O*NET's task list: safety and security monitoring, building-systems maintenance oversight, construction and renovation projects, and contract budgets. Test for those wherever the candidate learned them.

Look at your own bench next. Building engineers, chief engineers and maintenance supervisors already on your payroll know your buildings, and the step up to facilities management is a scope change more than a skills change. Grooming that bench also gives you cover when the seat turns over.

When you post, put the opening where these candidates look. Our facilities manager job board lists the role for working candidates, and the hiring hub collects the employer guides for every other step of the process.

For gap coverage while the search runs, NAA's staffing best-practice paper recommends establishing a relationship with a local staffing agency to supply temporary employees as needed, such as for extended absences or time-limited projects.

Check pay-transparency law before the ad goes live. California requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale in any job posting (California Labor Code 432.3). Washington requires employers with 15 or more employees to disclose the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits and other compensation in each posting (RCW 49.58.110). New York requires employers with four or more employees to include compensation or a range of compensation when advertising a job performed at least partly in New York (New York Labor Law 194-b). Colorado requires each job opportunity notice to disclose in good faith the hourly or salary pay or range, a general description of benefits and other compensation, and the expected application close date (C.R.S. 8-5-201). Requirements change; confirm the current rules with your state labor agency before you post.

Score against the work the occupation itself names. O*NET's top facilities-manager tasks — keeping the facility safe, secure and well-maintained; overseeing maintenance and repair of machinery and building systems; overseeing construction and renovation projects; and planning and controlling budgets for contracts, equipment and supplies — are your rubric. Build the interview questions straight from that list.

Four scenarios do the heavy lifting. Ask the candidate to walk a capital project end to end: scope, bids, change orders and closeout. Ask about a vendor contract they renegotiated, and about a vendor they fired. Hand them a budget scenario and ask how they tracked actual spend against plan through the year. Then ask about the worst overnight system failure they have managed — who they called, what they told occupants and property managers, and what changed afterward.

Entry credentials set a floor, not the bar. BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook says administrative services and facilities managers typically need a bachelor's degree, though some enter with a high school diploma. Weight demonstrated work over the degree line: the scenarios above tell you more than the diploma does.

If you score candidates with a test or a structured exercise, keep it job-related and identical for everyone. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures — adopted jointly by the EEOC, the Civil Service Commission and the Departments of Labor and Justice — govern tests and other selection procedures (29 CFR part 1607). Under them, a selection rate for any race, sex or ethnic group below four-fifths (80%) of the highest group's rate is generally regarded as evidence of adverse impact (29 CFR 1607.4(D)). Same scorecard, same questions, same order for every candidate.

Run every candidate through the same sequence. It keeps the process fair, creates the record you need if a decision is challenged, and front-loads the checks that are expensive to redo after someone starts.

1. Write the posting around real duties. Name the systems, the contracts and the projects the manager will own. The posting is also evidence of how the job was classified if a wage-and-hour question comes up later.
2. Set the pay range before you post. The next section gives the market data and the classification floor, and the states named in Section 2 require pay information in the posting itself.
3. Phone-screen against the scorecard. Ten minutes on the four scenarios, plus a direct question on refrigerant certification status for any in-house mechanical work.
4. Interview on site and walk the building. Have the candidate assess a mechanical room or a project in progress, meet the property managers they would support, and review your deferred-maintenance list. Score with the same rubric you used on the phone.
5. Make any offer conditional before the background check. Where you operate decides when conviction history can enter the process. California's Fair Chance Act bars employers with five or more employees from asking about or considering conviction history until after a conditional offer (California Government Code 12952). Washington's Fair Chance Act bars asking about, or obtaining through a background check, an applicant's criminal record until after the employer initially determines the applicant is otherwise qualified (RCW 49.94.010). New York City's Fair Chance Act, added to the NYC Human Rights Law on October 27, 2015, waits for a conditional offer and requires a fair chance process before an offer is withdrawn over conviction history. Federal guidance applies in every state. The EEOC's 2012 enforcement guidance is still in effect, and under it an arrest alone does not establish criminal conduct. A targeted screen considers the nature of the crime, the time elapsed and the nature of the job, followed by an individualized assessment.
6. Run the FCRA sequence before you act on the report. Before you order a background check, give the candidate a clear and conspicuous written disclosure that consists solely of that disclosure (15 U.S.C. 1681b(b)(2)). The candidate's written authorization may sit on the same document. If the report could affect the decision, first give a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and a written description of the candidate's rights (15 U.S.C. 1681b(b)(3)). The FTC's employer guidance says that notice must include the report you relied on and a copy of "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act." Federal law sets no fixed waiting period between that notice and a final decision — give the candidate a real chance to dispute the report first. After any adverse action based on the report, send a notice that names the consumer reporting agency and states that the agency did not make the decision (15 U.S.C. 1681m(a)). Our background checks for property management employees guide walks the full sequence.

Two recordkeeping clocks run alongside the offer. On work authorization, every person hired after November 6, 1986 who works for pay in the U.S. needs a completed Form I-9: the employee completes Section 1 by the first day of work, and you complete Section 2 within three business days of the hire. Retain each form three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. E-Verify — the free internet-based DHS/SSA system that checks Form I-9 details against government records — is required for some federal contractors, so confirm whether any rule reaches your company before you enroll.

Keep the rest of the hiring file too. Under 29 CFR 1602.14, employers covered by Title VII, the ADA and GINA must keep application forms and other hiring records for one year from the date the record was made or the personnel action taken, whichever is later. Consistency is what makes that file worth anything: same scorecard, same sequence, same paperwork for every candidate.

Anchor the budget to the federal series for the title. Facilities managers have their own occupation in the federal data — SOC 11-3013 — so the figures below are the occupation itself rather than a stand-in. In the May 2025 OEWS release the national median wage was $51.28 per hour ($106,660 per year), with the 10th percentile at $64,480 and the 90th percentile at $176,120 across 156,180 payroll employees in all industries. OEWS counts payroll jobs, so an owner's or principal's compensation is not inside those figures. Our facilities manager salary data carries the series by state.

Inside real estate the occupation ran close to the national line. BLS industry data for May 2025 counts 7,050 facilities managers in real estate (NAICS 531) at a median of $51.45 per hour. The row spans all of real estate rather than apartment operations alone, so treat it as the industry read.

Degree expectations shape the price too. BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook — which combines administrative services managers with facilities managers — says these managers typically need a bachelor's degree, though some enter with a high school diploma, and projects about 36,100 openings per year. That opening volume tells you the market for experienced candidates moves constantly, and pricing well under the occupation's median is how searches stall.

Then mind the classification floor. The FLSA white-collar minimum salary in force in 2026 is $684 per week — $35,568 per year (29 CFR 541.600). The 2024 attempt to raise it is dead: a federal court vacated that rule on November 15, 2024, and the DOL restored the prior thresholds by a final rule published May 15, 2026. Ignore any 2024-era salary figure still quoted online and confirm the level in force for your hire date with the DOL Wage and Hour Division.

Salary alone never exempts anyone — the duties tests decide. The executive exemption requires a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a recognized department, customarily and regularly directing two or more employees, and either hiring authority or recommendations given particular weight (29 CFR 541.100). The administrative exemption requires office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, with discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance (29 CFR 541.200). Two cautions for this role. First, the highly compensated test at $107,432 or more in total annual compensation is closed to non-management maintenance and trades workers no matter how highly paid (29 CFR 541.601(d)). A working manager who spends most days on the tools may fail the duties tests at any salary. Second, states set higher floors: California's exempt salary is no less than two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment, which works out to $70,304 per year at the $16.90 hourly minimum effective January 1, 2026.

Two pay-structure notes. If the offer includes nondiscretionary bonuses — announced to employees to reward efficiency, attendance or retention — they must be included in the regular rate when overtime is computed (29 CFR 778.211). A bonus's label does not decide whether it counts (DOL Fact Sheet #56C). If it includes a rent-free unit, the salary test is measured "exclusive of board, lodging or other facilities," so housing cannot count toward the $684 per week. Our employee housing and rent discounts guide covers that arrangement.

Employer information, not legal, tax or licensing advice; confirm pay and classification decisions with the DOL Wage and Hour Division, your state labor agency or employment counsel.

Verify against the building, not the title. No single credential makes someone a facilities manager: the credentials on a résumé are voluntary training evidence, and the licenses that do attach to the work attach to specific systems, cities and states. Start from the systems your building runs.

Start with refrigerant. Under EPA's Section 608 rules (40 CFR 82.161), anyone who could reasonably be expected to violate the integrity of a refrigerant circuit must pass an exam from an EPA-approved certification program. The covered work is maintaining, servicing, repairing or disposing of appliances containing class I or II refrigerants or non-exempt substitutes. If your facilities manager or their in-house crew touches chillers, ask for the certification — and if vendors do the work, ask for theirs.

Check the city's engineer licenses next. New York City requires a High Pressure Boiler Operating Engineer license from the Department of Buildings to work as a high-pressure boiler engineer, renewed every three years. Chicago requires a stationary engineer license from its Department of Buildings to operate steam boilers over 50 boiler horsepower or 10 psig, hot-water boilers over 160 psi or 250°F, or to run a steam plant. These are city rules, not portable ones: confirm requirements with the local building department wherever the building stands.

Lead-safe work is a firm-level check. Under EPA's lead RRP rule, no firm may perform, offer or claim to perform renovations in pre-1978 target housing or child-occupied facilities without EPA firm certification, unless an exception applies. If your portfolio includes pre-1978 target housing or child-occupied facilities, your firm's certification — and your vendors' — belongs on the verification list.

Then read the credentials on the résumé for what they are. BOMI's designations — FMA, SMT, SMA, BOMI-HP and RPA — are now offered through BOMA International's site. The FMA requires six required courses plus two electives, a Capstone exam, and three years of verifiable facilities management experience, and the Capstone is a two-hour, 100-question proctored exam. IFMA's CFM requires no coursework: eligibility is three years of FM experience with a bachelor's or master's in FM, or five years of FM experience. Its FMP credential has four modules, one final assessment per module, and no educational or experience prerequisites. Treat every credential as evidence of training, never as a license, and verify it with the issuing body. Our license and credential verification guide covers the wider check.

Employer information, not legal, tax or licensing advice; confirm credential and licensing requirements with the EPA, the local building department and your state licensing agencies.

Treat the first 90 days as a structured onboarding quarter. Hand over the vendor contracts one by one, walk the capital calendar, review the deferred-maintenance list together, and get CMMS and building-system logins live before the first solo week. Introduce the property managers the role supports — a facilities manager who inherits relationships by accident spends the quarter rebuilding them.

Fold fair housing into onboarding from day one. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in renting because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability. Under HUD's rule, a company is vicariously liable for a discriminatory housing practice by its agent or employee regardless of whether it knew or should have known of the conduct. It is also directly liable when it knew or should have known of discrimination by an employee and failed to take prompt action to correct and end it. Your facilities manager supervises building staff, so their conduct — and the training behind it — is part of your exposure. Our fair housing training for staff guide covers the program.

The retention backdrop is a moving market. In BLS JOLTS data, real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53) averaged a 1.6% monthly quits rate across 2025 against 2.0% for total nonfarm; total separations and hires each averaged 2.6% a month; and job openings averaged 4.6%. The series is broader than property management, but it is the industry the role sits in: with separations at 2.6% and openings at 4.6% every month, churn is steady and demand stands open.

What keeps a good facilities manager: authority that matches accountability, a capital plan they helped build, current systems instead of a shoestring plant, and a training budget. Educational assistance is a concrete lever — employers can exclude up to $5,250 per employee per year of educational assistance under a qualifying program (IRS Pub. 15-B, 2026), which funds coursework toward credentials like the FMA or FMP. For the rest, our onboarding and retention guides carry the full program.