Maintenance Manager- Refrigeration

Key Responsibilities

2.1 Team & Technician Management

• Lead, supervise and develop a team of refrigeration technicians, assistants and a service coordinator.
• Allocate jobs to technicians based on skill level, location and workload; ensure even utilisation across the team.
• Run the daily morning toolbox talk, weekly planning meeting and monthly one-on-ones.
• Approve timesheets, overtime, leave and field allowances; manage attendance and discipline in line with company policy and the Kenya Employment Act.
• Identify training needs and coordinate technical upskilling (refrigerant handling, electrical safety,
• Enforce the use of PPE and adherence and food-industry hygiene requirements on every site.

2.2 Planned Maintenance & Job Scheduling

• Develop and maintain the annual Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM) calendar for every contracted client and site.
• Issue weekly job cards, route plans and spare-parts lists to technicians; ensure jobs are closed out with completed reports, photos and client sign-off.
• Manage the 24/7 breakdown call-out roster and ensure response and repair times meet contractual SLAs.
• Track service KPIs in the CMMS / job-card system: PPM completion rate, mean time to respond (MTTR), mean time to repair, callback rate.
• Coordinate with the projects/installation team on commissioning hand-overs and warranty work.

2.3 Quotations, Estimating & Commercial Management

• Prepare accurate technical quotations for breakdown repairs, retrofits, equipment replacements and PPM contracts (annual, bi-annual or quarterly).
• Cost jobs correctly: refrigerant, parts, consumables, labour hours, transport, scaffolding/access, sub-contractor input and a defensible margin.
• Negotiate prices and lead times with local suppliers and overseas OEMs (compressors, condensing units, controls, refrigerant gases).
• Convert quotations into signed jobs and track quotation-to-order conversion rate. Support the finance team with progress invoicing, retention release and debt collection on maintenance contracts.

2.4 Client & Expectation Management

• Act as the primary point of contact for all maintenance-contract clients - supermarkets, dairies, horticulture exporters, hotels, hospitals, ice plants, fishing/cold-chain operators.
• Carry out site visits, quarterly contract review meetings and annual service reports for each key account.
• Set realistic expectations on response times, lead times for imported parts, and the cost of repairs versus replacement.
• Resolve client complaints and escalations promptly; investigate root cause and implement corrective action to prevent recurrence.
• Identify and pursue contract-renewal and up-sell opportunities (additional sites, retrofits, energy-efficiency upgrades, refrigerant retrofits away from R22).

2.5 Spares, Stores & Procurement

• Maintain a healthy stock of fast-moving spares (contactors, fan motors, expansion valves, filter driers, common compressors, controls).
• Plan refrigerant procurement (e.g. R134a, R404A, R407C, R290, R744/CO2) in line with Kenya's NEMA Ozone-Depleting Substances regulations and the company's F-gas / refrigerant log.
• Approve local purchase requisitions within delegated limits; track stock variance and obsolete stock.

2.6 Reporting, Compliance & Continuous Improvement

Submit a monthly maintenance report to the General Manager covering jobs completed, revenue, gross margin, KPIs, HSE incidents, and key client issues.

Ensure all work complies with manufacturer specifications, Kenyan electrical regulations, food-safety standards (HACCP where applicable) and environmental/refrigerant rules.

Drive continuous improvement: standard service checklists, technician performance dashboards, spares standardisation, energy-efficiency proposals.

3. Qualifications & Experience

3.1 Education & Certification

• Diploma or Higher Diploma in Refrigeration & Air Conditioning, Mechanical Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering or equivalent.
• Government Trade Test / NITA certification in Refrigeration & Air Conditioning.
• Certified refrigerant handling / safe-handling-of-refrigerants training.
• Valid Kenyan driving licence (Class B/C/E). Certificate of Good Conduct.

3.2 Experience

• Minimum 3 years' hands-on experience in commercial and industrial refrigeration, with at least 3 years in a supervisory or service-management role.
• Demonstrable experience working for a refrigeration contractor or service provider in Kenya or the wider East African region.
• Proven experience servicing cold rooms, blast freezers, supermarket racks/condensing units, ice machines and chillers; ammonia (NH3) or CO2 (R744) experience is a strong advantage.
• Experience preparing and winning technical quotations and managing maintenance-contract clients.

3.3 Technical Knowledge

• Strong understanding of the vapour-compression cycle, refrigerant properties, electrical controls, PLC/temperature controllers and basic refrigeration design.
• Comfortable reading P&IDs, single-line electrical drawings and OEM manuals.
• Familiar with energy-efficiency, leak-detection and refrigerant-recovery best practice.

3.4 Skills & Competencies

• Strong leadership and people-management skills; able to coach and hold technicians accountable.
• Commercially aware - confident with quotations, costing, margins and basic P&L.
• Excellent client-handling and communication skills in English and Kiswahili (written and spoken).
• Well-organised; able to plan ahead and juggle multiple sites, jobs and priorities under pressure.
• Computer literate: MS Excel, Word, Outlook, and a CMMS / job-card system.
• High personal integrity; honest reporting on parts, labour hours and refrigerant usage.