Job Description Located in the heart of Central Ohio, Illuminate USA is transforming solar panel manufacturing from our cutting-edge facility in Pataskala. As a new standalone joint venture established by two global leaders in renewable energy, we’ve rapidly grown to over 1,500 associates and are now fully operational in our 1.1 million-square-foot factory. Our vision is to establish one of the largest solar panel manufacturing operations in the Western Hemisphere.
This is an exciting time to join Illuminate USA as we continue to grow and innovate. We’re not just building solar panels—we’re building a team of dedicated, passionate associates eager to make a real impact. If you’re looking to be part of a collaborative, people-focused, and forward-thinking workplace, we want to hear from you! We offer competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, and continuous opportunities for career growth.
Come join us on this journey to create a brighter, more sustainable future in the Columbus area. The HVAC Specialist is responsible for the operation, maintenance, reliability, contractor coordination, and lifecycle support of HVAC and environmental-control systems throughout the Illuminate USA manufacturing facility. Reporting to the Facilities Manager, the HVAC specialist position exercises independent judgment in prioritizing work, coordinating internal resources and external service providers, managing vendor performance, and supporting repair, upgrade, compliance, and capital-planning activities.
The role is accountable for maintaining critical temperature, humidity, ventilation, chilled-water, refrigeration, and compressed-air systems that support manufacturing uptime, product quality, employee safety, and facility compliance. Responsibilities: Lead daily HVAC operations by prioritizing planned, corrective, and emergency work based on production impact, safety risk, environmental requirements, and equipment criticality.
Coordinate work assignments with internal maintenance resources and qualified contractors, verify completion of assigned work, and escalate significant operational, safety, compliance, or cost concerns to Facilities leadership. Oversee preventive and corrective maintenance programs for commercial and industrial HVAC equipment, ensuring work is completed safely, accurately, and on schedule. Partner with the HVAC Engineer to analyze recurring failures, establish corrective-action priorities, develop reliability and energy-efficiency improvements, and coordinate implementation with internal stakeholders and external service providers.
Develop recommended preventive-maintenance frequencies, repair strategies, spare-parts requirements, and equipment replacement priorities using condition, failure history, production risk, lifecycle cost, and vendor input. Lead coordination of planned HVAC outages, shutdowns, and major repairs with Facilities, Engineering, Maintenance, Production, Environmental Health and Safety, and Quality stakeholders to minimize operational disruption and protect environmental-control requirements.
Support maintenance budgeting and capital planning by identifying equipment risks, preparing repair and replacement recommendations, reviewing vendor cost estimates, and communicating forecasted needs to Facilities leadership. Manage HVAC contractors and service vendors from scope development through closeout, including coordinating site access, reviewing proposals and work plans, monitoring schedule and safety performance, verifying completed work against approved scope, resolving service deficiencies, and documenting results in the CMMS.
Obtain and compare vendor proposals, validate labor and material charges, review service reports and invoices for accuracy, and provide approval recommendations to the HVAC Engineer or Facilities leadership. Maintain vendor performance records, track warranty issues and recurring service problems, conduct service reviews, and recommend corrective action, contract changes