Most mechanical contractor job descriptions read like HR templates — long, generic, and full of corporate fluff. Senior trades professionals skip them. Here's how to write a JD that makes the right candidates pick up the phone.
They're written by HR, not by operations. They lead with company history, list 25 generic bullet points, and bury the actual work behind "other duties as assigned." Senior PMs, superintendents, and lead technicians skim them in 10 seconds and move on. A great JD does the opposite — it leads with the work, names the project, and reads like it was written by someone who has done the job.
Six things, in this order: what's the next project, who would I report to, what's the team I'd be running, what's the comp range, where is the work physically located, and what's the path from here. If your JD doesn't answer all six in the top third of the page, you're losing candidates before they finish reading.
For technician and field roles, yes — transparent ranges accelerate applications dramatically. For senior PM, superintendent, and executive roles, "competitive salary depending on experience" is appropriate, especially when working through a recruiter who can frame the conversation. State-level pay-transparency laws now require ranges on most postings — comply, but write the range honestly, not the legal-minimum 50% spread that signals you don't actually know.
Three sections do the work:
Skip the "About Us" boilerplate. Senior candidates research the company themselves. Use the space for the project and the offer.
Concrete and specific: "Run mechanical scope on a $42M ground-up cold storage facility in Orlando, reporting to the operations VP, with a foreman and two assistant PMs." Avoid: "Dynamic, fast-paced, results-oriented self-starter." Senior trades people read corporate fluff as a signal that the company is run by HR, not operators.
300–450 words is the sweet spot. Long enough to communicate the project, the requirements, and the offer. Short enough to read on a phone in 90 seconds. If you can't fit it in 450 words, you haven't decided what the role is.
Posting a JD without a named hiring manager, a real comp framework, and an interview process you can actually execute in two weeks. Senior trades candidates will not chase ghost postings. If you're not ready to interview Monday, don't post Friday.