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Career Description

Direct work crews installing residential or commercial solar photovoltaic or thermal systems.

What Job Titles Solar Energy Installation Managers Might Have

• Residential Field Manager
• Solar Installation Supervisor
• Solar Energy Installation Manager

What Solar Energy Installation Managers Do

• Supervise solar installers, technicians, and subcontractors for solar installation projects to ensure compliance with safety standards.
• Estimate materials, equipment, and personnel needed for residential or commercial solar installation projects.
• Prepare solar installation project proposals, quotes, budgets, or schedules.
• Plan and coordinate installations of photovoltaic (PV) solar and solar thermal systems to ensure conformance to codes.
• Monitor work of contractors and subcontractors to ensure projects conform to plans, specifications, schedules, or budgets.
• Assess potential solar installation sites to determine feasibility and design requirements.
• Provide technical assistance to installers, technicians, or other solar professionals in areas such as solar electric systems, solar thermal systems, electrical systems, or mechanical systems.
• Identify means to reduce costs, minimize risks, or increase efficiency of solar installation projects.
• Coordinate or schedule building inspections for solar installation projects.
• Perform start-up of systems for testing or customer implementation.
• Assess system performance or functionality at the system, subsystem, and component levels.
• Evaluate subcontractors or subcontractor bids for quality, cost, and reliability.
• Visit customer sites to determine solar system needs, requirements, or specifications.
• Develop and maintain system architecture, including all piping, instrumentation, or process flow diagrams.
• Purchase or rent equipment for solar energy system installation.

What Solar Energy Installation Managers Should Be Good At

• Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.
• Control Precision - The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
• Flexibility of Closure - The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
• Visualization - The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
• Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Arm-Hand Steadiness - The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.

What Solar Energy Installation Managers Should Be Interested In

• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

What Solar Energy Installation Managers Need to Learn

• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
• Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.