Salary :
$72,800 - 93,600 yearly
Role: Solar Technician, Operations & Maintenance (O&M)
Location: Illinois and Wisconsin. Field-based, home-deployed. Ideal home base is the Chicago-to-Rockford-to-Milwaukee corridor. Company vehicle provided.
Reports to: Kyle, Director of Operations & Maintenance, who reports to the Chief Operating Officer.
Team size: Small and rebuilding. Two technicians and an operations coordinator today, growing to five-plus technicians over the next 12 months.
Why it exists now: The O&M line is behind on a growing site backlog and is being rebuilt to stand on its own. Kyle needs working technicians who can restore downed sites and grow with the operation.
Video Job Description - See the Leader Before You Apply: https://youtu.be/YQBHS7Nv41U
"If I got two quality techs, that would just dig us out fast and we would start really generating some real growth."
Rethink Electric maintains commercial, distributed-generation, and light-utility solar across Illinois and Wisconsin. The portfolio runs from warehouses, churches, and high schools to industrial sites like the Harley-Davidson plant in Milwaukee and ground-mount utility fields. The O&M line is in a deliberate rebuild. Kyle inherited a team that looked good on paper and did not produce, and he cleared it. He is now hiring for output, not pedigree.
Every day a site sits down is a day it does not make money, so the person in this seat directly protects revenue and customer trust. There is a real fork in the road that Kyle named plainly. Hire well, and the line grows into an independent business with its own external clients. Fail to hire, and the operation contracts into a SunVest-only shop. This hire helps decide which way it goes.
In the first year, become the technician Kyle can send to a broken site and trust to figure it out. He is not looking for the person swinging for the grandstands. In his words, he wants "the guy who gets on base reliably," because when you put people on base you bring runs home. That means showing up to a site where something is down, diagnosing what is actually wrong, restoring production safely and efficiently, and moving to the next job without needing the answer handed to you. You will start with a guide and support on the phone. You will grow into someone who works the fault with your own troubleshooting mind.
Troubleshooting Mind. Signal: "They can start using their own troubleshooting mindset, their own curious mind to find the solution." Kyle can teach solar. He cannot teach curiosity. The hire has to want to solve the broken thing.
Self-Starter. Signal: "The guys deploy out of their houses, so they gotta be self-starters," and, "If you're still waiting for the reveille bell every morning, this ain't the job for you." Nobody is watching you leave the driveway.
Maturity. Signal: "The majority coming out, I think that would be our number one thing is maturity." This is the filter Kyle named first. You manage your own day, your own truck, and your own travel.
Urgency About Downtime. Signal: "When the site's down, you're not making money. That's bad." Kyle wants people who feel the clock the way an aviation electrician's mate does. If it is not running, we are losing.
Coachable Without Ego. Signal: "Anybody who asks for help, help will be given here." Kyle respects the tech who calls when stuck. He has no patience for the one who twiddles their thumbs for an hour, says "I did what I could," and drives home.
Kyle is a Navy veteran, a nuclear electrician who served nine years before moving into wind, then solar. He came up on the tools, not from a corner office, and he now runs Rethink's O&M line as a director reporting to the COO with real autonomy. He describes a hands-off style built on trust and communication. He tries to give a consistent workday, he communicates travel a couple of weeks out, and he does not nickel-and-dime his people. He was shaped by his own time in uniform, by good leaders and bad ones, and he hires accordingly.
"Anybody who asks for help, help will be given here."
If you ran advanced electronics or electrical systems in the Navy as an EM, ET, AE, FC, IC, STG, or gas-turbine electrical technician, you already have the core of this job. You have stood in front of a system that was down, with pressure on and no one to hand you the answer, and you got it back. Kyle named exactly those ratings on the intake, and he named the mindset that goes with them. The aviation electrician's mate who knows that if the aircraft is not flying, people are in danger, translated here to "if the site is down, we are not making money." That sense of urgency is a deployment habit, not a training module.
This operation runs the way a good shop in uniform ran. Early starts, direct communication, autonomy with accountability, and a leader who came up on the tools and expects you to own your day. The corporate layer exists above Rethink through SunVest, but it does not drive the truck. Kyle does.
VHS matched this role because the performance objectives, the leadership style, and the operational tempo line up cleanly with mature transitioning sailors from the advanced-electronics community, and because Kyle is a veteran who hires veterans on purpose.
Not a fit: rooftop residential installation experience alone, with no troubleshooting or maintenance background.
Base pay is hourly. Kyle set a floor of $35 per hour for the standard Level 1 hire, moving to $39 or $40 for a candidate he is sold on. For a veteran who already brings genuine solar or strong troubleshooting experience and is a clear standout, Kyle said he would pay $45 per hour, possibly a little north of that. Annualized at a standard 40-hour week, that range runs roughly $72,800 to $93,600 and above.
Drive time is paid at the regular wage. Kyle was explicit that drive time is not free and not docked. As soon as you are in the truck, you are on the clock.
Company vehicle is provided. You launch from home.
On-call is a planned weekend rotation as the team grows, roughly one weekend in five at full staffing. Kyle's stated intent is a one-hour minimum payout even for a five-minute remote restore, so the interruption is compensated fairly.
Schedule is Monday through Friday, targeting out the door between 7:00 and 7:30 and home by 5:00, earlier in summer when the work allows.
Benefits include 401(k), medical, dental, vision, and paid time off, per the company benefits summary.
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