01 / Day in the life
Cabling & network
Pull Cat6A/fiber, dress the closet, test, certify. Stand up APs, switches, firewalls. Leave the rack cleaner than you found it.
Hiring across Florida · Leads & RDs wanted
Field techs don’t have careers. At CookTech they own the company.
CookTech is a technician-owned co-op. Founded 2000. Restructured under this model in 2014. Five rungs from day one to owner: probationary, tech, lead, admin or regional director, owner. The upside isn’t a raise — it’s the next rung.
$20–35/hr
Tech pay · $20/hr floor + profit on select jobs
3·5·10%
Lead profit share
20%
Admin / RD · minimum
1yr
As admin → own your market
Other shops have raises. We have promotions. Nobody gets rich going from $20 to $24 an hour. Our tech gets a fuller schedule and a clear path to run a crew. The money shows up at the lead seat — and it keeps showing up. — How compensation actually works here.
Reputation · verified
The rating follows the hands.
Every ticket our techs close feeds a third-party reputation score. Here’s the rolling average we carry onto every client site. It’s what clients check before they book a crew — and it’s why they keep booking us.
Scores blended from multiple independent third-party field-services marketplaces where CookTech techs work under their own names and platform ratings travel with them. Numbers refreshed quarterly; current as of 2026.
The work · 01
Real IT work for 500+ end brands.
Two to three tickets a day. Real clients, real scopes, real close-outs. Comcast, FedEx, McDonald’s, Costco, Verizon, Fujitsu, HCL, Walgreens, Nordstrom, BMW, BJ’s, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Graybar — and 480+ more, dispatched through our MSP and integrator partners.
02 / Day in the life
POS, VoIP, break-fix
Swap a dead kiosk at a QSR. Cut over a PBX at a clinic. Same-day, after-hours — whatever the SOW needs.
03 / Day in the life
Multi-site rollouts
Greenfield retail, restaurant, healthcare. Staged over weeks, with a named lead or admin managing the whole program.
The ladder · 02
Five rungs between showing up and owning the market.
Nobody else in field services offers this ladder. That’s the whole point of the co-op. You start probationary. Prove you can work clean; you’re a tech. Prove you can run a crew; you’re a lead taking a share of profit. Prove you can run a book; you’re an admin or RD at 20% minimum. One year in that seat and you can own the market outright.
The promotion path, drawn to scale
Source: CookTech org chart + promotion policy
Each step is taller than the last because the upside at that rung is bigger,
not because the hourly is. At CookTech the money is in the next seat.
00 · Start
Probationary
Not time-based. You move up when the work orders say you’re ready — SOW discipline, clean closeouts, documentation, client voice. Some techs clear it in a handful of tickets; others take longer. Performance, not a calendar.
01 · Apply
Tech
Licensed, insured, background-checked. Tools on the truck. W-9 by default; W-2 if you prefer. $20/hr is the floor; skill and tickets push it to $35 before you leave this rung. The bigger jump is still the next one.
02 · Perform
Lead 3·5·10% of profit
Run a crew on a job or a client. Performance-tiered: 3% entry, 5% steady, 10% proven. The jump from tech to lead is where your take-home actually starts to move.
03 · Administer
Admin or Regional Director
Run a book. Dispatch, SOW control, P&L, hiring quality. 20% of the book you run — that’s the floor, not the cap. The floor scales with volume.
04 · Own
Market owner
One year in the admin or RD seat qualifies you to take a market as owner. Your name, your roster, your book of clients, backed by CookTech’s ops and brand.
Pay, plainly · 03
$20/hr is the floor. The real money is above it.
The tech seat pays $20/hr. It’s a fair wage for a clean, predictable day. But you’re not here to optimize the tech seat — you’re here to get off it. Our tech’s biggest win is a full schedule and better tickets, until they can take a lead seat and start earning a share of profit.
What we do — and what we don’t.
We do: pay weekly on close-out, reimburse mileage at $0.28–$0.42/mi on trips over 45 miles (you still deduct the full IRS rate at tax time), and let you choose W-9 or W-2 (most techs go W-9; it’s simpler and that’s the default). We run a clean book so the lead and admin seats actually pay.
We don’t: push W-2 on you, pay a fake truck stipend, claw back signing bonuses, or play per-diem games with close-outs. After-hours premiums are line-item — not rolled into base.
Tech base$20–35/hr
EmploymentW-9 default · W-2 optional
Lead profit share3% · 5% · 10%
Admin / RD share20% minimum
After-hours premium1.5× base (line item)
MileageOver 45 mi · $0.28–$0.42/mi
Mileage deductionFull IRS rate at tax time
MaterialsAt cost + stated margin
Pay cadenceWeekly, on close-out
Truck stipendNone — not a thing here
Where the work is · 04
Markets live now. Markets hiring. Markets open for ownership.
Jacksonville is HQ — dispatch runs out of our Forbes St office. Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Gainesville, Ocala, Sarasota, W. Palm are live and staffed. Pensacola, Daytona, Ft. Myers, Naples, and Key West are hiring. If you’re in one of those markets and can prove you know the work, we’ll interview you this week.
Florida market map — live & hiring
Source: CookTech dispatch log, 2025 Q4
Solid dots are active owner markets. Dashed dots are hiring — if that’s
your town, apply. Outside Florida, we run rollouts through vetted partner co-ops
in all 50 states; bring CookTech to your state by telling us where you are.
From the field · 05
Some owners on what changed.
Three techs who came up the ladder on what actually looked different from the inside — vs. every gig-dispatch platform and subcontractor shop they’d worked before.
“The owner is a tech and goes on jobs and is very involved in the day-to-day work.”
Field Technician · Glassdoor review“A great place to get tech gigs with support and free business consulting to help technicians with their business ideas.”
Technician · Glassdoor review“Alright pay when there’s work. Good entry-level experience. Fuel is covered round-trip after 45 miles.”
Field Technician · Glassdoor reviewQuotes are verbatim Glassdoor pros. The full review set — including critical ones about driving distances and out-of-pocket gas under 45 miles — is also on Glassdoor. Read both sides before you apply.
FAQ · 06
The questions we get every week.
Straight answers, because the applicants we actually want won’t apply if the pitch is vague. If your question isn’t here, put it in the application and an admin will call you.
W-2 or 1099 / W-9?
Your call. Most of our techs go W-9 and that’s our default — it’s simpler for most of you. W-2 is available if you’d rather not manage your own payroll taxes, but we don’t push it. Pick what fits your situation.
Do you provide a truck or a stipend?
No truck and no truck stipend. You bring your own vehicle and tools. On trips over 45 miles we reimburse mileage at $0.28–$0.42/mi (job-dependent), plus tolls and parking as line items. You still get to deduct the full IRS mileage rate at tax time — the reimbursement is cash flow, the deduction is the tax benefit. Short trips inside your home market are on you — same as everyone else in this business.
What’s the real story on pay?
$20/hr is the tech floor. It’s honest pay for a clean day of work, but it’s not where the upside lives. The upside is in the promotion: Lead gets 3, 5, or 10% of profit depending on performance. Admin or Regional Director gets 20% minimum of the book they run. One year as admin or RD qualifies you for market ownership. If you’re coming here to optimize the tech hourly, this probably isn’t the right shop.
What does a lead actually do?
Run a crew on a job or a client. Own the close-out quality. You’re the one the client knows. Your profit share is tiered: 3% when you’re new, 5% when you’re steady, 10% when you’re proven on a book of recurring work. Performance moves you through the tiers — seniority doesn’t.
Admin vs Regional Director — what’s the difference?
Both are 20% minimum of the book they run. Admin runs a local book of clients inside a market. Regional Director runs a multi-market program or a national partner relationship. Either seat is the launch pad to market ownership.
How long until I can own a market?
A year as admin or RD qualifies you. Before that: usually a year as a tech and a year as a lead, though we’ve promoted people faster. The constraint is the same at every step: clean close-outs, client ratings, and willingness to run the business side when you’re in the seat.
About · 07
Founded 2000. Co-op since 2014.
Cook Technology started in Jacksonville with one truck, one tech, and a landline. Twenty-six years later, the bet that made this company different is still the same bet: if field techs have a real ladder, they show up differently.
One truck, one Jacksonville zip, twenty-six years ago.
Bill Cook started Cook Technology in 2000 out of a single service van. In 2014 the company was restructured as Cook Technology Corp. — a technician-owned corporation, built so the people running the work could earn into the company itself. Twelve years into that model: 500+ end brands served through our MSP partners, 100% Florida coverage, and a pipeline of leads, admins, and market owners who came up through the same door.
Alexandra Ni is CEO. William H. Cook II (“Bill”) is CIO & COO. Dispatch runs 24/7 at 904 748 9838 — a team, not a voicemail.
Photo: Jacksonville waterfront · Garrison Gao / Pexels
Day one · 08
What you get when you start.
Not a pitch deck. Seven things you walk in the door with on day one — and that are still true six months later when the novelty wears off and the scope gets hard.
- 01
W-9 or W-2, your call. Most techs go W-9. We don’t push either way. - 02
$20–35/hr tech pay. $20 is the floor. Select jobs pay more as profit rides on top. - 03
A real promotion path. Probationary → Tech → Lead → Admin/RD → Owner. Five rungs, not vague pay-grade numbers. - 04
Lead share: 3/5/10% of profit. Performance-tiered. Move through it by running a clean book. - 05
Admin / RD: 20% minimum. That’s the floor on the seat. No ceiling above it. - 06
Mileage over 45 mi. $0.28–$0.42/mi reimbursed, plus tolls & parking. Full IRS rate still deductible at tax time. - 07
Direct line to a human admin. Not a ticket queue. A person who ran the same job last year, whose 20% cut depends on the job closing clean.
Apply · 09
Good tech. Good attitude. That’s the bar.
Applications are reviewed by an admin — not a bot, not a recruiter. If you’ve done onsite IT work before, expect to hear back within a week.
Application · 10
Tell us about yourself.
An admin — a real person, not a recruiter — reviews every application. If you’ve done onsite IT work before, expect a call within a week.
After you hit submit, scroll down: there are four documents to send to jobs@cooktech.us — from the same email you registered with here. That’s the next step.
- PHONE 904 748 9838
- EMAIL jobs@cooktech.us
- HQ Forbes St · Jacksonville, FL 32205
Licensed & insured in Florida. Founded 2000. Technician-owned since 2014.
Next step · 11
Four documents. One email.
After you submit the application above, send the four documents below so we can move on the same day we contact you. Every applicant is reviewed by an admin personally — the form doesn’t auto-create your log-in.
How to send
Email all four documents to jobs@cooktech.us from the same email address you entered in the application above.
We match your documents to your application by email address. If you send from a different address we can’t connect them, and your approval will be delayed. Admin review runs 2–3 business days once all four documents are in. Questions before you send? jobs@cooktech.us.
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01RequiredDownload
Form W-9
Taxpayer identification. W-9 is our default — most techs prefer it.
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02RequiredDownload
General Technician Procedures
Read it end to end, sign the last page, send it back.
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03RequiredDownload
Noncompete Agreement
Protects the client relationships CookTech brings to the table.
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04RequiredDownload
Non-Disclosure Agreement
Standard NDA. Covers client data, scopes, site details, and pay.
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05OptionalDownload
Direct Deposit Form
Faster and cleaner than paper checks. Fill it out if you want pay deposited directly; skip it if you’d rather get a check.