(Apply Now) Director of Veterinarian Recovery Operations (New York)

Location: New York City
Posted on: July 1, 2025

Job Description:

Summary: The ARC (Animal Recovery Center) and CARE (Canine Annex for Recovery and Enrichment) are facilities dedicated to the recovery and rehabilitation of victims of cruelty and neglect admitted through NYPD and the ASPCA’s Humane Law Enforcement (HLE) and Community Engagement (CE) programs. Our dedicated team of more than 45 sheltering, medical, and animal behavior professionals work closely with the ASPCA Animal Hospital, Forensics, Legal Advocacy and Investigations, Behavioral Sciences, Shelter Medicine Services, Community Engagement, Placement, and the Adoption Center teams to ensure coordinated response and operations, and holistic, balanced, high-quality care for the animals we serve. The Director of Veterinary Services, ARC will perform all the duties of a licensed veterinarian, including providing compassionate, high-quality, practical veterinary care to a wide range of cruelty, neglect, and at-risk animals. In addition, the Director will provide a management presence on the floor to ensure efficient and effective animal flow. The Director will hold the entire team accountable to act with urgency, providing balanced, high-quality care to the animals, coordinating with departments, and practicing Fear Free values. This position directly manages 1-2 Licensed Veterinary Technicians. This position affords a wonderful opportunity for a veterinarian to drive forward the care and rehabilitation of animals who are victims of cruelty and neglect. ARC is comprised of medical, behavior, and direct care teams working together to recover, enrich, treat, and support a wide range of cases. *The schedule for this role is Sunday-Wednesday, 9am-7pm (flexibility on Sunday with possibility of 8am-6pm). Responsibilities: Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to: Managing Medical Cases (60%): - Ensure ARC provides high quality individualized care, considering the medical and behavioral needs of our patients while maintaining overall population medicine using shelter best practices to a wide range of cruelty, neglect, and at-risk patients. - Serve on a panel with medical, behavior, and sheltering leaders to review cases and make weekly pathway planning decisions, including humane euthanasia decisions, taking into consideration animals’ physical and psychological well-being, using organizationally aligned tools developed to assess quality of life and readiness for adoption. - Perform humane euthanasia for animals deemed unsuitable for placement, working closely with the behavior and medical teams to ensure a compassionate, low-stress procedure. - Perform medical intakes on all new NYPD and CE cases admitted to ARC and in collaboration with partner departments for animals admitted to veterinary partner hospitals, AAH, ARC, and Adoption Center as needed. - Provide medical support for large scale NYPD and CE cases. - Perform exams, diagnostic tests, and medical treatments with full utilization of Fear Free medical handling. Ensure all staff are practicing Fear Free handing. - Develop skilled and efficient diagnosis and treatment plans following ARC/CARE/AAH medical parameters and guidelines. - Provide medical care for outpatients of owned, fostered out and/or animals in transition to the Adoption Center and placement partners. - Maintain thorough, high quality medical records, documenting all exam findings, test results, and treatments. - Work with partner hospitals as needed, including referral for advanced care, and assessing medical stability of new cases at partner hospitals. - Respond to after-hours medical concerns. - Oversee and maintain the ARC animal census. People Management/Managing Patient Flow (20%): - Oversee the daily medical care and case flow of the animals housed in ARC. - Lead the Daily ARC rounds meeting. - Lead ARC LVT meetings as needed. - Develop, disseminate, and keep current the ARC Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and ensure their implementation. Facility-specific SOPs are developed in conjunction with CARE, AAH, Adoption Center, BST, and SMS to ensure best medical, sheltering, and behavioral practices. - Model a standard of continued commitment to improve and expand upon all aspects of ARC including, medical, behavior, housing, safety, and animal flow. - Set expectations and goals and provide consistent, high-quality feedback to direct reports, including regular 1:1s and quarterly feedback sessions to build strong relationships, provide clear direction, and encourage opportunities for development. Complete annual performance evaluations. - Practice and espouse positive, people-centric management approaches that are in line with team and organizational core values. - Recommend internal and external training opportunities as needed for direct reports in identified areas. - Respond to concerns from direct reports and selected administrative staff, addressing them promptly and accordingly. - Handle employee-relations issues with confidentiality and care, ensuring compliance with any applicable collective-bargaining agreements. - Conduct corrective actions related to performance. - Maintain proactive communication with the Senior Director as to any critical situations or issues. - Support the Senior Director of Veterinary Services in handling any adverse client or patient events appropriately and professionally. - Model a standard of continual commitment to improvement in all aspects of ARC animal care and handling of dogs and cats. - Serve as a champion in times of change management and proactively partner with the ARC and CARE Leadership team in identifying ways to improve people policies and medical protocols. - Collaborate with the AAH Office Manager and Senior Director of Veterinary Services to ensure ARC has appropriate DVM coverage 7 days per week. - In collaboration with the AAH management team, ensure the ARC veterinary team is scheduled for all required training, meetings, and lectures. Interdepartmental Communication/Administrative/Other (20%) - Collaborate and support the work of partner departments, particularly the Humane Law Enforcement, Community Engagement, and the Adoption Center departments. - Maintain strict confidentiality when dealing with criminal cases. - Attend staff meetings, doctor meetings and other requested meetings. - Provide medical information and represent ARC to the public and to media when requested. - Provide a high level of customer service to external and internal clients. - Create, model, and follow written and verbally communicated ASPCA and ARC Standard Operating Procedures. - Assist with special projects, presentations and data collection as requested. - Other duties as assigned. Qualification Requirements: - Ability to successfully work in a high-volume, fast-paced environment that combines individual patient and shelter medicine and effectively multi-task with a high degree of integrity and accountability and without loss of attention to detail. - Ability to work well within a team and communicate effectively and courteously with all levels of staff. - Maintain an open mind regarding changes and be willing to learn, implement, and teach new protocols. - Deployment opportunity with BST, Community Engagement, Community Medicine, National Field Response or Rehabilitation Services one time per year (locally and nationally). - Able to lift and carry up to 50 pounds. - Able to work standing for 8 or more hours and bend, crouch, kneel and move freely to perform responsibilities that include handling potentially dangerous animals in stressful conditions. - Able to occasionally work in physically challenging conditions and able to wear appropriate protective gear, including a protective mask; job responsibilities may entail exposure to chemical and biological hazards, such as feces and blood, exposure to sharp objects, working in noisy environments and working in areas with uneven, wet, and slippery surfaces. - The Director may be requested and/or required to work additional hours, weekends, cover shifts and/or stay late. - May be required to work or provide medical and/or staffing support for disasters/storm coverage. Exemplifies the ASPCA’s Core Values: - Has Commitment and dedication to improving the lives of animals - Demonstrates Ownership and feels responsible for outcomes - Believes in Team – that we are stronger together - Seeks to Elevate others and reimagine what is possible - Focuses on Impact, specifically making change for animals Additional Information: - This is a full-time exempt position that works out of our 92nd Street office, but the incumbent must be flexible, as some early mornings, evenings, weekends, and holidays will be required. - To apply, please complete our application and upload a cover letter that outlines how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of this position. Applications without cover letters will not be reviewed. Compensation and benefits: Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of factors, including but not limited to education, training, experience, location, business needs, internal eq

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