Careworker

CommonSpirit Health • Austin, TX

9h • Onsite

About The Position

Careworkers at Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) are essential frontline shelter professionals responsible for providing consistent, compassionate, and responsive care to the animals in their program. This role involves direct animal care, teamwork, adaptability, and strong volunteer engagement. While daily routines include feeding, cleaning, and enrichment, Careworkers are also cross-functional collaborators expected to assist with other shelter functions like intake, placement, medical, and customer service, especially during staff shortages, surges in activity, or emergencies. This position contributes directly to APA!'s mission to increase the live release rate across Texas by supporting a sustainable, inclusive, and high-impact model for shelter operations. The Careworker must manage daily responsibilities, maintain clear priorities, and deliver high-quality work with minimal oversight. A core aspect of this role is working alongside and supporting volunteers, including assisting with their onboarding, training, and engagement. This position may require shift flexibility, weekend hours, and responsiveness during times of high need. Levels I, II, and III are distinguished by competencies and experience.

Requirements

• Committed to embodying APA!’s Core Values: Innovation, Respect, Drive, Resourcefulness, and Inclusion and cultural values: Humble, Hungry, Smart.
• Commitment to APA!'s customer experience expectations.
• Passion for working well with staff, volunteers, and customers—helping all individuals feel successful, appreciated, and connected to APA!’s mission.
• Strong commitment to volunteer engagement and support; dedicated to working well with volunteers across all roles.
• Comfortable working cross-functionally and serving as a liaison between volunteers, customers, and team members.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills; able to interpret rules, procedures, and instructional materials.
• Self-starter with strong time management; able to work independently and collaboratively.
• Excellent interpersonal skills; maintains a calm and professional presence in all situations.
• Strong attention to detail and high standards for quality.
• Adaptable to change and able to perform related duties as needed.
• Dedicated to delivering an exceptional and inclusive customer experience.
• Experience in animal care or other service-based roles preferred.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Calm and professional demeanor under pressure.
• Reliable, on-time, and committed to high standards of animal care.
• Demonstrated ability to coach or coordinate others, especially volunteers.
• Passion for APA!’s No Kill mission and a collaborative, community-based approach to sheltering.
• Willingness to work cross-functionally and adjust to the changing needs of a high-volume shelter.
• Must demonstrate dependability, accountability, time management, use of reasoning, and good judgment skills.
• Attend and participate in all required training sessions and meetings.
• Maintain open and consistent communication with Program Manager or designee, supervisor, and other colleagues.
• Partner with Volunteer Managers to learn about the volunteer programs and support volunteers interested in your department on an ongoing basis.
• Able to react to change productively and perform other related duties as assigned.
• Able to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed.
• Able to work in a high-volume, fast-paced, high-stress environment.
• Comfortable working autonomously when given goals and deadlines.
• Adapts quickly to evolving shelter needs—this may include supporting offsite events, crisis intake, supply distribution, or public-facing roles.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in animal care or other service-based roles preferred.

Responsibilities

• Actively contribute to a volunteer-powered culture by partnering with volunteers during every shift and helping create an inclusive, welcoming environment.
• Work alongside volunteers to complete daily tasks, ensuring the work is shared and collaborative.
• Support the recruitment and onboarding process by welcoming new volunteers and helping them get oriented to the program.
• Help retain volunteers by offering encouragement, guidance, and feedback during shared work.
• Recommend strong volunteers for deeper involvement or specialized roles to your supervisor or volunteer manager.
• Contribute to a positive culture by recognizing volunteer contributions through appreciation, gratitude, and shoutouts.
• Help set volunteers up for success by clearly explaining tasks, providing hands-on guidance, and offering in-the-moment support.
• Contribute to tracking and measuring both customer service and volunteer engagement, including collecting feedback and suggesting process improvements.
• Engage, train, and elevate new and existing volunteers, providing on-the-job guidance, supporting skills development, and ensuring volunteers feel welcomed and valued.
• Recruit, onboard, train and retain volunteers.
• Track volunteer engagement and feedback.
• Serve as animal “caseworker” providing outcome-focused care to pets.
• Clean and sanitize animal enclosures to ensure health and wellness.
• Provide animals with fresh water and nutritious food.
• Offer animals potty and exercise breaks outside of their enclosures.
• Handle, transfer, walk, and physically transport animals across campuses.
• Observe and track animal feeding habits, bowel movements, weight charts, and basic functions.
• Maintain an orderly and pleasing environment by performing laundry, dishwashing, supply stocking, litter box cleaning, carrier cleaning, sweeping, and mopping floors.
• Perform administrative tasks such as software data entry, inventory tracking, clinic/intake coordination, and records management.
• Explore higher-level needs in populations, such as socialization, comfort, and trust.
• Translate animal case progress, observations, and data into care plans, care notes, and cross-team functional resources.
• Step into operational support roles as needed, such as assisting with intakes, adoption counseling prep, medical handling, customer service, or transporting animals between locations.
• Regularly incorporate volunteer support into shift planning and time management.
• Collaborate with other departments (e.g., Volunteer, Development, Operations) to support cross-functional initiatives, strengthen internal communication, and integrate volunteer support into broader organizational activities.
• At the II and III level, perform more complex medical and behavior tasks such as special populations care, medical administration, wellness exams, advanced handling, and mentoring/training.
• At the II and III level, perform more complex animal case management tasks like enrichment routines, personality tracking, behavior tracking, counseling, and mentoring/training.

Benefits

• Subsidized employer-sponsored medical coverage
• Subsidized and voluntary life insurance
• Voluntary dental
• Vision
• Short-term disability options
• Voluntary wellness plans
• Emergency sick plans
• Up to 2% match on 401(K) retirement plan
• Supplemental benefits
• Flexible spending accounts
• Additional life coverage
• 10 paid holidays
• 10 days paid time off during the first year of employment
• Additional 5 days of PTO accrual upon completion of 12 months of employment
• Professional development opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed