Cat Placement Specialist

CommonSpirit Health • Austin, TX

4h • Onsite

About The Position

As a Cat Placement Specialist, you play a pivotal role in matching clients with the perfect feline companion for their home. Beyond mere matchmaking, you serve as a dedicated advocate for shelter cats, particularly those often overlooked in the shelter environment. Leveraging your expertise in cat behavior, medical care, and rescue practices, you spearhead innovative initiatives to streamline the foster and adoption process and connect cats with the right people. Your primary objective is to reduce the length of stay for all cats, with a special focus on our lifesaving programs. In this dynamic role, you will continuously refine and develop methods and practices to achieve this goal. This full-time, non-exempt position reports directly to the Cat Placement Manager, offering an exciting opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the lives of shelter cats and their future fosters and adopters.

The Cat Placement Specialist plays a key role in advancing the goals of APA!’s placement team. 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 placement coordination.

The Cat Placement Specialist is responsible for managing their daily responsibilities, maintaining clear priorities, and delivering consistent, high-quality work that aligns with APA!’s values and goals. This includes staying organized, using data or feedback to inform decisions, and following through on key tasks and responsibilities with minimal oversight. This is a hands-on, mission-driven role focused on results, reliability, and teamwork.

APA! is a volunteer-powered organization, so every staff member is expected to work alongside and support volunteers. The Cat Placement Specialist collaborates closely with volunteers to complete day-to-day tasks, helps create a positive and inclusive environment, and actively contributes to a culture of shared effort and mutual respect.

This position may involve shift flexibility, weekend hours, and responsiveness during times of high need. 

Every individual at APA! is responsible for working in collaboration with volunteers; making sure volunteers are recruited, trained, and feel impactful through their efforts at APA!. A core part of this role is creating a welcoming and empowering experience for volunteers, including assisting with onboarding, training, and volunteer engagement as part of the day-to-day workflow.

Requirements

• Must be open and adaptable to new procedures and ways of working
• Must have experience working with cats, and be able to handle cats safely  
• Customer service experience is required
• Ability to recognize, understand, and address various animal behaviors and illnesses
• Ability to handle cats safely and with kindness at all times, without exception
• Must be proficient with email, word processing, and spreadsheets
• 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

Nice To Haves

• Bilingual in English/Spanish 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—not siloed
• 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
• Greet customers to ensure that every client has a welcoming and guided experience.
• Maintain active customer service throughout the entire shift both in person and via communications over text, email, and phone call
• Stays current on cats both on site and in foster - update appropriate documents
• Provide guidance to clients in selecting the right cat for their home
• Stay up to date on relevant behavioral and health information of cats onsite and in foster
• Be comfortable discussing complex medical needs with clients in a vernacular that can be easily understood
• Ensure all required paperwork for adopters and fosters is completed accurately
• Educates adopters and fosters in order to be as successful as possible bringing home their new cat; this could include slow and safe introductions and medical needs 
• Maintain an open mindset and continually think of how to remove barriers to cats leaving the shelter
• Update internal notes for all cats when new information is available and ensure information is accurate on online profiles
• Monitor physical conditions of animals and advise veterinarians or applicable staff as needed
• Receive, medicate, handle and kennel cats and kittens, including those of unknown temperament, sick and injured animals, and those with zoonotic illness
• Communicate within the Foster and Adoption Success department and with other departments to ensure efficiency in assisting clients
• Respond to email inquiries from clients interested in onsite cats or Matchmaking services in a professional and timely manner
• Ensure safe and productive interactions when introducing cats to clients.
• Willingness to learn, and adherence to, APA’s methods of cat handling, under the guidance and training of APA Cat Care Team members
• Exhibit confidence and proficiency in discussing and demonstrating handling and medicating methods to clients, ensuring clarity and reassurance throughout the process.
• Develop, implement, and sustain placement initiatives aimed at boosting the adoption and fostering rates of specialty population cats, ensuring their successful transition into loving homes.
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with staff and volunteers  to increase retention on the team
• Recruit and train new Cat Placement volunteers
• Meet with advocates and Cat Program volunteers to discuss notes for marketing cats
• Participate in proactive outreach to potential adopters and fosters
• Assist with daily tracking of appointments and initiatives
• Job duties may include some or all of the above, and other duties as assigned by manager

Benefits

• Austin Pets Alive! is proud to offer a competitive benefits package for full-time employees, including subsidized employer-sponsored medical coverage, subsidized and voluntary life insurance, voluntary dental, vision and short-term disability options, all effective the first day of employment.
• We also offer voluntary wellness and emergency sick plans, up to 2% match on 401(K) retirement plan, supplemental benefits, flexible spending accounts and additional life coverage.
• Full-time employees receive 10 paid holidays and accrue 10 days paid time off during the first year of employment, with an additional 5 days of PTO accrual upon completion of 12 months of employment.
• Employees will also receive professional development opportunities through APA!’s ongoing mission to advance our animal welfare professionals in our life-saving work.

What This Job Offers

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