Dog Care Program Manager

Austin Pets Alive•Austin, TX

9d•Onsite

About The Position

This position is essential to the physical and emotional well-being of all pets at APA!, creating a healthy environment that aligns with APA!'s mission and resources. The Senior Program Manager leads a team of managers and staff dedicated to providing high-quality daily care, individualized support, and a Homes First philosophy—ensuring every dog, especially those with the most complex needs or longest stays, receives the highest level of attention and advocacy. This role is committed to excellence, continuous improvement, and upholding a consistently high standard of care, while fostering positive collaboration across all departments, staff, and volunteers to connect quality care with the ultimate goal of finding every pet a loving home. The Dog Care Program Manager leads and oversees the strategic direction, growth, and daily operations of APA!’s Dog Care. This role ensures alignment with APA!’s broader mission to increase the live release rate across Texas, while building a sustainable, inclusive, and high-impact model for shelter operations. The Dog Care Program Manager is responsible for managing daily workflows, supervising staff, and setting clear, mission-aligned goals. This includes creating structured plans, tracking progress toward outcomes, and ensuring accountability and follow-through on team priorities. The role uses data to guide decisions and helps keep the team focused on consistent, measurable impact. This is a leadership role rooted in empowerment, facilitation, and values-driven oversight. Rather than working independently, the Dog Care Program Manager sets the tone that APA! is a volunteer-powered organization—every staff member is expected to work collaboratively with volunteers and to help create meaningful opportunities for them to lead and contribute. This includes pairing with volunteers to complete day-to-day tasks, modeling strong partnership, and developing a culture of shared effort and team accountability. This position requires a high level of responsiveness and Manager on Duty (MOD) availability. The work is often fast-paced and dynamic, with weekend or shift flexibility expected. While APA! strongly encourages work-life balance, during on-duty shifts, the Dog Care Program Manager is expected to be highly present, solutions-oriented, and ready to support the team with real-time problem-solving. 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

At least four years of supervisory operations experience, including supervising managers or supervisors or volunteers, preferred.
Animal sheltering, kennel operations, boarding, veterinary, or dog-behavior experience strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex operations, simplify processes, use data, and hold teams accountable.
Experience working with volunteers and advocates, strongly preferred.
Strong communication, coaching, decision-making, and cross-departmental collaboration skills.
This role requires a high level of communication and people skills.
Value our role in ensuring the safety of each other, the animals, and the community.
Willing and committed to working well with volunteers and staff in all roles
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

At least four years of supervisory operations experience, including supervising managers or supervisors or volunteers, preferred.
Animal sheltering, kennel operations, boarding, veterinary, or dog-behavior experience strongly preferred.
Experience working with volunteers and advocates, strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Foster and model a volunteer-powered culture across the team by ensuring that every staff member is partnered with volunteers on every shift, with the goal of empowering volunteers to lead and grow within the program.
Serve as a facilitator and coach to staff and volunteers, ensuring the work is shared, not siloed, and that volunteers are supported in completing daily tasks.
Ensure active recruitment, onboarding, and engagement of volunteers using volunteer engagement tools and resources
Support retention by matching volunteers to appropriate tasks, offering guidance, and providing regular check-ins and staff mentorship.
Identify strong volunteers for deeper roles and seek out customer to volunteer conversion opportunities.
Recognize volunteer contributions through consistent appreciation and shoutouts.
Provide clear expectations, hands-on training, and in-the-moment coaching to set volunteers up for success.
Inspires and guides Dog Care managers, staff, and volunteers to deliver compassionate, attentive, and personalized care that prioritizes each dog’s well-being and positive outcomes.
Manages staff and volunteer expectations to maintain a home-first value system based on the belief that a shelter does not replace a home.
Ensures every dog has a clean, comfortable environment, appropriate nutrition, medical and behavioral support, enrichment, and at least two documented outings each day.
Conducts daily rounds to review each dog’s well-being, care needs, placement barriers, and progress toward an outcome.
Ensures staff and volunteers document accurate daily observations and promptly escalate medical, behavioral, safety, or care concerns.
Designs and implements sustainable workflows, SOPs, checklists, and communication systems to improve efficiency, accountability, and consistency.
Collaborates across divisions, especially with the behavior and placement teams, to ensure workflows support all departments.
Implements a volunteer-centric care model to ensure volunteers complete 50% of daily duties.
Completes and supports Apatec training, and implements a program to train and track staff proficiency.
Partners with Customer Service, Behavior, Veterinary, Foster, and Adoption teams to remove placement barriers and prevent dogs from becoming stuck in the shelter.
Uses care and outcome data to identify gaps, improve operations, and ensure timely follow-through.
Balances staff and volunteer responsibilities to meet care standards within the approved budget.
Manages department spending and supplies, maintaining efficient operations while meeting daily program needs.
Ensures adequate staffing, daily assignments, training, and coverage across operating hours.
Coaches and supports managers and staff, fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment where everyone is entrusted to deliver the highest standard of care.
Ensures dogs who need the most care receive it.
Responds to urgent operational and animal-welfare concerns and escalates significant risks to the Director of Strategic Customer Service.
Coordinates staff and volunteer scheduling with managers and volunteer supervisors.
Performs other related duties as assigned.
Commitment to Homes First, excellent customer service, volunteer integration, and APA!’s core values, where the most important part of the operations includes helping people find their match.
Work closely with the Director of Strategic Customer Service to create the conditions where the dog care team is able to support the placement team daily.
Act as Manager on Duty at least 2 shifts per week.
Attend and participate in all required training sessions and meetings
Uses proper animal handling techniques to ensure everyone’s safety
Pays close attention to the safety and security of all pets in care.
Mindful of proper safety and security for the team
Maintains good observations, medication, and tracking records
Understands the importance of vaccination requirements.
Understands and is aware of potential parasites and how to prevent them.
Strong ability to recognize the symptoms of possible illnesses and diseases, accidents, or injuries.
Understands when to seek proper veterinary care
Understands when to seek proper behavior care
Capable of administering emergency first aid to an injured pet.
Maintain open and consistent communication with Director or designee and other colleagues
Able to react to change productively and perform other related duties as assigned
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 manage 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