Foster Care Coordinator

Foothills Animal Shelter • Golden, CO

23h • $21 - $23

About The Position

Foothills Animal Shelter seeks a Foster Care Coordinator who finds purpose in connecting animals who aren’t yet ready for adoption with the care and stability they need to get there. Who We Are As an open admissions shelter, we are committed to being here for families and their pets in Jefferson County, Colorado. We identify as a socially conscious shelter, caring for over 9,000 dogs, cats, and small animals every year with a compassionate team of staff and volunteers who are committed to the physical and emotional wellbeing of every pet we serve. What You Bring You are a natural relationship builder. Foster families trust you, lean on you, and stay engaged because of how you show up for them. You know that retaining good foster homes means communicating well, following through, and making people feel genuinely supported. You have hands-on experience with neonatal and juvenile animal care. You know what a thriving bottle baby looks like versus one who needs urgent intervention, and you can walk a nervous first-time foster caregiver through bottle feeding with patience and confidence. You are highly organized. You manage placements, supply inventories, medical communications, and animal records simultaneously, and nothing falls through the cracks on your watch. You are proactive. You do not wait for problems to come to you — you check in regularly, spot concerns early, and escalate before situations become crises. You are comfortable with the full reality of animal welfare work and can hold space for the hard moments. You understand that animals sometimes decline in foster care, and you know how to support a caregiver through grief while staying focused on the bigger picture. What You’ll Do Manage the full foster care lifecycle for each animal, from placement through return-to-shelter coordination and handoff to adoption or other pathways, ensuring medical and behavioral documentation is complete and current at every stage. Provide specialized guidance and support to foster caregivers of neonatal and juvenile animals, including feeding protocols, developmental monitoring, weight tracking, and age-appropriate care standards to optimize survival and placement outcomes. Serve as the primary liaison between foster caregivers and veterinary services staff, communicating care instructions, relaying medical updates, and coordinating veterinary appointments for animals with active health needs in foster care. Respond to urgent foster care situations, including animal illness, injury, or death in care, providing timely guidance, emotional support, and appropriate escalation to ensure the wellbeing of both the animal and the caregiver. Recruit, screen, train, and retain foster volunteers by conducting background checks, providing orientations, performing home inspections, and maintaining ongoing relationships with active foster families. Match animals with appropriate foster homes and coordinate all pick-up and drop-off logistics. Support the animal intake and assessment team during the winter months and as-needed during the summer. What We Offer Let’s start with the obvious: we offer truly meaningful work that positively impacts the lives of thousands of animals each year. You will work with a team of animal welfare professionals who work hard, care deeply, and are 100% dedicated to the well-being of our shelter animals. We strive for a healthy work-life balance, and we offer generous time off including six paid holidays, additional floating holidays (awarded annually on your employment anniversary), three weeks of accrued vacation, and paid sick leave. We offer a full spectrum of employee benefits including medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, and a retirement plan with up to 4% employer match and immediate vesting. Currently, two of our medical plans and our dental and vision plans are offered at no cost for employee-only coverage. The pay rate for this position will be $21.00 per hour. Employees in this position will be eligible for incremental base pay increases up to $23.00 per hour upon demonstrated proficiency in each of the following areas of cross-training: administrative tasks specific to the role, animal processing tasks, animal assessments, dog-to-dog introductions, behavior support sessions, and specialized adoption counseling. Foothills Animal Shelter is a Public Service Loan Forgiveness employer.

Requirements

• Professional or educational experience with basic veterinary procedures such as vaccinations, medication delivery, observation documentation, and veterinary restraint strategies.
• Professional or educational experience with neonatal animal care, including feeding and nutrition, medical care, and hygiene preferred.
• Professional or educational experience in animal learning theory, animal behavior, and positive-based force-free animal training preferred.
• Experience in animal sheltering or a similar professional animal care field preferred.
• Valid driver’s license with insurable driving record required.
• Physical ability to stand and walk for the majority of an 8- or 10-hour shift, lift up to 50 pounds regularly, and physically restrain and handle animals of all sizes including dogs weighing 100+ pounds.
• Ability to work outdoors in all weather conditions year-round and respond quickly to emergency situations requiring immediate physical intervention.

Nice To Haves

• Professional or educational experience with neonatal animal care feeding and nutrition, medical care, and hygiene preferred
• Professional or educational experience in animal learning theory, animal behavior, and positive-based force-free animal training preferred
• Experience in animal sheltering or similar professional animal care field preferred

Responsibilities

• Manage the full foster care lifecycle for each animal, from placement through return-to-shelter coordination and handoff to adoption or other pathways, ensuring medical and behavioral documentation is complete and current at every stage.
• Provide specialized guidance and support to foster caregivers of neonatal and juvenile animals, including feeding protocols, developmental monitoring, weight tracking, and age-appropriate care standards to optimize survival and placement outcomes.
• Serve as the primary liaison between foster caregivers and veterinary services staff, communicating care instructions, relaying medical updates, and coordinating veterinary appointments for animals with active health needs in foster care.
• Respond to urgent foster care situations, including animal illness, injury, or death in care, providing timely guidance, emotional support, and appropriate escalation to ensure the wellbeing of both the animal and the caregiver.
• Recruit, screen, train, and retain foster volunteers by conducting background checks, providing orientations, performing home inspections, and maintaining ongoing relationships with active foster families.
• Match animals with appropriate foster homes and coordinate all pick-up and drop-off logistics.
• Support the animal intake and assessment team during the winter months and as-needed during the summer.

Benefits

• truly meaningful work that positively impacts the lives of thousands of animals each year
• work with a team of animal welfare professionals who work hard, care deeply, and are 100% dedicated to the well-being of our shelter animals
• healthy work-life balance
• generous time off including six paid holidays, additional floating holidays (awarded annually on your employment anniversary), three weeks of accrued vacation, and paid sick leave
• full spectrum of employee benefits including medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, and a retirement plan with up to 4% employer match and immediate vesting
• Currently, two of our medical plans and our dental and vision plans are offered at no cost for employee-only coverage
• Foothills Animal Shelter is a Public Service Loan Forgiveness employer.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees