Seasonal Animal Care

CommonSpirit Health•Austin, TX

21h•Onsite

About The Position

Seasonal Careworkers at Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) are essential frontline shelter professionals who ensure consistent, compassionate, and responsive care for the animals in our program. This role provides direct care while also contributing to APA!’s mission through teamwork, adaptability, and strong volunteer engagement. While Careworkers are grounded in daily routines like feeding, cleaning, and enrichment, they are also cross-functional collaborators. They are expected to step in and assist with other essential shelter functions—such as intake, placement, medical, and customer service—as needed to support the flow of operations, especially during staff shortages, surges in activity, or emergencies. This support may involve short-term reassignment, coordination across teams, or contributing to shared goals beyond their assigned zone. The Careworker plays a key role in advancing the goals of APA!’s Care 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 shelter operations. The Careworker 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 Careworker 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. Careworkers may be assigned primarily to kennel technician duties at the outset of their employment, until the team has capacity to provide training for more advanced responsibilities.

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
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 be able to routinely lift 40-50 pounds
Must be able to push/pull a large cart over uneven ground
Must be able to work around animals (including diseased, injured, and/or potentially aggressive animals), loud noises, chlorine or other chemicals, and inclement weather
Be able to bend and use your arms in a repetitive manner
Can be on your feet for an entire 8 hour shift
Must have physical strength to perform cleaning duties quickly and on schedule

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—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
Contribute to tracking and measuring both customer service and volunteer engagement, including collecting feedback and suggesting process improvements to enhance both experiences.
Engage, train, and elevate new and existing volunteers, providing on-the-job guidance, supporting skills development, ensuring all volunteers feel welcomed and valued, and serving as a positive point of contact during their shift.
Recruit, onboard, train and retain volunteers
Track volunteer engagement and feedback
Serve as animal “caseworker” who provides outcome-focused care to pets in team or caseload
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 that of socialization, comfort, trust, belonging, etc.
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