Shelter Operations Director

Description

Shelter Operations Director

Reports to: Executive Director

Type: Exempt, salaried, full-time

Summary:
The Shelter Operations Director provides strategic and operational leadership for CAT’s shelter operations and assigned community programs, including animal care and welfare, admissions, adoptions, foster care, volunteer engagement, customer service, behavior and enrichment, animal flow, departmental staffing, and financial stewardship. The Director leads a multidisciplinary department of approximately 17 employees through three direct-report managers and program leaders. 

As a member of the senior leadership team, the Director translates organizational priorities into effective departmental plans, establishes performance expectations, uses data and professional judgment to guide decisions, and proactively communicates operational risks, constraints, and opportunities. The Director collaborates closely with veterinary leadership and other departments to ensure coordinated, humane, efficient, and community-centered services.

Key Responsibilities:

Operational Leadership 

• Establish service plans, workflows, staffing models, and operating priorities that support humane care, timely placement, positive customer experiences, and responsible use of shelter capacity.
• Maintain appropriate capacity for care and ensure decisions regarding admissions, transfers, foster placement, adoption promotions, and use of overflow space reflect a complete understanding of animal, staffing, medical, and facility conditions.
• Regularly assess operational effectiveness and modify processes, staffing, schedules, or resource allocation when performance or service needs require it.
• Ensure the accuracy, completeness, and timely maintenance of assigned operational and program records.
• Lead departmental emergency response and continuity planning, including disease outbreaks, facility disruptions, severe staffing shortages, animal-safety incidents, and other significant operational events.
• Maintain and create SOPs in partnership with the onsite Medical Director and ensure consistent implementation through training, supervision, auditing, and follow-up.
• Represent the organization with external partners, donors, and coalitions.
• Participate in the leadership on-call rotation and ensure appropriate management coverage outside normal business hours.

People Leadership and Workplace Culture

• Recruit, supervise, coach, develop, and evaluate departmental managers, supervisors, and program leads; establish clear expectations and decision-making authority and hold leaders accountable for the performance and development of their teams..
• Ensure employees and volunteers receive the training, information, resources, supervision, and support necessary to perform their responsibilities safely, effectively, and in alignment with CAT’s standards.
• Develop departmental staffing plans and structures that provide appropriate coverage, supervisory capacity, operational continuity, and responsiveness to seasonal and changing program needs.
• Address performance, conduct, attendance, and workplace concerns promptly, consistently, and in partnership with appropriate organizational leadership.
• Establish effective mechanisms for staff communication, feedback, recognition, and engagement, including regular individual, management-team, and departmental meetings; promote collaboration across roles and departments in support of shared organizational goals.
• Establish and monitor departmental KPIs, interpret operational data, and coach teams in using results to improve performance and advance organizational goals.
• Maintain regular, proactive communication with the Executive Director regarding departmental performance, emerging challenges, significant decisions, and resource needs.
• Foster a respectful, approachable, inclusive, and psychologically safe workplace that supports sustainable performance and enables employees and volunteers to raise questions, concerns, and differing perspectives, with appropriate attention to workload, compassion fatigue, recognition, and access to support.

Financial and Resource Management

• Develop annual operating budgets for shelter operations and assigned community programs in partnership with the Executive Director and finance staff.
• Monitor revenue and expenditures, review budget-to-actual performance, maintain appropriate financial and operational controls, and promptly address or elevate material variances.
• Forecast staffing, supply, equipment, program, and facility needs and evaluate the financial and operational implications of proposed programs, service changes, contracts, and major purchases as assigned.
• Make responsible purchasing and resource-allocation decisions and identify operational efficiencies while maintaining animal-welfare, employee-safety, customer-service, and program-quality standards.
• Support grant development, reporting, and compliance by providing accurate budgets, performance data, and implementation information.

Required Qualifications:

• At least five years of progressively responsible experience in animal sheltering, animal welfare, nonprofit operations, or a closely related field, including at least three years supervising managers, supervisors, or multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience leading programs and managing complex, high-volume operations involving staffing, service capacity, customer needs, safety, and program quality.
• Experience developing and managing departmental budgets, monitoring financial performance, and making resource-allocation decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to establish performance expectations, coach and develop managers, address employee performance and conduct concerns, and build an accountable and supportive workplace culture.
• Strong working knowledge of contemporary animal-welfare practices, population management, capacity for care, disease prevention, shelter safety, and humane animal handling.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze operational information, identify emerging risks, exercise sound judgment, and communicate significant issues clearly and promptly.
• Strong interpersonal and written communication skills, including the ability to navigate conflict, listen actively, communicate difficult decisions, and build productive cross-departmental relationships.
• Experience using shelter-management, workforce-management, or comparable information systems and using data to monitor performance and guide decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to lead organizational change, communicate expectations, and support employees through transitions.
• High school diploma or equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant professional experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in nonprofit management, business administration, animal science, public administration, organizational leadership, or a related field.
• Experience overseeing multiple shelter operations, community programs, or volunteer-supported services.
• Experience with grants, contracts, regulatory compliance, emergency response, or continuity planning.
• Experience working closely with veterinary teams in a shelter or animal-welfare environment.
• Training or certification in animal sheltering, humane leadership, emergency management, occupational safety, or related disciplines.

Mental Effort: Requires frequent analysis, risk assessment, independent judgment, and decision-making among competing operational and strategic priorities.

Physical Requirements and Work Environment: 

Physical Requirements:

• Lift or move up to 40 pounds.
• Provide direct animal care and maintain sanitary conditions.
• Work at a computer and standard office equipment for extended periods.

Work Environment:

Primarily office-based within an animal shelter, with occasional exposure to noise, odors, cleaning agents, zoonotic diseases, and other animal-related hazards. The position requires occasional evening and weekend work, and availability to respond to urgent operational needs, emergencies, and major organizational events outside regular business hours.

Hiring Range:  $75,000-$95,000 annual salary range, dependent on experience

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer. 

This position description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position.  Employees will be required to follow any other job-related duties required by their supervisor.  This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an “at-will” relationship.

**Please Note** There is a required set of screener questions during this application process that you will answer in place of a cover letter.