Assistant Manager, Animal Care

At PAWS Chicago, we believe every animal deserves the opportunity to find a safe, loving home. Our Animal Care team plays a critical role in making that mission possible every day.

This position oversees the daily care, health, safety, housing, and movement of animals while ensuring that Animal Care operations run efficiently and consistently. A key component of this role is creating and maintaining capacity for lifesaving work. The Assistant Manager, Animal Care works closely with Animal Care, Medical, Behavior, Intake, and Adoption Center teams to ensure animals are appropriately housed, cared for, and moved through the organization toward their next step - whether that is adoption, foster, medical care, behavioral support, or transfer to another PAWS location.

Team Leadership and Volunteer Management

• Lead, motivate, and support Animal Care Associates, Lead Associates, and volunteers in providing exceptional care to every animal.
• Create a positive, collaborative, and mission-focused work environment where team members feel supported and motivated to do their best work.
• Ensure staff and volunteers follow established safety, animal care, cleaning, disease prevention, and operational protocols.
• Help the team prioritize competing needs while maintaining the highest standards of animal care.
• Identify operational challenges and opportunities for improvement and develop practical solutions.
• Provide constructive feedback and communicate employee performance concerns and successes to management.
• Help maintain strong staff morale and keep the team connected to PAWS Chicago’s lifesaving mission.

Animal Health, Welfare, and Safety

• Ensure every animal receives appropriate food, water, shelter, medication, enrichment, monitoring, and care.
• Monitor animals closely and recognize changes in health, behavior, or overall well-being.
• Communicate medical or behavioral concerns promptly to the appropriate teams.
• Maintain a safe environment for animals, staff, volunteers, and visitors, with a strong focus on preventing bites and other safety incidents.
• Maintain a strong working knowledge of cleaning and disinfection protocols and ensure they are consistently followed.
• Maintain thorough knowledge of common shelter diseases and appropriate disease-prevention practices.
• Demonstrate and reinforce proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Ensure medical protocols and preventative care requirements are followed consistently.

Manage Animal Population and Capacity

• Work with Animal Care, Medical, Behavior, Intake, and Adoption Center teams to determine appropriate housing and placement for animals.
• Monitor daily animal inventory and identify opportunities to safely move animals through the organization.
• Coordinate transports between the Medical Center and Adoption Centers based on capacity, adoption flow, medical needs, and behavioral considerations.
• Coordinate the return of animals from Adoption Centers to the Medical Center when medical or behavioral needs require it.
• Recommend and implement animal movements based on medical, behavioral, housing, or operational needs.
• Maintain accurate signage, walking cards, and housing information for animals throughout the facility.

Shelter Medicine

• Use Shelterluv and animal records to ensure diagnoses and medical information are current and accurately reflected in cleaning orders.
• Work closely with Intake, Medical, and Animal Care teams to update cleaning and disease-control requirements in real time.
• Ensure animals with medical or infectious disease concerns are appropriately identified, housed, and managed.
• Recognize signs of illness or abnormalities and promptly communicate concerns to management, CVTs, DVMs, and other appropriate team members.
• Ensure appropriate medical protocols are followed consistently across Animal Care operations.
• Maintain a strong understanding of shelter medicine principles and disease prevention.
• Have detailed knowledge of cleaning, feeding and watering protocols to maintain the health of the animals. Set the standard of care for the Animal Caregivers.

Requirements

• Passion for animals and a strong commitment to animal welfare.
• At least 5 years of experience in animal care, ideally in an animal shelter or rescue environment.
• At least 2 years of experience managing people preferred.
• Strong knowledge and experience working with dog behavior.
• Ability to confidently observe animals and identify and communicate potential medical or behavioral concerns.
• Strong leadership and team-building skills.
• Excellent organization and attention to detail.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Flexibility and ability to multi-task, prioritize, and work well under pressure in a dynamic, team-oriented environment.
• Demonstrated initiative for continuous process improvement and proactive problem-solving.
• Positive attitude and the ability to inspire that same attitude in others.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, reach, stand, walk, push, pull,…