Animal Welfare & Field Services Manager

Animal Welfare & Field Services Manager

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Animal Welfare & Field Services Manager is the agency's senior leader responsible for animal care and behavior, field services, humane law enforcement, cruelty investigations, and related public-safety operations. The position directs Animal Care Technicians, Field Services Officers, and other assigned staff and establishes professional standards for animal welfare, investigations, evidence management, officer safety, capacity for care, and behavioral well-being.

As a member of the Leadership Team, the Manager translates organizational priorities into effective programs, policies, and operating practices. The position provides leadership during complex investigations, search-warrant responses, large-scale seizures, emergencies, and other critical incidents and ensures compliance with applicable laws, court requirements, professional standards, and agency policies. This position requires exceptional customer service skills and a genuine desire to make a positive impact in the community.

Presents a positive, enthusiastic, and professional image when representing Joint Animal Services internally and externally. Models and promotes a diverse and inclusive staff culture that is friendly and outgoing, collaborative, and free of judgment.

These duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Directs and supervises Animal Care Technicians, Field Services Officers, and other assigned staff, including recruitment, scheduling, work assignment, coaching, performance management, corrective action, and staff development.
• Ensures effective staffing and deployment across field services and animal welfare operations based on service demand, call priority, animal care needs, officer safety, and organizational capacity.
• Establishes professional and technical standards for assigned staff and provides or coordinates continuing education, cross-training, scenario-based instruction, leadership development, and succession planning.
• Promotes a respectful, inclusive, collaborative, service-oriented, and professionally impartial workplace culture.
• Establishes professional development expectations for Field Services Officers and Animal Care Technicians, including continuing education, cross-training, leadership development, and succession planning.
• Enhances the investigative and technical skills of Field Services Officers through case reviews, coaching, mentoring, scenario-based training, and quality assurance. Ensures that officers receive continuous training in investigative interviewing, report writing, constitutional issues, search and seizure procedures, evidence handling, courtroom testimony, and relevant animal laws.

Field Services

• Directs day-to-day field services operations, including call prioritization, deployment of officers, workload management, service-level monitoring, and response to urgent or complex incidents, and provides technical guidance in complex cruelty, neglect, abandonment, animal fighting, dangerous-dog, and other animal-related cases.
• Establishes a call-prioritization framework and provides supervisory field support for urgent, complex, or potentially hostile incidents. Ensures consistent and equitable application of laws, ordinances, policies, and professional discretion.
• Promotes community-centered field practices, including education, problem-solving, voluntary compliance, access to resources, alternatives to impoundment when appropriate, and enforcement proportionate to the circumstances.
• Oversees the effective use of field equipment, vehicles, permitting systems, shelter-management software, licensing systems, and related operational technology.
• Establishes and monitors officer-safety, risk-assessment, de-escalation, field-communication, personal-protective-equipment, and law-enforcement-assistance protocols.
• Reviews investigative reports, probable-cause documentation, affidavits, citations, notices, case files, and prosecution referrals for legal sufficiency, completeness, accuracy, and adherence to agency standards.
• Oversees the Animal Cruelty Response Team Volunteer and Foster Program, including recruitment, training, continuing education, readiness, and activation for warrant responses and large-scale cases.
• Serves, or designates a qualified staff member to serve, as Lead Investigator or incident lead for complex investigations, search warrant operations, large-scale seizures, and other critical responses.
• Develops and oversees operational plans for complex cases, including staffing, scene safety, evidence collection, animal documentation, transportation, forensic veterinary evaluation, housing, placement, and resource coordination.
• Reviews dangerous-dog, potentially dangerous-dog, and other administrative appeal files to ensure accuracy, completeness, and compliance before final agency action.
• Provides or coordinates testimony in criminal, civil, administrative, dangerous-dog, and other legal proceedings.
• Monitors court and…