Training Coordinator

Part-Time to start (about 25 hrs/week), growing to Full-Time | $20 to $26/hr | Hybrid (admin + field)

Love dogs AND people? We're mainly a recurring dog walking and group hiking company (with pet sitting, overnights, and our new Doggie Adventure Bus on the way), and we're creating a dedicated Hiring & Training Coordinator role to own how we recruit, train, and develop our team. Until now the owner has handled hiring and training personally, and this is a brand-new role you'll get to shape and build as we scale.

Our group hikes take 2 to 4 dogs at a time onto wooded trails, so safety and a real understanding of pack dynamics are at the heart of what we do.

It's a hybrid role: you'll split your time between admin work at our office in Old Saybrook (hiring, training, building systems) and real pet care visits in the field across our service area. This is not a work-from-home position.

This is primarily an employee-facing role, growing and supporting our team, though you'll also interact with our customers. It is not a sales or client-acquisition position (at least not for now).

You'll grow, too: ongoing learning is built into this role. You'll keep developing yourself in HR best practices, leadership, people management, team culture, employee happiness and retention, healthy conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence, through webinars, recommended books, and podcasts, setting you up for long-term growth with us.

In pet care, a lot of people join because they "love animals more than people". This role is the opposite. You'll talk with our team and our clients all day, so being an outgoing, exceptional communicator is the job, not a nice-to-have. If people energize you, you'll thrive. If you'd rather keep to yourself, this isn't the right seat, and that's okay.

It takes a special kind of person to wear this many hats well. This role is for you if you:

• Have real hiring, training, or team-management experience and genuinely love developing people
• Light up when someone you trained grows into a confident pro
• Can hold a high standard with warmth, and aren't afraid of an honest conversation
• Read dogs and people equally well
• Thrive splitting your week between admin and the trail, never stuck at a desk all day
• Are organized, dependable, and take ownership without being asked
• Believe great pet care starts with a great, well-supported team

You also take the care of people's pets and homes seriously. This is a big responsibility. Our clients hire us for the reliability, professionalism, and animal expertise that the kid next door simply doesn't have, and we hold every member of our team to that standard.

• Hire ahead of demand: post ads, screen, interview, run shadow shifts, check references, and make conditional offers. Reply to every applicant within 24 hours.
• Onboard and train: deliver hands-on field training, decide who's field-ready, and keep our SOPs and handbook current.
• Own hiring and training SOPs: maintain and improve our hiring and training SOPs specifically, create new ones where needed, and keep refining the program with ownership.
• Turn incidents into coaching: capture incidents as they happen, turn them into coaching moments for the team, and create or amend SOPs from what you learn.
• Invest in your own growth: keep developing in HR, culture, leadership, people management, employee happiness and retention, healthy conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence through webinars, recommended books, and podcasts.
• Own the first 100 days: milestone check-ins so new hires feel welcomed and stay.
• Own safety: train the team on bite, lost or injured dog, and emergency protocols, and keep Pet CPR skills current.
• Keep records clean: timesheets for training hours, and continuing-ed for payroll; certification renewals; I-9 and W-4 before the first solo shift.
• Be in the field: cover regular dog walks and small-group trail hikes (2 to 4 dogs) to support the team when needed.
• Own hiring and training for the Doggie Adventure Bus: recruit and train the team for this new, safety-first service. (The owner handles its marketing.)

• Lead the field trainers: identify, develop, schedule, and recognize the team leads and trainers who run shadow shifts.
• You move from trainer to training manager: deliver new-hire orientation and the core training presentation yourself, then hand off field shadowing to your team leads and trainers, review their shadowing and training reports, and take action (field-ready calls, coaching, and program updates).
• Build and grow continuing education for the team.
• Build the hiring and training systems and SOPs so we grow consistently.
• Manage performance and retention: regular feedback, 30/60/90 reviews, and exit interviews.
• Grow the pipeline: own recruiting channels and the referral program.
• Watch for any turnover trends and run recognition that keeps great people here.